East River CREW ( Community Rowing & Education on the Water)

Free 40' x8'x 8' shipping container available for cost of transporting it to your location. Please respond asap or forward to any interested parties.

A new home for StDavid's and 8Plus boats, thanks to LICC boathouse. Let's get out there and row the East River this summer. Email me to be on the list for launch dates!

This fabulous team helped move East River Crew’s boats to their new home in LICC expanding program. Experienced rowers, we’ll need you this summer. A new community will be ready to learn to row!

New plans for the Esplanade do NOT include our davit & ladder set up for launching boats at east 96th street due to faulty information & lack of research by Parks designers- please attend zoom presentation tonight or write something here if you learned to row with us & felt safe. After operating for 20 years without any incident at this location (Horn’s Hook in nautical terms), we were shocked to hear this presentation. A Randall’s Island beach launch is perfect for kayaks, not Whitehall Gigs.

Recordings of presentation here https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/mobile/folders/1DAm9OMfJgNrjY5VQz6AL_GoxinmFsSPK?sort=7&direction=d
Registration for zoom meeting here.

Virtual on Zoom
Thursday, July 13th from 6:30 – 8:30 PM
Register here: https://edc.nyc/project/107th-street-pier-bobby-wagner-walk-reconstruction

2023 ERC Cmty Mtgs - Google Drive

Thanks Hui Ding for being part of our team!!

National Estuary Day- 200 estuary guides distributed !

East River CREW's vision for New York City’s next Comprehensive Waterfront Plan:

City and regional planning for recreational and educational rowing activities should be intentional, and spaces around the estuary should be identified for build out now or in the near future!

Open water rowing has proven over time to be a most viable means of access to NYC's rivers and harbor. Whitehall gigs are a marvelous "platform for discovery" for New Yorkers and visitors of all ages, economic groups, and educational attainment.

Open water rowing, aka gig rowing, aka rowing Whitehall gigs has a place in the NY-NJ Harbor Estuary that cannot be overlooked. Historically, these boats have been plying the waterfront from the time of early European explorers until the beginning of the 20th century's "dawn of the age of carbon," which we now understand takes a huge toll on Earth's planetary climate.

As we continue to seek modes of healthy, carbon-free transit and recreation, the value of supporting open water rowing should be apparent. Currently on the estuary most of these rowing vessels are 25-feet long and 5-feet wide, human powered by 4 rowers, plus a coxswain to skipper the boat. Related vessels called Pilot gigs tend to be longer, wider, and carry 6 rowers plus cox. Smaller 14-foot 4-oared Whitehalls can be seen on quieter waters. Each of the gigs are stable enough to carry cargo and several passengers too anywhere on the harbor.

Brooklyn New York is credited for having the boat-shop where working and racing Whitehalls were designed and built starting in the early 1800's. Paintings of tall ships during those years show Whitehall gigs surrounding ships anchored in the harbor. Similar Whitehalls were built and used on the East coast from NYC north to Halifax Nova Scotia, and on the West coast from the San Francisco bay north to Vancouver, British Columbia. These working and racing boats continue to have a meaningful role, albeit small business and recreational, now as then.

It must be understood that what we propose and support, (open water rowing aka gig rowing) is different from Olympic style rowing that requires slim profile rowing shells with sliding seats that provide speed at the expense of stability and maneuverability. The Olympic style shells are safe only on lakes, or on the quieter waters of the upper Harlem River.

East River CREW is an example of how open water rowing can succeed on a micro scale - with only a davit, ladder, and gate, plus indoor boat storage as small as one 8x8x40-foot shipping container to support a program for free rowing and estuary education.

Conversely, the Village Community Boathouse in Hudson River Park is an example of similar on-water access (davit, ladder, gate) that succeeds on a larger scale, due to a sizable indoor space, electric davits, and floating docks. There, boat building, youth after-school activities, college clubs, and added hours of weekday and weekend rowing are on-going.

East River CREW and Village Community Boathouse (VCB) are both non-profit organizations that own boats which are used primarily for activities that are run by volunteers and free to the public.

The Waterfront Alliance has been a great supporter of gig rowing, and Whitehall gigs from both of the above-referenced groups have participated in MWA's City of Water Day since its inception. The gigs can be seen in MWA photos each year on Governors Island. VCB Whitehalls have also rowed in MWA's Parade of Boats at each year's Heroes of the Harbor event at Chelsea Piers.

Regarding Infrastructure:
While East River CREW has no issue with kayaks, we must explain that being part of a rowing crew of 4-6 people plus coxswain is a different thing than kayaking, where boats usually hold 1-2 people. Many kayaks are privately owned and small enough to store in a New York apartment. Kayaks launch and land either from a beach or from a floating dock. Whitehall gigs can also land on a beach, but moving from there to upland storage can be unwieldy. Also, the harbor estuary has a shortage of beaches, many of which are reserved for wetland restoration. A floating dock can be helpful for rowing boats to load and unload passengers, but for not much else. The gigs are too wide to roll up and down ramps. On the other hand, a davit, ladder, and gate can be easily and cost-effectively set up on sea walls, which are in great abundance all around the NY-NJ Harbor Estuary!

It is suggested that wherever a floating dock for kayaks exists or is planned, that a davit / ladder / gate configuration for Whitehall gigs be also planned. It is a relatively low cost, and would be separated by about 50 yards from the kayaks.

Cruises of various lengths, from short trips on flat water, to rowing in place against strong ebb or flood currents near a boathouse, to 24-mile excursions around Manhattan and beyond, are possible. Interference with commercial traffic is often brought up as an issue in meetings ashore. After years on the water with trained and experienced coxswains at VCB and East River CREW, this issue is more likely imagined than encountered. Coxswain training is ongoing at both locations. On long rows or rows through tight spots (Brother Islands, Hell Gate, Roosevelt Island, Statue of Liberty, etc), coxswains carry marine radios and know the protocols of hailing and passing commercial traffic. Our rule of the road is to communicate when necessary and always stay out of the way. We also travel in pairs for rows beyond our coves.

Excellent sites for open water rowing are available throughout the estuary. Learn-to-row activities for beginners currently take place at the Village Community Boathouse in the embayment on the south side of Pier 40, West Houston Street. Similar free Learn-to-row and expeditionary activities were held by East River CREW from the East River Esplanade at East 96th Street, mid-April to mid-October 2006 - 2018. Due to planned Esplanade repairs, access to the water there was unavailable in 2019 and will be for the foreseeable future. Local community boards, elected officials, and civic groups, have been and continue working to remedy the situation with East River CREW. A youth development rowing program, Rocking the Boat, on the Bronx River is also a home for ongoing rowing activities via a fleet of the 14-foot Whitehalls.

How appropriate and enjoyable is the carbon-free, human-powered use of handmade wooden boats, designed on patterns that have survived the test of time here in New York Harbor? Because speed is not the only objective, Whitehall gigs are truly "Platforms for discovery."

New York City Planning, Economic Development, Parks, Army Corp of Engineers, and all the agencies that plan and create our vibrant waterfront should support and accommodate the build out for an educational and recreational infrastructure that includes facilities for Whitehall gig rowing throughout the estuary!

Please feel free to write or call should you have questions or need photos or further information.

Sincerely,
Mary Nell Hawk
917-679-7603

Board President
East River C.R.E.W. Inc.
C.R.E.W. = Community Recreation & Education on the Water
A 501c3 non-profit organization providing free rowing since 2005 and estuary activities in the Yorkville / East Harlem communities since 1999

East River Crew | We Pull Together for the River

Will be painting the shipping container / boathouse tomorrow (Saturday 10/26) Join us if you can. Even though rowing is still cancelled due to esplanade repairs, and we have not yet landed in an appropriate interim location, keeping the boathouse in order is an important way to demonstrate that East River CREW is still active and alive!

If you have been to the esplanade recently you have probably noticed that it still looks much like this photograph. We are negotiating with the parks department. At this point we are unable to open the 2019 season but are working hard to be back as soon as we can. We will keep everyone updated here when there is news.

Mary Nell Hawk
4 mins ·
Eventbrite
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The Waterfront Alliance has been a fearless advocate for a resilient, sustainable mixed-use waterfront on our NY-NJ harbor estuary, where commercial, recreational, and environmental entities share responsibility as stewards of our region's largest public open space, its rivers and harbor! I am pleased to be a participant in the conversation and conference, now and since the early years of the alliance.
Please sign up for the conference if you can and advocate for East River CREW. They have a special price for students and non-profits, plus "early bird special" that ends soon.

2019 Waterfront Conference View sponsorship deck View sponsorship deck