By Meg Salocks, Director of Marketing and Engagement
Last weekend, over 160 Vermont youth rowers, a fleet of longboats built by our boat building students, and our intrepid coaches and Champlain Longboats staff rolled into Boston, MA for the 2019 Icebreaker Regional Youth Open Water Rowing Championships. An annual championship held in the Fort Point Channel in Boston hosted by the Hull Lifesaving Museum, this race is the culmination of our fall youth rowing season.
After a week of rain across all of New England (and a particularly rainy Friday afternoon as the team unloaded the boats) Saturday was a welcoming sunny and brisk day. Aside from some wind it was overall a great day for rowing, especially for Vermont! Our teams came from Burlington, South Burlington, CVU, Mount Abraham, and Vergennes and all crews walked away with some great times and achievements for the day.
Some results of note for our Vermont teams include the following:
- In the Novice High School Sixes, Vermont schools locked in the top three spots: CVU-C came in first with a total combined time of 4:14, CVU-B came in second with a total combined time of 4:22, and Vergennes-B came in third with a total combined time of 4:31
- In the Intermediate Fours, Vergennes came in second with a total combined time of 12:56 and Burlington came in third with a total combined time of 13:48
- In the Intermediate Sixes, we had another Vermont top three: South Burlington-B came in first with a total combined time of 9:08, CVU-A came in second with a total time of 9:18, and South Burlington-C came in third with a total combined time of 9:28.
- In the Experienced Fours, Mount Abe came in third with a total combined time of 20:46
- In the Experienced Sixes, Vergennes came in second with a total combined time of 9:46 and Burlington came in third with a total combined time of 9:50
The full results from the 2019 Icebreaker are here: http://www.lifesavingmuseum.org/_fileCabinet/Icebreaker_Results_2019.pdf
A special thank you to everyone who made this season of fall youth rowing possible and so enjoyable. We could not do this without our student boat builders who make a new longboat for our fleet each year; our expert staff, boat builders, teachers, and coaches who guide students and help them achieve their best; our dedicated volunteers, families, and friends who support these youth rowers along the way; all the amazing rowers who gave this season their all; our donors who give generously to provide the funding needed to run the program; and our Champlain Longboats director Nick Patch who started this great program and keeps us all rowing and inspired!
Enjoy these additional photos of the day, courtesy of Holly Weber.
