This weekend marks a major milestone for rowing in The Bahamas as the Nassau Rowing Club (NRC) gets set to field three teams at the 51st Head of the Charles Regatta (HOCR) in Boston, Massachusetts. Building on last year's single boat debut in the men's championship coxed fours division, the club is now branching out. Peter Fletcher will take to the water first on Saturday in the men's veteran singles division that features 52 competitors ages 60 and older. Up next will be the men's coxed four team that features Thomas Dunn in the stroke seat, followed David Munoz, Alec Packington and Kyle Chea. Jessi Panico will cox the team. The coxed fours division figures to be one of the tougher pools with about 53 other crews participating, including Harvard University, the United States Military Academy, the Vancouver Rowing Club from Canada and Thames Rowing Club from the United Kingdom (UK).
Sunday's racing features the youth men's double. The crew of Lex Fountain and Luke Pyfrom will be competing against 50 other crews from around the United States, and also two teams from the Westminster School Boat Club, one of the top scholastic rowing programs in the U.K. Fountain was a part of the duo that finished 18th overall in the junior men's double sculls at the World Junior Championships in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in August. Emily Morley will wrap things up for the NRC in the Women's Collegiate 8+, sitting in the five-seat for the third year running. The bomber crew will start in the 10th position in a field of 32 crews.
The HOCR is the world's largest regatta, and this year will feature 2,243 individual entries, representing 778 clubs from 24 countries. The race will be streamed live on the regatta's website. NRC celebrated its third anniversary this summer as it continued its effort to increase the local profile of the sport. As the first rowing club in The Bahamas, the NRC fielded the first competitive rowing entry from The Bahamas in the history of the sport - a junior varsity men's double sculls at the 40th annual Miami International Regatta in April 2013. In 2014, the NRC entered a novice men's coxed fours, and a women's double sculls at the 41st Miami International Regatta and the Head of the Charles Regatta.
The club's corporate sponsors and partners include Holowesko Pyfrom Fletcher, Counsel & Attorneys-at-Law; BELIEVE - The Baha Mar Foundation; Bahamas Medical Center; Old Fort Bay Town Centre, New Providence Development Company, Odyssey Aviation, Solomon's Fresh Market, LennoxPaton, PCL Imports Ltd., Concept2 Rowing, Lyford Cay International School, SMG Construction & Custom Cabinetry, SunTee and Bahamas Waste.
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