If Messing About in Boats is for you, check out Kingston…

  |  May 19, 2015

Where else could you live where you could go for a row in the morning with the sunrise in a classic 8-person shell? The Rondout Rowing Club is a not-for-profit, member supported, volunteer organization dedicated to community rowing as well as the promotion and support of water sports on the Hudson River and Rondout Creek based on the waterfront in Kingston. It has roughly 50 members, with all abilities from novice to advanced rowers. The Club sponsors the local Kingston High School Crew Team, which competes with many high schools on the Hudson River and in the Hudson Valley Rowing League throughout April and May.

If you have never rowed before, have no fear. The Rondout Rowing Club offers a Learn to Row program with a coached boat and full support of experienced club members. How do you sign up? Check out their website.

Maybe building a boat is more your fancy. If so, you will be glad to know a boat building shop is slated to open by fall 2015 right on Kingston’s waterfront. If you have never built a boat before, again, have no fear. The Riverport Wooden Boat Building School of the Hudson River Maritime Museum will include education courses ranging from a boat-building school, to boat safety and sailing. It fits right in with the mission of preserving its historic collection, educating the community, attracting tourists and serving as a community center.
Click here to find out more.

About Gregg Swanzey

Gregg Swanzey, a longtime advocate for the Hudson River and the Mid-Hudson Region, first moved to the Rondout neighborhood in Kingston with his family in 1986 fresh off several years as Captain of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater. Since then, he has crossed the Atlantic three times, served as Executive Director for a gubernatorially appointed Commission in Massachusetts, and traveled to far-flung places such as St. Petersburg, Russia; Reykjavik, Iceland; and the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. After four years in City Hall as Director of Economic Development and Strategic Partnerships for the City of Kingston, he has recently come aboard as Executive Director for the Winnakee Land Trust based in Rhinebeck in Northern Dutchess County. On any given day you might see him out jogging on one of several rail trails that converge in Kingston, kayaking the Hudson over to Rhinecliff, biking Uptown to the Farmer’s Market, climbing to the top of Burger Hill in Winnakee's Drayton Grant Park, or hanging out at home in a classic 1920's Dutch Colonial overlooking the Hudson with his wife, Emma. His two daughters live and work in New York City but are regularly up the River for the weekend.

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