BURLINGTON — Twenty-one crews from local high and middle schools, as well as from Maine and Massachusetts, met on Saturday, Oct. 12, at the Burlington Community Boathouse for Lake Champlain Maritime Museum’s annual youth rowing race. Vergennes Union High School took first place in the novice four-oar division.
With more than 140 kids in longboats and as many spectators on the dock, this event is a highlight of the rowing season on Lake Champlain. Vermont’s Champlain Longboats student teams will continue to participate later this fall at rowing events in Massachusetts and on Otter Creek.
The James Wakefield Rescue Row is named after the man who courageously rescued the passengers and crew of canal schooner General Butler in December 1876 when it crashed into the Burlington breakwater during a fierce winter gale. Participants rowed in a series of six combined-time heats. The exciting conclusion to the five-hour event is the mess-about where rowers are mixed randomly and compete in one last Burlington Breakwater sprint.