ROWING EXPERIENCE
International Regattas : New Hampshire and Massachusetts
Traveling with my wife Natalie to Boston in October 2023 to support our son , Jake aka Man Child and the St Benedict ’ s boys in their two rowing regattas : New Hampshire Champs and Head of the Charles was an experience I will never quite forget ! - Robbie Riccardi
NH Champs are held on the Merrimack River and caters for about 2,000 local rowers . The HoTC takes place on Boston ’ s Charles River and is an international event with about 11,000 rowers . The regattas are held a week apart . Both courses are 3-miles ( just under 5ks ) long . The Head of the Charles is seen by many schools as an event which takes years to perfect .
Due to the number of boats in the events , prudence dictates a heads race . This means boats are seeded and fed down the river one-by-one a few boat lengths apart . The faster seeded boats go first . Then everyone else . Fastest time wins .
The races are based on age groups and boat classes ( sculls , pairs , fours , eights , etc ). The St Benedict ’ s rowers raced in the competitive Men ’ s Youth Eights . That is a story for another time . This story is about my sculling races at the same regattas .
I raced the Masters sculls events in the 50 + age group , an age group competitive - not in name - but by nature .
My family used to attend a church in Kensington which everyone called “ The Italian Church ”. In addition to the priests all speaking Italian , the church was surrounded by a number of Italian delis and restaurants . Up the road in Bez Valley was a school called Sir Edmund Hillary where we endured Italian school on Saturday mornings . rippled through the scene . Families nestled along the riverbanks as they basked in eternal paradise .
New Hampshire , and in particular Memorial Field where the New Hampshire Regatta Champs are held , remind me of that painting . The Merrimack weaves its way through the mist and fiery orange and green trees which line its banks . The water does not flow , it swirls and meanders like the long-exposure of a night camera revealing the gentle swirl of the galaxy . It is the river version of van Gogh ’ s The Starry Night .
Between green leafy trees , kids string up aerial structures out of their multi-coloured hammocks as they await their races . Hudsons and Resolutes , all polished and shiny , line the pathways to the water ’ s edge , perched on the shoulders of scholars with their 1970s hairstyles many wearing pyjama flannels which are trending . Oars neatly stack themselves in rows of whites , pinks , blue and burgundy like a rainbow of Sharpies on the first day of school . Aromas of home-made food - sausages , onions , eggs and pancakes - waft through the campsite tents . The smoke mingles with the Merrimack ’ s morning mist before being burnt off by stray beams of morning sunlight .
Mike from Amoskeag Rowing Club was kind enough to loan me the same scull I used in last year ’ s race : a lilac Peinert shell . Peinert shells came out of Vermont in the 70s , Mike reminded
One of the buildings on the Italian Church property was a movie theatre the priests had built in the seventies . I remember watching Battlestar Galactica and Heidi in that theatre . Annexed to the theatre was an auditorium behind which there was a magnificently proportioned mural reflecting the painter ’ s perception of heaven . There were wild yet somewhat docile animals , a festoon of flowers , a snaking river and forests that
22 SA Schools Rowing Champs 2024