ComeBoating! At Belfast Regatta

On Saturday 17th August, nine pilot gigs from around New England shared the choppy waters of upper Penobscot Bay with seventeen other human-powered craft in the annual race hosted by ComeBoating! in Belfast, Maine. The gig teams hailed from New Bedford, Gloucester, and Westport, Massachusetts; from Warren, Rhode Island; from Bowdoinham and Belfast in Maine. The other craft ranged from Maas sliding singles to kayaks, to dories, to sliding seat fours and quads. 

The Belfast Regatta takes place each year during Belfast’s Harbor Festival, which includes other events such as a fun run that awards the winner 10 pounds of lobster, and The Cardboard Boat Challenge, in which teams construct and race boats made of…you guessed it! During the festival weekend, ComeBoating! also offers free learn-to-rows to the public to boost awareness and enthusiasm for open water rowing in traditional craft. 

On the morning of August 17th, the 3.5 mile triangular race course was bright and sunny, but windblown; the infamous “Penobscot chop” began to stir up as a southerly wind blew against the outgoing current of Belfast’s Passagassawakeag River. 

One man rowing a single fixed seat dory made it through the first leg of the triangle, thought better of the situation, and turned his bow back toward the beach. Other teams stubbornly continued to battle wind and waves, looking forward to the downwind reprieve of the final leg.

The mixed team from Bowdoinham, rowing the pilot gig Merrymeeting II, was favored to give Belfast’s mixed teams a run for their money, despite the home water advantage. However, in the first leg of the race Bowdoinham’s bowman snapped his oarlock completely in two, leaving the crew with only five rowers as the bowman scrambled to jury-rig an oarlock from a loop of the bow line. This happened at a crucial moment with Belfast’s gig Belle Fast breathing down their necks. 

Photo credit;  Michael Percy

A little while later, the man in the Maas ocean shell got caught in the side swell of the second leg of the triangular course, flipped, righted his boat, and kept going with no one the wiser. Meanwhile, the 27’ Whitehall Dragonfly, rigged as a sliding seat quad, was taking on so much water from waves splashing over the bow that gear bags were floating up past the rowers feet, and the coxswain determined that a crew change was necessary to better trim the vessel. In a daring feat of balance and coordination that no one can quite explain, the stroke and bow seats switched positions mid-race. They came across the finish line looking strong and as if nothing had happened.

Cohasset Maritime Institute’s 4-person coastal rowing shell had a standout performance and the fastest time of the day, at 31:32 (nearly four minutes ahead of the next fastest time). The race marshall’s motored skiff couldn’t keep up with them on the final downwind leg of the race. The pilot gigs Belle Fast and Merrymeeting II placed second and third overall, with Merrymeeting II only thirty seconds behind Belle Fast, despite her snapped oarlock. The men’s team from Gloucester, rowing Siren Song, had a strong performance being the third pilot gig across the line.

Readers based in the UK may be surprised to learn that the pilot gigs in New England are not all built to the exact same design, and may be rigged differently—some with modern rotating oarlocks and carbon-fiber oars, some with thole pins and wooden oars, some with a combination of the two systems! Yet they all race together in the same class, without regard to the gender and age of the crew, nor the exact configuration of the gig itself. With far fewer clubs and teams overall, and scattered throughout New England, we’re happy simply to have other crews to race against. Meeting up with old friends from other clubs and gleaning ideas from the varied assortment of rowing craft are important highlights of the event. 

Photos from the event showcasing the various craft are available on ComeBoating!’s website.