VIKING and Her Descendants Carrying forward a San Francisco rowing tradition

摘要

In 1977, boatbuilder Gordie Nash decided that with a resurgence in recreational rowing going on around San Francisco Bay, the time was ripe for a new open-water rowing race. Competitive rowing had deep roots here, but at the time the closest modern heir to the tradition was the Funky Boat Race in Sausalito, which was a great party but not much of a race, with participants rowing all kinds of contraptions-even mattresses lashed to shipping pallets. For the 5.5-mile course that Nash laid out for the first Open Ocean Regatta, on April 16 of that year, 24 boats competed. "The fleet bunched up and had a great race," Nash says. "But one boat left them all behind. It was a wonderful thing to watch. It was like a Porsche racing against Volkswagens. It was one of a kind."