If a picture is worth a thousand words then nothing more needs to be said. However, the celebration of Roger's 90th birthday at the NWMC boathouse on October 11, 2025 was a marquee event that merits a description for RIRSC archives (for the record, Roger's actual birthday was October 26th). With a multitude of ideas and plans from mastermind Ted for celebrating Roger, and a village of volunteers to make it all happen, it was indeed the best 90th birthday party the rowing club

Hi, I'm Oct, short for Octuple. I'm 62 feet of gleaming Western Red Cedar. I was born in 1976. You may have rowed me on a Thursday morning this summer. But, as they say, it had been a minute since I had traveled out of Port Townsend. Well, since 2014 to be exact. I remember my first two glorious road trips with the club that year, first as my Oct self to Portland's Ross Island. "The Oct won first overall and first in its class, beating Portland's Oct," recalled Kathleen Saile

To fully appreciate what the club just pulled off on its first* rowing field trip to Quilcene, you have to consider the timeline. The night of Oct. 13, Dave Winters came out of the monthly board meeting and starting emailing members about the idea. Just 8 days later, at 8am on Oct. 21, 2025, some 18 excited rowers were arriving at the boathouse to make it happen. Of course Sally Giesler had arrived early to keep us all perfectly on track. By 8:27am, in record time, the traile

Four Rats and two Nails (one shiny, one polished by time) represented Port Townsend at the Kitsap Invitational Summer Scrimmage, or KISS,...

On Sunday March 3, a group of Rats gathered to pay solemn tribute to (aka carve up) two of RIRSC’s historic (some might say “old”) rowing...

By Kathleen Sailer. Photos and video by Emily Adams. On a radiant morning in late July, RIRSC hosted Seattle guests Mike and Kathy...

Today is the Day of joy and trepidation for we shall do a procedure which has risks : We will be cutting 3/64th relief lines in the hull...

Ask any rower what the ideal conditions are, and you’ll hear flat water, no wind, no boat traffic or wake, easy water access off low...

In the past couple of weeks two events happened in my rowing life : One joyous and the other curious. Each has its path to convergence...

March 30, 2023 Hi Folks, I have been around a wide circle of people who enjoy working on wooden racing shells, and have never heard...

March 22, 2023 Hi Folks, We are living our own History as we preserve History. I am the last of the founders who is still actively...

March 10, 2023 Hi Folks, 7 or 8 of us are sanding away when who should drop by but Steve Chapin...... I can't focus on my task, I have...

Across the bay from the peace and love capital of Port Townsend lies Indian Island - a major U.S. Naval munitions facility. Both are...

Log of the RIRSC trip to Budapest for the International Master’s Regatta September 2019 more pictures here Elevan RIRSC rowers (Connie,...

Lucy Pocock Stillwell  was the  older sister of rowing legend George Pocock whom she essentially raised  (George was only 6 months old...

It was a bit like a dream.   Lucy, Swifty (two of my grown kids) and I were standing outside the Port Townsend Maritime Center which is a...

…and the cheese, Nicoise salad, shrimp and all the other goodies at our annual holiday bash. But Sally’s cake said it all – thank you...

Steve Chapin in the single, Larry Dewey, Roger McPherson, Ted Shoulberg and Jim Buckley in the Hoh. Photo by Dan Depew. Before there...

They were 9 working class boys from the Pacific Northwest who won an impossible victory – not just for Washington State – but for the...

Mark Helprin – In a lesser chamber of Suffolk County Courthouse on a day in early August, 1965. the hottest day of the year, a Boston...