The Orcas Island Rowing Association participated in the 42nd Annual Brentwood Regatta at Mill Bay, British Columbia, Canada.

One of the largest regattas with 1,000 rowers from the Canada and the northwest, Brentwood is noted for unpredictable and challenging open water conditions.

With 12 races scheduled over two days, this regatta was an exercise in precise coordination between rowers, coaches and the individual preparation shells required for each race and rower. A shell is an extremely narrow, and often disproportionately long, rowing boat specifically designed for racing or exercise.

Coaches Brown, Dave Roseberry, Martin Taylor and Bob Nutt rigged shells that were quickly carried off to races while simultaneously readying shells returned from events awaiting re-rigging.

The young Orcas team gained valuable experience, especially the novice rowers who experienced their first large, open water regatta. But even the men’s varsity 4x rowers experienced something new when a broken oar caused a rare”did not finish.” Welcome to Brentwood!

Coach Brown said this regatta was great preparation for 2012 USRowing Northwest Junior District Championships held May 18-20 in Vancouver, Washington.