Stonewall XXII - a record breaking success

They called it Stonewall On Steroids. A record breaking number of entries and a 25% increase in participants pushed the XXII (22nd) Stonewall Regatta to an almost record capacity for a one-day event. The official regatta tally was 251 entries from 26 clubs with the most distant entry coming from Los Angeles. That record number of entries pushed the total participants to a count of 525. Unnoticed by the organizers, the DC Strokes Rowing Club, that fact pushed the Stonewall Regatta up a notch. USRowing classifies regattas in three categories: small, medium, and large. Small regattas are 0 - 499 participants. Medium regattas are 500 - 999 participants, and large regattas are 1000+ participants.

Congratulations Stonewall Regatta. You are now a medium-size regatta!

Led by the experienced team of Elisabeth Morgan, Joe Henderson, and Susan Jacoby, and 12 other committee members and an amazing group of volunteers, the 2015 Stonewall Regatta was a grand success. Under party cloudy to mostly sunny skies, rowers raced on Sunday, 07 June 2015 from 08h30 to 16h30. Mostly calm waters and little to just light breezes made racing easy and the infamous Washington DC humidity decided to take a day off. Debris on the Anacostia River was almost nonexistent. The rascally tides that hold sway on the Potomac River and the Anacostia River made their presence known as the stakeboats began to move around 11h00. Unfazed, the USRowing race officials shifted to floating starts and race starts remained on schedule.

This being Washington DC, the brilliant accountants and statisticians who make the US government function immediately set to work to explain the jump in race entries. Was it an increase in eights? Actually, the number of eight entries was down slightly. Was it from a particular club or in a particular boat class? As Joe Henderson, registrar of the regatta explained over a mai tai at the after party : "there was no real cause ... entries were up almost 25% across the board."

Following the regatta, rowers gathered at a special private party at Vida Gym's rooftop bar and pool at the Washington Navy Yard. Rowers relaxed around the pool, in sectional firerpit seatings, and hung out at the bar to discuss the finer points of their wins and near wins. Very few regattas have such fancy digs for a post-regatta party. Kudos to Brian Forehand for putting together an amazing evening!