July 12, 2004

 

 

Young rowers go with the flow

By Michelle Xiarhos Curran

Correspondent


Bryan Eaton/Staff photo
Ring Island Rowing Club skipper Alice Twombly, left, and member Jaque Sapienza
 
GETTING ACQUAINTED WITH ...

THE RING'S ISLAND ROWING CLUB

JUST THE FACTS

Ring's Island Rowing Club: A club for youths and adults dedicated to teaching young men and women to sail and row traditional wooden boats.
Year formed: Established in the early '90s
Skipper: Alice Twombly of Groveland
Location and contact information:
Ring's Island Fire House,
Fourth Street, Salisbury, MA;
website: http://www.geocities.com/rirc99/
e-mail: RIRC99@cs.com
telephone: 978-373-7816
Membership fee: Adult - $40; Family - $80;
Youth (14 yrs - 20 yrs of age) Free

 
 

Pike Messenger scored his first dory when he was a kid growing up in Salisbury on Ferry Road.

He found it washed up on the shore, and, as tradition had it, after a three-day waiting period in which an advertisement in the local newspaper went unanswered, the narrow, flat-bottomed boat became his. According to Messenger, a former Triton biology teacher who crafted dories with his students each year, almost every kid he knew had one. "We practically lived on the water," he said.

And though he has lived in Middleton for several decades now, rowing the Mighty Merrimack is still in his blood. Messenger is one of the original members of the Ring's Island Rowing Club, an organization started in the early 1990s by then-Ring's Island resident Chris Farris.

"He was very interested in starting a youth rowing program," said Messenger. And so he did. Farris bought four dories made by Triton students in the '70s for $1 each, and convinced the town of Salisbury to let him set up headquarters in the old Ring's Island firehouse on Fourth Street, a quiet, residential area on the rocky knoll that is a short walk from the slip where the club's bright yellow boats are now stowed.

"Chris Farris was a real fireball, and I helped him," said Messenger, who served as the club's "skipper" from 1994, when Farris left for Maine, until 1998.

Today, the Ring's Island Rowing Club is an informal group of 25 passionate and dedicated boaters from Greater Newburyport who help keep the area's rich fishing history alive by sailing the boats used by the Yankee fishing fleet long ago.

"A lot of these people have it in their genes," said Messenger.

Club members use tide and weather information to organize rowing trips -- which usually last about three hours -- and send out the information via an e-mail list. "We try to make it out there once a week," said Groveland resident Alice Twombly, the club's skipper since 1998. And when she says once a week, she doesn't just mean during the summer; she means all 12 months of the year. "We'll row as long as there's no ice," she said.

There are reasons for such dedication. For some, it's the exercise. For others, it's the fellowship and the beauty of nature. For Messenger, it also has something to do with history. "Rowing down the river, I get this feeling," he said. He describes a Newburyport where clipper ships are lined up along the harbor.

Many of the club's rowing trips are local -- Plum Island, High Rock and Misery Island -- and Messenger is particularly fond of rowing down the Parker River and through the Newbury marshes at sunset. But club members also make it out to other areas of New England like Maine and Cape Cod for rowing trips.

The club also sponsors and enters the occasional race, like the annual Snow Row, where they compete against other New England rowing clubs. "We're never the first ones across the finish line, but we can row the longest because we're hardy," Twombly said.

And while the club is now open to kids and adults, its main focus is its sponsorship of the Sea Scouts, a co-ed division of the Boy Scouts that gives kids ages 14 to 20 the opportunity to learn boating skills.

"Our club focuses on getting kids to row and sail traditional wooden boats," Twombly said. This is something she is very passionate about, and for good reason. "I was the kid standing on the dock," said Twombly, who became an active boater in her mid 30s. "I wanted desperately to get into a boat. I think kids should have that opportunity."

It's a philosophy Twombly expects potential members to share, and she said that "anyone that supports our commitment" is welcome to join. The annual cost for adults is $40. A family membership is $80. Individual youth memberships ages 14 to 20 are free. No previous rowing experience is necessary, but membership in the Ring's Island Rowing Club is not for the occasional rower who simply needs a boat to use. "This is more a labor of love," Twombly said.

All members are required to contribute time and effort to the upkeep of the boathouse and boat maintenance, which may include participation in the weekly boatbuilding session, normally two hours on Monday evenings devoted to building dories and making oars for the club. Twombly said she expects that by the end of this summer, two new dories will be completed.

"We're making it a full-time commitment," she said.

Twombly stressed that despite the Merrimack River's tough reputation, rowing it can be safe. "With education, it's a safe sport," she said. "You go out with someone who is experienced and you learn." In addition to boating skills, Sea Scouts learn boat safety and seamanship. In the summer, they are treated to day sails on the Misty Isles, Salisbury Harbormaster Ray Pike's small tall ship.

But Twombly said that rowing isn't for every kid. "It takes a special kid, the kid wants to be outdoors all the time," she said.

Jacque Sapienza, 14, a soon-to-be freshman at Pentucket Regional High School, is in her first official year of Sea Scouts, but has been rowing with the club since she was 9. She said rowing is adventurous and fun. One of the things she likes about being a Sea Scout is that she is no longer required to be accompanied by an adult on rowing trips. "I don't have to go with anyone else's pace," she said. Her favorite rowing trip thus far has been to High Rock. "It's a nice-looking place. There are no houses. It's kind of secluded."

Twombly said that in the near future, she hopes Ring's Island Rowing Club can have more interaction with the area's public schools, giving teachers the skills they need to make boating a more regular part of the curriculum and more accessible to their students. "We really would like to teach teachers to be comfortable and secure on the river," she said.

As for new members, Twombly said there's room for growth, "but it will always be small. It's a quiet rowing club."

 

(This article replicated online with permission of the Newburyport Daily News, an Eagle Tribune Newspaper.)

 
 
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