By William Pew
It takes a lot of work to keep practices running smoothly. Much of that work is done by our terrific Programming staff, but in an effort to allow them to focus on day-to-day programming, the Boathouse Operations team takes on some important background tasks. The domain of the BOps team ranges from the mundane–maintaining and repairing equipment–to the truly exhilarating–removing invasive weeds from the course on Meadow Lake.
With fall programming well underway, tryouts complete, and novices beginning this week, now seems like a good time for an update on what we were doing all summer! The real headline undertaking was sending our Queens barges off for refurbishment. At approximately 20 years old, they were certainly showing their age. These are vital pieces of equipment that are used every day by our adaptive rowers, allow us to host community events and help to safely introduce new participants to the sport. Each of these barges had to be dry-docked, separated into three sections, and de-rigged before being loaded onto the RowAmerica trailer to be taken to WinTech in Connecticut. Oh, and by the way, each section weighs several hundred pounds. Once there, the WinTech technicians worked their magic replacing some fiberglass portions, repainting the hulls, and fabricating new riggers to replace any that were broken. The vessels we got back are nearly unrecognizable.
Beyond scheduling and mobilizing enough hands to get the barges disassembled and reassembled, the BOps team has been working steadily to prepare for the fall season and the influx of new participants; cleaning and repairing boat hardware, painting oar blades, reorganizing workspaces for greater efficiency and user-friendliness, and taking RNY vehicles in for service.
There is a lot that goes into making a rowing team run smoothly. Much of that work happens outside of practice time, in areas that often go overlooked. That’s ok. The aim of the BOps team is to make that work invisible.
