Latest News

2011

Kodiak, Alaska

Here is our latest Alaska owner Laura Creighton rowing just outside Dog Bay Harbor in Kodiak, Alaska

What a beautiful spot!!!!

Peter Oudheusden at the 2010 Essex River Race

Echo Rowing sponsoring Peter in the Everglades Challenge 2011

Echo Open Water Rowing is sponsoring Peter Oudheusden of the Greenwich Crew, Greenwich CT. racing the Echo Islander in the 11th Annual Everglades Challenge - March 5-13, 2011, Fort Desoto, Tamps Bay to Key Largo, Florida 300 miles in 8 days or less but the winners will do it in 2 to 4 days.

This challenge is an expedition style race for kayaks, canoes, rowing shells and sailboats. This challenge is a qualifier for the Florida Challenge. Starts 3/5/2011.

Everglades Challenge web site www.watertribe.com

2010

Dear Echo,

I want to commend you again on the boat you built for me. I only get to do one race a year because of my busy schedule. The Head of the Ohio is close to me so I prepare for it all year long. I won again this year in my group. My time was two minutes faster than last year. I even had a thrill of passing boats this year. I am convinced that part of that success is the boat I row. I know I am handicapped and I row adaptive but your boat works well for me. The ability to sit on it makes ingress and egress so much easier than a traditinal boat would be with my leg braces.

Thanks,

David A. Rosen, MD

ACE owner

2010 Lighthouse to Lighthouse Race September 18th Compo Beach Westport, Ct.

A Great Day for the seaworthiness of the Echo and Ace

Congratulations to all Echo Rowers

Mark Allen after finishing first in touring class taking some nourishment and later with Gold Medal

Peter Oudenheusen with silver in Touring division and Jeff Nelson with silver in Racing division

Leslie Faole

being congratulated on her Gold medal in women's touring

by Bev Lyserby and Maryellen Auger

Crossing Lake Ontario

Greg Jamieson chooses the ECHO to cross Lake Ontario

Starting out

and

Almost there

2010 Essex River Race

There were 6 Echos represented in the race - Ray Panek, Rich Klajnscek, Blake Doyle, Lorna Perry, Mark Allen, and Don Libby. Ray Panek was able to edge out Rich Klajnscek for first place by a mere 23 seconds. Mark Allen finished 4th with Blake Doyle chasing close behind to finish 5th. Then Lorna Perry and Don Libby rounded out the Echo contingent in 10th and 12th place. Nice rowing by all on a cold a windy day.

Echo ACES finish 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 6th. 1st place finish by Rich Klajnscek was fastest the time of the day.

Other Echo racers were Blake Doyle in an Echo finished 1st in her division with Kathy Martell getting 3rd.

Rich Klajnscek rowing to fastest time of the day in the ACE

Dana Gaines rowing his ACE to 2nd place

Ray Panek rowing his ACE to 3rd Place

Dan Potter clearing the Eliot Bridge for 6th place.

Blake Doyle chasing Wolfie to finish 1st in her division

Mark Allen easing into 1st in his division again

Noel Bloomenthal showing good form to place 1st in his division

Thanks again for making the push to get my boat done for yesterday's race. It was incredible to be out there rowing the new ace among 30+ other boats on my home lake. The boat rowed beautifully, and was a joy from start to finish. I wanted to share some details on the results and what I noticed about how the boat handles when compared to others.

To my surprise and joy, I finished second. (The first place woman had just won in the women's double at Canadian Henley, so i don't feel too bad about a silver medal.) The race was ~10 miles, so there was plenty of time for things to happen. I don't know what all the actual times were - they only announced corrected times at the ceremony, but the race details themselves were more indicative of the ace's performance anyway. I called the race organizer on friday when i got home to tell him that i'd be participating. He put me in the last heat (5 of 5) because i hadn't rowed the ace before and i told him that it would be my shakedown cruise. I truly expected that it would be my shakedown and nothing more, so the last heat sounded fine to me. Anyway, by the first mark, i had passed everyone in my heat. I wasn't rowing hard, just trying to learn the boat and row smoothly. The ace sure does reward smooth rowing and efficiency of stroke with speed, stability, and smooth character. By the second mark i had passed a couple of guys in the heat ahead of me. By the halfway mark, i passed everyone in the heat before me, and one man in the 3rd heat. After that, we were so stretched out that i didn't pass anyone else, but did hold my own until the finish line. I didn't get passed by anyone, and also managed to hold off the women's double that had entered in the race, finishing ahead of them by a few minutes.

I'm telling this story not to trumpet my excellent rowing abilities to the world - that would be just plain false advertising about me as a rower - but to comment on how fantastic the boat is for me. I noticed clearly that as soon as we got into headwind and seas, all the other boats were bogging down while i raced ahead, not even noticing the conditions picking up, except for the windage on my back. The ace has a clear advantage when the conditions get rough, and does nothing less than easily hold its own in calm seas. I had a bunch of people asking about the boat before, after, and during the race. I've been telling people that the boat rows like silk. That's the best analogy i can think of. It was a great moment when i was passing one man on the course and he looked over and said, "That's an Echo ACE, isn't it?"

Another race today in the ace, this time in rockland harbor. Great to be out on the salt water with the boat. The conditions were the worst I've seen, which is to say that they were perfect for me to practice and learn about the ace. Fog, rain, wind, and seas were all doing their best to keep the race challenging. I rowed by compass for the first leg of the race, since we couldn't see the lighthouse at the first mark. The wind was building as we got out farther, and the boat was awash with waves for much of the race. My foot well filled and drained countless times. I was focusing less on rowing hard than I was on keeping the boat set and stable, but by just relaxing and working on keeping a clean stroke, it handled amazingly well, given the chop that we were racing in. Beam seas for the first and last leg of the race, with following seas on the middle leg. My learning curve was steep being out on water like that, but there is much more to learn and play with in the boat. I feel that I have much to improve. When all was said and done, I was first in my class, and first across the line for an overall win.

29 shells divided into classes started at Fort Foster in Kittery Point at 1 minute intervals per class. 11 shells raced the 4.5 mile course while the other 18 raced the 8 mile course. Pepperrel Cove and Spruce Creek were mostly flat conditions except for some tide rips and motor boat wakes at the turn to Spruce Creek. With clases divided by age and boat length most everyone becomes a winner. There were 11 Aldens , 10 Echos, 4 Maas, and 4 Wintech. For complete results go to the IROW site at <www.irow.org>.

Kent Bloomer arrived the day before the race with Barnacle, Arthur Martin's design and personal boat in the 80's.

What a wonderful surprise!!!!

Ray Panek in his Ace cruising to the fastest elapsed time in a single.

Blake Doyle powering to the second fastest elapsed time on the short course only to be beaten by the great Craig Wolfe.

Kathy Martell smiling her way to first in class.

Mark Allen cruising to first in class again after the same results in the Essex River Race and the Blackburn Challenge.

Merry Fogg powering to first in class.

Laura Cleminson rowing her Islander to first in class.

Bill Phillips cruising to first in class.

The Blackburn Challenge is the east coast's premier open-water human-powered boat competition. This 20 mile challenge sends rowers, kayakers and canoeist around Cape Ann Massachusetts

Of the 208 entries for this race Echo had 10 shells participating. In the sliding seat racing division were Rich Klajnscek finishing in 2nd place with a time of 2:38:46. Ray Panek finished in 6th place in 2:50:01. Both were in Aces.

In the sliding seat touring division were 8 Echos. Mark Allen finished 1st in 3:15:31 followed by Tom Hanson in 2nd in 3:24:47. Next was Jack Tatelman in 4th with a time of 3:44:20 followed bty Paul Mazonson in 6th with a time of 4:07:36 and Pat Loftus finishing 7th with a time of 4:24:20 followed by Brad Sagona finishing 9th in 4:43:09. The womans sliding seat touring division was won by Deborah Olsen in an Echo in a time of 4:02:37.

Rich Klajnscek

Ray Panek

Mark Allen

Tom Hanson

Jack Tatelman & Paul Mazonson

Pat Loftus

J. Brad Sagona

Deborah Olsen

The Essex River Race is open to all seaworthy human-powered rowing and paddle boats. Participants' crafts usually include Banks dories, fixed seat singles, doubles, multi-oars with cox, multi-oars without cox, sliding seat singles & doubles, single & double touring kayaks.

106 Boats of all shapes and sizes, powered by paddle and oar showed up for the race. Echo was represented by 2 Aces in the sliding seat racing class and 3 Echos in the sliding seat touring class.

Rich Klajnscek was 1st in his Ace in the sliding seat racing class and fastest boat of the day followed closely by Ray Panek in his Ace to take 2nd place.

Mark Allen was 1st in the sliding seat touring division followed by Roy McCauley in 4th place and Don Libby in 6th place with Pat Loftus finishing in 8th place.

Don Libby getting ready

What a cluster of boats

Rich Klajnscek finishing

Ray Panek finishing

Mark Allen finishing

Pat Loftus finishing

Roy McCauley finishing

In the days precedeing this years Snow Row, one of New England's premier open water rowing events, it looked as though rough conditions would be the order of the day but by race time the skies cleared and the water smoothed for some great racing conditions.

Echo Rowing was well represented with five Echo's out of a field of 57 boats. Team Echo's Rich Klajncek finished first overall with a time of 31:19, Ray Panek came in second overall with a 31:51, Lorna Perry was 16th overall at 38:12, Don Libbey 24th at 40:54 and Pat Loftus 39th at 45:07. We would like to thank all who attended and organized this years race and especially Team Echo for another excellent performance.