VCB at City of Water Day 2014

From Cow Day 2014

A group of Village Community Boathouse adult volunteers and Stuyvesant High School Students and Alumnae rowed 3 Whitehall Gigs from Pier 40 to Governors Island to participate in the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance’s (MWA) City of Water Day Festival. The festival is a free day-long celebration of New York Harbor. Held on Governors Island and Maxwell Park in Hoboken, NJ–the event draws thousands of people to participate various waterfront activities organized by MWA and its 700 Alliance Partners including Village Community Boathouse.
The VCB contingent of volunteers arrived a little late with the flood tide but just in time to compete in the Cardboard Kayak Race in which the crews build a kayak out of tape and cardboard and then compete in a series of heats. The VCB team took second place in that event. VCB also set up a booth with lots posters and photos to let the public and our waterfront neighbors know about VCB’s community rowing and boatbuilding programs.

VILLAGE COMMUNITY BOATHOUSE JOINS FORCES WITH WEEROW AT MAXWELL BEACH FOR COW DAY 2014

From Drop Box

The City of Hoboken also participated in City of Water Day for the first time in the festival’s seven year history. The event was staged at the beach at Maxwell Place Park, also the location of the Hoboken Cove Boathouse. Offerings at the beach included paddle boarding, outriggers, kayaking, and rowing. Volunteers from VCB and Weehawken Rowing (weerow.org) rowed a Whitehall Gig from the VCB Boathouse on Pier 40 and arrived just as festivities were getting under way. Experienced volunteers immediately began taking turns taking out crew after crew of novice rowers, many of whom were intrigued by our boat and its history on the river. Most of the rows were short (just a few hundred yards out of the cove) but provided a wonderful experience for those looking to go out beyond the confines of the kayaking area inside the cove. Altogether we took out 40 community members (counting those who went more than once), an amazing accomplishment given the 4 hour window and the time it took to load and offload passengers. Families were lined up on the beach in life jackets signing waivers waiting for their turn on what had become known on the beach as ‘the long boat.’ In spite of a super moon low tide current and a nasty wind out of the south (the combo of which created some ocean like conditions at times) we had a safe and successful event and returned to VCB right on schedule.

Many thanks to Eileen McCarren of Hoboken Cove Boathouse, Stephanie Hill and Ray Fusco of MWA for their efforts to coordinate this successful event.
Also thanks to all the VCB volunteers who made COW Day 2014 so much fun and such a great success: Michael Anton, Helen Ng, Margaret Ma, Rene Moreno, Patrick McShane, Rob Buchanan, Dave Clayton, Janet Richman, Charin Jun, Joy Yang, Dexter Tong, Brian Tong, Jenny Chen, Marcus Chan, Tony Fung, Shana Luo and Haymar Lim, David Shehegian, Emily Travis, Frank Cervi & Weerowers.

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