Rats Win 5 of Top 6 Places at the Sequim Bay Row for Hospice 2025 Regatta
- Bill Mahoney
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
Rats came home victorious again this year from the Sequim Bay Yacht Club Reach and Row for Hospice Row and Paddle Race fundraiser on Sept. 3, 2025, the club's second racing trip of the season. The Rat Island Rowing & Sculling Club brought home several blue ribbons and club boats were 5 of the top 6 overall finishers.
The SBYC regatta is held each year as a fundraiser for Volunteer Hospice of Clallam County. A total of 23 club members went to Sequim Bay for the "good water, no bridge, no ferries" regatta to row in a 5K race. The Rats contingent this year included three new club members racing in their first year. Most notably, the quad coxed by Kathy Woods-Smith snared First Place with 23:14. Crew members were Dave Winters, Ron Moller and Amy Grace.
Coming in 2nd at 24:19 was the quad coxed by Noah Seixas with Ted Shoulberg, Liz Quinn and Emily Buckner. Third place at 25:19 was captured by cox Paul Carter's quad with crew Corine de Boer, Andrew Rauch and Dylan Rauch. The Medicine Women quad came in 4th with 25:34 coxed by Becky Steffens with crew Meredith Milholland, Kari Griffin-Harte and Lauren Olsen. Only a single interrupted the Rats sweep of the top positions by taking 5th place. Seconds behind was a Rats quad as 6th place finisher with 26:01, coxed by Sally Giesler with her crew of Karen Richards, Janet Palmer and Anne Weinman.
Rowing their singles to clock in with great times were Kim Matthews (31:08), Mari Friend (32:42), Jeanne Costello (33:23) and Francine Rose (33:33). Kim, Mari and Jeanne each won their classes.
The event closed with a winner's ceremony and tasty chili feed. Special thanks to Dave Winters for acting as event organizer; Sally Giesler for overseeing the boats, trailer loading and unloading; and Ted Shoulberg for safely trailering the quads to Sequim and back.
Members noted that they continued to iron out derigging, loading, unloading and rerigging routines with the new trailer, with the process back at the boathouse done in record time.
