RegattaCentral

2009 is the mark of the First Rockett's Landing Collegiate Regatta. Rocketts Landing (WVS Corporation) is eager to sponsor this event. The course is 2000 meters and is the course chart is displayed in the Venue Tab. Rockett's Landing is also the host of the 6th Annual Rocketts Landing Sprints Regatta on May 16th. Crew at VCU began in 1966. Faculty member, Donald Bowles, along with a handful of energetic boys in an old shell, which was borrowed from a local boat club. Bowles showed the small group of curious students a motion picture of the racing crew of a large eastern university. By fall, the group was working hard to rebuild a long-unused boathouse, a badly damaged eight-oared shell, and refinishing oars loaned to them by a once-active amateur rowing club. In December, a used but reconditioned shell was purchased with funds contributed by the Students Activities Committee and arrived on a trailer to be displayed in Shafer Court. At the start of the Spring Term, repairs to the borrowed-oared shell were nearing completion. Construction of a flat-bottomed training barge by a local boat builder had been authorized and begun. Water practice began on Feburary 27, 1967, and the team went on to race at four regattas that first spring. They did exceptionally well.VCU Crew continued on for 5 more seasons and took a break at the end of the Spring 1972 season. It wasn't until 2002 that a group of VCU students decided that it was time to bring amateur rowing back to the James River. Hopefully, VCU Crew will endure for years to come.