Club Profile/ Aug 5

Getting to Know the Cornwall Rowing Club

To honour the history, dedication and current initiatives of each rowing community, Row Ontario will be producing a series of profiles on member clubs across Ontario. Today we get to know more about the Cornwall Rowing Club!

Cornwall Rowing Club
Established: 2019
Location: Cornwall, Ont.
https://www.facebook.com/cornwallrowingclub

The Cornwall Rowing Club has the distinction of being one of the newest rowing clubs in Ontario. The club was incorporated in 2017 and made their debut on the water just two years ago during the spring of 2019.

One of the first tasks for the club after becoming incorporated was to find a suitable location. After looking at a few different options, the club made a presentation to the Cornwall City Council to base their operations out of Guindon Park on city owned land just west of Cornwall. The Council was very supportive of their presentation and agreed to lease the land to the newly formed club. They also received grants worth $3,000 each from two rotary clubs in the Cornwall area, which ensured the club could start up. From there, they set about finding boats and storage for their members and got some generous help from the city as well as other clubs in the rowing community.

“When we got started the city was kind enough to purchase two shipping containers which we are using for storage,” said Kevin Donnelly, President of the Cornwall Rowing Club. “We also got some boats as presents from a few very helpful clubs such as the Brockville Rowing Club, the the St. Lawrence Rowing Club and the Lachine Rowing Club in Quebec. I think we got two boats from each of those clubs which was great. I have several boats myself as well, so we were set up with a decent fleet of boats for just getting started.”

As Club President and founder, Donnelly has been the main driving force behind the club starting up, but members of the club’s board of directors have also been key contributors in the club getting established. Members of the board include Natasha Crocker, Julie Leroux, Matt Despatie, Sarah Despatie and Glen Grant, who in addition to being a member of the board is also the mayor of Cornwall. The club’s first season on the water in 2019 went well with a small group of members, many of whom were new to rowing. A few of the new members who started at the beginning of the rowing season in May even competed in a regatta in Ottawa by the end of the season in September. However, the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic slowed the club’s growth in 2020 and they are just starting to build back up now that many of the restrictions have been lifted.

One of the biggest challenges for the club so far has been the body of water that they row on. Guindon Park is located on the St. Lawrence River and is exposed to the wind so at times the water can get pretty choppy. They’ve dealt with the conditions as best they could, and even purchased two coastal rowing singles which they’ve gotten quite a bit of use out of this year. While the club is content at the Guindon Park location, they’re actively looking for a site on the Cornwall Canal, which has much better conditions for flatwater rowing and could help expedite the growth of the club.

In addition to a potential moving of locations, the club has its sights set on expanding its membership and getting involved in different aspects of rowing.

“Next year we’re planning on making a big push for new members, especially into youth rowing,” said Donnelly. “They last few years we’ve just basically been plugging along, picking up a new rower here and there, it’s been a little tough with COVID. But we want to keep growing and we really want to start going to regattas, it’s a good way to motivate people to train and look forward to something. We also recently got some funding from Row Ontario and Rowing Canada, which was a huge boost to us and allowed us to buy some new oars which we really needed.”

The club has also just joined Ontario Adventure Rowing and Donnelly along with another member of the club will be attending a two-day touring event on the Rideau system on the Aug. 7-8 weekend. Donnelly would also like to eventually bring regattas to the Cornwall area, and sees a few possible locations for either coastal rowing or row touring events which he thinks could be a success.

The Cornwall Rowing Club has only been in operation for two years and despite the disruptions brought on by COVID-19 have accomplished a lot during that time. They are well positioned for success in the future and are a club to look out for in the Ontario rowing community.