Row BOC Blog

If you have questions that cannot be answered from the website feel free to contact:  rowboc.members[at symbol]gmail.com .  The boathouse lock combination, a list of members and contact information are available to members  when they join.

The RowBOC boat house is located at 125 Spring Tree Rd, off Route 5 (Putney Rd.). The exit is just north of the bridge over the West River at the confluence with the Connecticut River. To get there, look for the Connecticut River Safari canoe rental and take the road behind the stores that leads toward the Marina Restaurant.  Before the guard rail and restaurant, turn right and continue on the dirt road to the last building on your right.  The the boathouse (a tan Quonset hut) and docks are on your left.  Continue past and park in the ample lot next to the cornfield adjacent to the boathouse.

Additional rowing opportunities are available at the Putney Rowing Club (PRC) located 15 minutes up route 5 on the banks of the Connecticut River.   The club offers RowBOC members affiliate memberships at a discount ($75).    The majority of the PRC members row in single or double shells. The club owns  three recreational singles appropriate for novices,  eight racing shells,  five doubles, a pair and two quads. 

The PRC offers Big Boat Rows on Sunday mornings between June–September where members row in  quads and doubles.  On Saturday mornings, the club frequently offers Scrambles where participants race against the clock for 3 miles down the Connecticut River to the Putney Rowing Club docks.   All club members, including recent novice clinic graduates, are welcome at and encouraged to participate in all club activities.  Browse the PRC website for more information about the rowing opportunities and information on how to join the club.

Each rower accepts the responsibility of their own safety and the safety of others. Any damages done to a boat or other equipment due to either negligence or through an accident must be reported immediately to the boathouse manager or to the program director. The cost of repairs is the responsibility of the person(s) who was using the equipment at the time of the damage (or who caused the damage to occur). Anyone observed being reckless or unsafe with RowBOC equipment may lose their club privileges and have their membership revoked.

Membership includes the use of club equipment, the RowBOC docks, and access to club events.  In return for these privileges, RowBOC members must agree to help put the docks in during one weekend in April,  help prepare the equipment and boat house for the rowing season, and must also agree to work for a day in November to both pull the docks out and store the boats and equipment for the winter.

RowBOC members also have several opportunities to volunteer for the club and receive a discounted membership the following year:

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A  Novice Clinic is offered each spring to introduce new rowers to the sport.  The Novice Clinic is held at both the RowBOC and the Putney Rowing Club  boathouses, so that new rowers become familiar with both clubs, their boats and opportunities.  There are a couple trained coaches in the area who may be  available for private lessons for those who cannot attend the clinic but wish to become skilled enough to join RowBOC.

To join RowBOC, download the membership application forms from the Brattleboro Outing Club and submit it with the requisite fee. You will need to either complete the Novice Clinic, take private lessons from a “BOC approved”  rowing  coach, or have your rowing skills observed and verified by RowBOC.

The Brattleboro Outing Club (BOC) is one of the oldest civic outdoor sporting associations in the United States. Founded in 1921 by local sportsman Fred Harris, the BOC was formed to “encourage, develop, and promote family outdoor life and good fellowship.”

In the summer of 2007, BOC started a rowing program known as “RowBOC.” The program was housed in their rented boathouse on Spring Tree Lane, a location that was right next to the West River and just upstream of the Marina Restaurant in Brattleboro.  The program currently   features both sculling and  sweep rowing from mid-April  to November, weather permitting.