NASCAR in Boats

The New Wave in Rowing Events Is Expected to Arrive This Summer

The Stewards USA entry (Britt Wotovich and Brian O’Leary) won the silver medal in the mixed youth doubles event at the World Rowing Coastal Championships last September in Portugal.

Bring on the boats, it’s Phase Two.

The South Jersey Coastal Rowing Association, launched from a nostalgic reunion of lifeguards last year in Sea Isle City, has grown wings. Or maybe oars.

The newly formed organization recently cleared a major hurdle by purchasing six boats for a revolutionary method of coastal racing known as Beach Sprints. The events are conducted in bays or calm ocean waters, span the beach and the water, and take about three minutes to complete.

They may soon be in this area at a location to be determined.

An expected production cycle of boat arrivals, some teaching clinics and organizational work, will then produce the organization’s first Beach Sprints, probably in July or August. Deadlines hinge on when shipment arrives from China, as no American company makes these special Kanghua boats.

“We shocked ourselves, to be honest with you, about what we’ve accomplished in a short time,” says co-treasurer Tom McCann, a retired Sea Isle City Beach Patrol captain. “We are way ahead of our fundraising than we thought. When we get this going, it’s going to be exciting for people to see.”

Several factors drove this unique movement.

One was the expected presence of coastal rowing in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. Local lifeguard figures are prominent with the United States Rowing Association and may be influential in getting qualifying races placed here.

There is a possibility, for example, that winners of 2022 Beach Sprints here might go to the qualifying round in Sarasota, Fla., and then for the world championships this fall in Wales. But that’s still to be determined.

Another catalyst was the rich South Jersey tradition of lifeguard racing among 15 patrols stretching from Brigantine to Cape May Point.

A third was a premier level of high-level figures interested in this endeavor. They include organization president Dan Garbutt, a former Ocean City Beach Patrol member and coach of the Old Dominion women’s rowing team in Virginia. He’s also a staff member with the United States Rowing Association.

David Funk, co-captain of the Ventnor Beach Patrol, is the vice president. Dan Adams, head of the Margate Fire Department and one-time head of the Longport Beach Patrol – the reigning five-time South Jerseys beach patrol champion – is the co-treasurer.

All told, 12 high-powered people carry out the goals of an organization that was born from a celebration.

Tom Feaster (left) and Dan Garbutt at the World Rowing Coastal Championships.

Florida resident Tom Feaster had flown up here last October to see his nephew Bill inducted into the Sea Isle City Beach Patrol Hall of Fame.

Tom and his brother Bill had been inducted several years earlier. But this was more than a special family moment to Feaster, a rowing legend who had been a national singles rowing champion at Father Judge High School in Philadelphia several decades earlier.

Feaster had gone on to coach the University of Tampa crew team and become president of The Stewards Foundation, which advances the interests of boat racing in that area.

The Philadelphia native, who spent perhaps 25 summers in Sea Isle City, had a fresh story to share with McCann.

Feaster had discovered a Florida qualifying event for the World Rowing Coastal Championships in Portugal last September. Some of his kids won that qualifying event and traveled to Portugal, he says.

One of its youth mixed doubles teams then won a silver medal in Portugal, he recalls. Two other teams finished fourth. At that event, he touched base with Garbutt, who was doing administrative work in Portugal for the USRA.

One week later, Feaster was back up in Sea Isle City, sharing the story with McCann. It would set the organizational wheels in motion for the group’s formation.

Feaster emphasizes the dynamic nature of the race.

“It’s like NASCAR,” he says in a phone interview from Florida.

“Picture it: You have to run 50 yards or so to get down to the boat. There are a couple of guys holding it. They have to make sure the oars are in place. They are like the pit-stop guys.

“You have to get into the boat perfectly. You have to put your feet into these foot-stretchers and then you go.”

The “pit-stop” experience, like at NASCAR events, can affect a team’s performance by a number of seconds and impact the race.

Contestants then navigate around two buoys (resembling a slalom event in skiing) and arrive to turn the flag.

“The turn is going to be wider with this boat than the ones people are used to working with,” Feaster says. “When you turn the buoy, there is a real risk of getting caught in the mechanism that keeps the buoy afloat.

“When you turn, you have to decide, ‘Where do I look, where am I, when do I go?’”

Competitors go back toward the starting point and exit for the final sprint dash. Leaving the boat is an important process. Leaning too much on one side, for instance, could cause the boat to sway and create a delay heading for the beach sprint. The final sprint is capped when one touches a buzzer in the sand to stop the clock.

McCann envisions several heats in one competition, with varied age groups and genders participating. Many events will have a double-elimination format.

There are several visions of what Beach Sprints can mean.

“I see boats, beer and barbecue,” Feaster says. “It will appeal to the public. You can have something in which you say, ‘Let’s have this Coastal Rowing thing. Let’s also have a volleyball tournament. Let’s have a swimming race. Let’s do an ironman.’”

Adams evaluates the Coastal Rowing development from the athleticism standpoint.

He was the captain and chief of the Longport patrol from 1994 to 2018, before leaving to head the Margate Fire Department. Adams directed the first two of Longport’s record-setting five uninterrupted South Jerseys championships.

“We have the athletes in this area who will take this to a whole new level,” Adams says. “We have the best athletes out there. You may definitely see some kids from our area qualifying to get to the Olympics as a result of these races.

A Kanghua boat.

“It’s going to be interesting to watch them get it going.”

The final key in the process was Grimes. The Ocean City Beach Patrol Alumni president raised additional funds through his contacts this spring, vaulting the process to an advanced phase.

Grimes then placed the boat order through Ed Bell, a former Olympian and manufacturing representative for Kanghua boats. Because of supply-chain issues, it is impossible to predict when the boats will arrive. Memorial Day or shortly thereafter was the last unofficial projection.

Like Adams, Grimes believes New Jersey as a whole and South Jersey in particular creates an ideal fit for potential future Olympic participants.

“We’re all excited about this. We all wish we were 30 years younger,” he says, adding with a laugh: “I will be 70 this year and it’s all fixed in our minds that we can compete with these younger athletes.”

Grimes adds that novices will quickly become comfortable with these boats, enhancing their enjoyment of the activity.

In time, the South Jersey Coastal Rowing Association might raise more money, purchase more boats, or attract dues-paying members. It might become a staple of this region and spike the popularity of races on water.

But for now, the objective is simple: to master Phase Two.