During the last weekend in October, the Vashon Island Rowing Club headed to Victoria, B.C., for a double-regatta weekend. Over the course of two competitions, the junior crew took three first-place wins, one second place and two third place awards. Vashon’s masters team earned one first-place win, as well as one second-place and two third-place prizes.

The two events, hosted each year by the University of Victoria, draw a few teams from the Northwest along with numerous Canadian teams, some coming from as far as Calgary and Edmonton.

The Head of the Gorge regatta, a 5km race course running a narrow stretch of water, has been described as complete madness. The beach master, dubbed “The Angel,” and marshals try to keep order as each competing boat moves through the narrow, swirling currents to the start.

Vashon had a strong showing in the morning race events. The men’s masters 8 — with Bruce Morser, Colby Atwood, Bob Horsley, Ed Zapel, Mark McKallor, Chad Magnuson, John Jannety, Eric Gill and coxswain Heather Dow — placed first with a time of 14:10.6.

Junior crew’s men’s quad, with Baxter Call, Ryan Bingham, Tate Gill and Gus Magnuson, took third with a time of 16:15.6 in an open varsity race where they competed against masters- and collegiate-level rowers.

In the afternoon, the women’s high school 8 — with Avalon Koenig, Terra Jane Ripley, Halimah Griffin, Kelsey Abella, Charlotte Kehoe, Hannah Russell, Katelyn Carter, Ella McConnell and coxswain Sarah Warner — placed first with a time of 16:16.4.

The club’s women’s master quad placed third with a time of 16:15.9, even after having come to a complete stop just before the narrows to avoid crashing with the Calgary boat, which broke a rudder and passed through at a 90-degree angle. Rowing that boat were Sue DeWalt, Holly Zapel, Marilyn Kleyn and Kim Goforth.

Vashon’s men’s master Steve Haworth also placed third, rowing a single with a time of 16:58.4.

“So much of head racing is as much skill as it is luck in getting a clean race, especially with the Head of the Gorge,” said Goforth, who is also president of the junior program.

The second regatta, dubbed the Head of the Elk, was an 8km race on Elk Lake, just north of downtown Victoria.

In the morning, the men’s masters 8, with Haworth, Atwood, Morser, Zapel,  McKallor, Horsley, David Hattery, Jannety and coxswain Dow, placed second, finishing in 24:03.1 minutes.  The masters mixed 8, with Zapel, Kleyn, Eric Gill, Nancy Foster-Moss, Chad Magnuson, Jim Hauser, Debbie Jackson and coxswain Warner, took second with a time of 27:11.2.

In the men’s open quad, again racing against master and collegiate crews, junior rowers Bingham, Tate Gill, Gus Magnuson and Call, took first in 25:25.9 minutes.

The men’s junior quad, with Ky Burton, Yusuf Griffin, Isaiah Mosser-Rohe and Alec Spencer, placed second in 27:31.1.

That afternoon, the women’s open quad, with Koenig, Ripley, Griffin and Carter, competing against two college crews, took first place in 29:18.9 minutes. The women’s junior quad, with Abella, Shannon Lipe, Kehoe and McConnell, placed third with a time of 30:07.3.

Coach Charlie Helsby said the whole team was strong and poised during both regattas that weekend.

“It was simply a great team effort — particularly the two varsity boats that competed against college crews and won,” he said. “It really shows the strength of the rowers.”

— Marianne Metz Lipe is VIRC’s publicity chair.