Members of the fire department prepare their gig for the race.
By Nancy Peckenham
A boat race on the Hudson brought firefighters, police officers and members of the Newburgh Rowing Club to the waterfront on Wednesday to test their skills and have some fun at the Club’s temporary location near the Regal Bag company.
The four teams of racers each had a brightly painted Whitehall gig, a 25-foot wooden rowboat that was designed in the early 19th century to ply the waters of New York harbor. Before the race began, the crews emptied water out of the gigs, then carried them out onto three study docks that are used by the rowing club.
Members of the rowing club carry one of the gigs to the dock.
Each boat carried four rowers and two coxswains in the stern whose job it was to steer the rudder. About 14 off-duty city of Newburgh firefighters showed up for the event and among them they easily found eight who would row two boats. Four city of Newburgh police officers filled another boat and the fourth was commanded by members of the rowing club.
The police officers set off in the gig called "Wysquaqua."
Once the boats were in place at the starting line, rowing club coach Ed Kennedy called out the start of the race over a loudspeaker and the boats took off. The rowing club members could be heard calling “row” on every stroke of the oar and their craft did well, but not as well as the John A. Noble gig that was powered to victory by members of the fire department. They won the race.
The firefighters held the lead as the race neared the finish line.
After the race, the athletes, their friends and supporters gathered for a celebration in the warm October afternoon. John Ebert, the chairman of the board of the rowing club, later explained that the race was held to celebrate the significant work done by Central Hudson to create the club’s temporary headquarters at the Regal Bag property and to note the $10,000 contribution it had just been awarded by the Hudson River Foundation to re-install their docks next year.
John Maserjian, a Central Hudson spokesman, said that his company had created the temporary site for the rowing club because the club had to move from its permanent home last year while the utility company cleaned up coal tar residue that was left along the riverfront after decades of manufacturing gas there. Maserjian said that a year ago Central Hudson leased the property at Regal Bag, erected a temporary tent structure and established a bulk head for the docks for the club to use. The club is expected to return to its original site next month.
Ebert said that part of the rowing club’s mission is to teach about the environment of the river, the tidal flow and the estuaries, and he noted that the $10,000 grant for the docks was awarded by the Hudson River Foundation, which was established in 1981 under the terms of an agreement among environmental groups, government regulatory agencies, and utility companies seeking the constructive resolution of a long series of legal controversies concerning the environmental impacts of power plants on the Hudson River.
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