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KF to host master rowers
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| Rowers ply Lake Ewauna during last July's Rural Henley Regatta. The lake beside downtown Klamath Falls has been selected as the site for next summer's Northwest Regional Masters rowing championship. |
Published November 23, 2004
By ANGELA TORRETTA
More than a thousand rowing enthusiasts from the Pacific Northwest are expected to find their way to Klamath Falls in June for a regional rowing tournament.
The Northwest Regional Masters championship eschewed larger metropolitan areas such as Seattle and agreed to put their boats in the water at Lake Ewauna.
Pat Speers, president of the Ewauna Rowing Club in Klamath Falls, said that for her money, Lake Ewauna is one of the best places in the Northwest for rowing.
"We have the best water (and) park venue. Ours is so nice compared to many others," Speers said. "You don't have to beach launch, you don't have to walk your boat half a mile to get to the water.
Wind is an issue for rowers at many lakes, but less so at Ewauna, she said.
"Most of the wind we get is from the north or northwest," she said, adding that hills around the lake cut down on wind.
That, and the size of the lake, were also contributing factors in the decision, she said.
The Ewauna Rowing Club and Klamath County Chamber of Commerce pitched the idea of Klamath Falls as the 2005 location for the boating tournament to the U.S. Rowing officials in Seattle on Nov. 14. The officials oversee rowing tournaments called regattas.
Chamber officials estimate the event will bring 1,000 to 1,700 rowers from Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Idaho and possibly California and Nevada, and they conservatively estimate $2 million being spent in the area.
Chamber Director Stephanie Bailey said if event planners could convince rowers to bring family with them and treat the expedition as a vacation, the actual dollar amount spent could be between $4 million and $6 million. Bailey and Chamber ambassador Joe Spendolini said their goal is to convince rowers to spend more than three nights in town.
The chamber is putting together vacation packages for out-of-towners that would bring them to regional attractions such as the Running Y Ranch Resort, Crater Lake and wildlife refuges. They would also advertise nearby wine country and theater in Ashland.
But before the planning begins in earnest, the Ewauna Rowing Club and the chamber will have to first nail down a date for the event. Masters officials have the date scheduled for June 18 and 19, the same week the city will host the kinetic sculpture race.
Bailey said it would be ideal for the city to move the sculpture race date up by one weekend to June 11-12, but Speers worried about high school and college graduation conflicts that weekend.
Klamath Falls isn't new to rowing competitions. Lake Ewauna has been the site for the regional Masters championship in 1997 and 1999, and the Ewauna Rowing Club has offered the Rural Henley Regatta for the past two years running. The Henley race is a play on the world's most prestigious championship, the Royal Henley Regatta, Bailey said.
The Henley regatta will be suspended next year because of the Masters competition, but plans call for it to be held annually.
Spendolini said the success of this year's Henley race was one of the reasons the city landed the larger regional event. The first year's race had a number of glitches, and officials had made a list of suggested changes for the Henley organizers.
The selection of Klamath Falls as the venue for next year's Masters resulted from a great deal of planning, he said.
"That was an enormous effort between the rowing club and chamber Ambassadors," he said.
The city is "pretty well prepared" to host the event right now, Bailey said. The renovations and two-acre addition to Veterans Park will be instrumental in hosting rowers, because registration and first aid tents, boat storage and various food and art vendors will all be at the park that borders parts of the lake.
By ANGELA TORRETTA
More than a thousand rowing enthusiasts from the Pacific Northwest are expected to find their way to Klamath Falls in June for a regional rowing tournament.
The Northwest Regional Masters championship eschewed larger metropolitan areas such as Seattle and agreed to put their boats in the water at Lake Ewauna.
Pat Speers, president of the Ewauna Rowing Club in Klamath Falls, said that for her money, Lake Ewauna is one of the best places in the Northwest for rowing.
"We have the best water (and) park venue. Ours is so nice compared to many others," Speers said. "You don't have to beach launch, you don't have to walk your boat half a mile to get to the water.
Wind is an issue for rowers at many lakes, but less so at Ewauna, she said.
"Most of the wind we get is from the north or northwest," she said, adding that hills around the lake cut down on wind.
That, and the size of the lake, were also contributing factors in the decision, she said.
The Ewauna Rowing Club and Klamath County Chamber of Commerce pitched the idea of Klamath Falls as the 2005 location for the boating tournament to the U.S. Rowing officials in Seattle on Nov. 14. The officials oversee rowing tournaments called regattas.
Chamber officials estimate the event will bring 1,000 to 1,700 rowers from Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Idaho and possibly California and Nevada, and they conservatively estimate $2 million being spent in the area.
Chamber Director Stephanie Bailey said if event planners could convince rowers to bring family with them and treat the expedition as a vacation, the actual dollar amount spent could be between $4 million and $6 million. Bailey and Chamber ambassador Joe Spendolini said their goal is to convince rowers to spend more than three nights in town.
The chamber is putting together vacation packages for out-of-towners that would bring them to regional attractions such as the Running Y Ranch Resort, Crater Lake and wildlife refuges. They would also advertise nearby wine country and theater in Ashland.
But before the planning begins in earnest, the Ewauna Rowing Club and the chamber will have to first nail down a date for the event. Masters officials have the date scheduled for June 18 and 19, the same week the city will host the kinetic sculpture race.
Bailey said it would be ideal for the city to move the sculpture race date up by one weekend to June 11-12, but Speers worried about high school and college graduation conflicts that weekend.
Klamath Falls isn't new to rowing competitions. Lake Ewauna has been the site for the regional Masters championship in 1997 and 1999, and the Ewauna Rowing Club has offered the Rural Henley Regatta for the past two years running. The Henley race is a play on the world's most prestigious championship, the Royal Henley Regatta, Bailey said.
The Henley regatta will be suspended next year because of the Masters competition, but plans call for it to be held annually.
Spendolini said the success of this year's Henley race was one of the reasons the city landed the larger regional event. The first year's race had a number of glitches, and officials had made a list of suggested changes for the Henley organizers.
The selection of Klamath Falls as the venue for next year's Masters resulted from a great deal of planning, he said.
"That was an enormous effort between the rowing club and chamber Ambassadors," he said.
The city is "pretty well prepared" to host the event right now, Bailey said. The renovations and two-acre addition to Veterans Park will be instrumental in hosting rowers, because registration and first aid tents, boat storage and various food and art vendors will all be at the park that borders parts of the lake.
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| Turkey Day rain likely |
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