107th Annual NWIRA Championship Regatta
- Aug 13, 2010 To Aug 14, 2010
- sprint
- Rabbit River
- Kenora, ON (CAN)
- Hosted By: Kenora Rowing Club
The Minnesota Boat Club, Winnipeg Rowing Club, and the now defunct St. Paul Boat Club are founding members of the Northwestern International Rowing Association (NWIRA). This American/Canadian association began in 1885 with the first regatta held on Lake Minnetonka, west of the Twin Cities.
Competition within the NWIRA has continued to the present day with the exception of breaks for the Spanish-American War, Boer Wars, WWI and WWII.
In 1914 Sir Thomas Lipton, a tea merchant from England with an interest in aquatic sports, donated the NWIRA Championship trophy. In the same year, he also presented the sport of sailing with the America?s Cup. The Lipton Cup is awarded each year to the rowing club scoring the greatest number of points at the NWIRA regatta. Over the years, domination of aggregate points has shifted from the Duluth and Winnepeg clubs in the teens and twenties to Thunder Bay and the Minnesota Boat Club during the post-war years. Toward the end of the 20th century, the Minneapolis Rowing Club has dominated the championship regatta. In 2007, Saskatoon Rowing Club won the Lipton Cup for the first time.
Today the NWIRA member clubs include Regina and Saskatoon Rowing Clubs from Saskatchewan; Pinewa, Winnepeg, and Kenora Rowing Clubs from Manitoba; and the clubs from Duluth, Rochester, Minneapolis, and Saint Paul in Minnesota. The NWIRA Regatta consists of 50 events which are rowed over two days in August. Clubs from all over the mid-western United States and Canada compete for the old and venerable trophies awarded for individual events and, of course, the Lipton Cup.