Getting to Know the Hanlan Boat 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 Hanlan Boat Club!
Hanlan Boat Club
Established: 1975
Location: Toronto, Ont.
https://www.hanlanboatclub.ca/
Founded in 1975 and located in the Toronto Port Lands, Hanlan Boat Club has deep roots in the City of Toronto. Hanlan members row in the Toronto Outer Harbour, a waterway surrounded by parkland and sheltered behind the Leslie Street Spit. The Outer Harbour also provides access to Cherry Beach and the more open waters of Lake Ontario. This mix of water conditions enables Hanlan to offer a variety of rowing programs, including competitive flat water, recreational and coastal rowing programs.
“Our water is very exciting because we have access to flat water in the mornings and rougher conditions the rest of the day,” said JC Marly, the Hanlan Boat Club’s current President. “There are different areas that we can row that bring different wind conditions and are more protected if we choose to row a certain route. We’re usually on the water from when the ice melts, until the last university regatta in the Fall. It depends on the year, but we usually row from May until November.”
The Toronto Port Lands area is being completely redeveloped, with the naturalization of the Don River and the creation of new parklands and waterways, a new sustainable transportation network and new residential neighbourhoods. This nearby development creates new opportunities for Hanlan and its members, both on and off the water.
Hanlan introduced a fully virtual, volunteer-run, Winter training program in 2020-21 and plans to continue this Winter. The club encourages all of its members to give back to the club by volunteering, and by sharing their love of rowing with new rowers.
“Rowers know that we all succeed when we pull together,” said Marly.
Club History
The club was established by Sam Craig, who acquired a lease for the Regatta Road site in the Toronto Outer Harbour. Craig was the parent of a rower who was attending Upper Canada College, and in 1975 he founded Hanlan Boat Club to give the newly established rowing program at UCC a place to call home. Other UCC alumni were instrumental in getting Hanlan up and running, including Doug Clark, Tim Turner, and Nat Findlay. Boris Klavora, a UCC graduate, national coach and past Yugoslavian Olympic eight competitor, placed fourth in Tokyo, 1964.
The club was named after the legendary Ned Hanlan, who grew up not far from the location of the club on Centre Island. Hanlan’s legendary status in both the rowing community as well as the Toronto community made naming the club after him an easy decision for Craig. By 1976, the first of two Quonset huts was built on the site, with a sign that read ‘Victory is in the Heart.’
Craig’s influence at the club lasted many years and he continued to make significant contributions to both the club and the rowing community at large. In addition to Craig there were several individuals who contributed greatly to the growth of Hanlan throughout the 1980’s, 1990’s and 2000’s.
“One of the first leaders in the club outside of the initial leadership group was Michael List,” said Richard MacFarlane, a long-time club member since 1987, and rowing historian. “He led the first executive committee at Hanlan and he was a big driver in our relatively small but eager club in the late 1980’s. In the 1990’s, Debbie Beatty played a big leadership role, especially with the masters women’s program when it took off and started to be influential. Following Debbie, Peter Copeland came to the club and was an influential leader. John Carmichael also came on to the scene in the early 2000’s and took on a big leadership role. Nick Matthews, Walter Kehm, Vic and Sue Gustavison, the entire Evans Family and Ralph Manktelow, important contributors to the men’s masters program, have all played tremendous roles. JC is a fantastic influence at our club, organizing social events and, most significantly, he established coastal rowing which has had great success over the years.”
For the past 30 years, Nick Matthews and Vic Gustavison have served at various times as Hanlan President, Vice-President, and Club Captain and contributed many hours each week to improving the welfare of club and its members. In 2003, they won in the masters doubles at the Royal Canadian Henley and Canadian Masters regattas. In 2014, they were awarded the Ken Lane Special Achievement Award for their dedicated service to rowing and the Dominion Day Regatta Association.
Club Expansion and a New Boathouse
In the mid-2000s a shifting tide in the Toronto rowing scene significantly increased the size of the membership at Hanlan. The increased membership spearheaded evening rowing programs and brought new life to the club. New programs and leaders emerged which led to improved infrastructure.
“There were big ideas about how to change the club and the boathouse and it never came to fruition,” said Marly. “In the last three years we finally put it all together. We emptied the whole property and basically built a new club from scratch. When the old Quonset huts left, some of the spirit of Hanlan left with it. We are still rebuilding that. In 2019, we got the new boathouse built but we couldn’t get the season started on time after working really hard over the winter to get everything up and running. Then in 2020 we got hit by COVID pretty hard. But I’m so confident now because this year we’ve done really well. We’ve got a new spirit and a bunch of new members and everybody seems willing to pitch in and help out.”
Membership
At its highest, the membership numbers at Hanlan have reached about 300. This past summer they climbed back to close to 200 despite the challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the reasons Hanlan has been able to rebound is because of the wide variety of programs it offers. The club might feature the widest range of rowing activities in Ontario, beginning with more standard programs such as competitive junior, senior and masters flatwater programs, as well as learn-to-row and recreational programs. In the last ten years, they have also dove head long into the coastal rowing scene, taking advantage of their rougher mid-day & evening water conditions. After running a recreational coastal program for several years Hanlan created a small competitive coastal program this year, and one of its members, Anthony Ciaccia, was the silver medalist at the Rowing Canada Beach Sprint Trials in Victoria, B.C. Hanlan aspires to qualify rowers for the FISA World Rowing Coastal Championships in the future. The club has also hosted a few coastal regattas in the past and are looking forward to hosting more in the future.
Hanlan is also very involved with row touring through their membership with Ontario Adventure Rowing. In a normal year, Hanlan organizes at least two of the OAR events, and typically a fair number of their members participate in rowing tours and distance events including the Ottawa rowing marathon and half-marathon. Some of Hanlan’s members are board members with OAR.
Camps
In addition to running member programs, Hanlan runs summer camps for Toronto youth. Camp sessions are one week in length, and participants learn rowing skills and how to row as a member of a team. To give back to the Toronto community and promote rowing to non-traditional rowing populations, Hanlan offers camp spots free of charge via various Toronto social agencies. The club aspires to establish a diverse membership base, to be welcoming and friendly to anyone with an interest in rowing, and to remove economic barriers that might limit access to the sport of rowing.
Schools
In addition to the club’s own members and campers, the Hanlan boathouse is bustling with other athletes during the rowing season. Three partner clubs are housed in the boathouse: Upper Canada College created the club; Havergal College joined in 1989 and the University of Toronto Rowing Club joined in 2000. Combined with the summer camp program, the large five-bay boathouse can have upwards of 500 people using it on a weekly basis during the Summer.
High Performance Athletes
Many high-calibre rowers have come through Hanlan during their careers.
“Our first club captain was Bob Pearce who was originally from Australia,” said MacFarlane. “He was a two-time Olympic gold medalist in the single and he also won the diamond sculls in England. Sons of Hanlan masters oarsman & U of T president Dr. John Evans, Mark and Mike Evans were part of the men’s eight gold medal at the 1984 Olympics. Peter MacGowan competed in the men’s double sculls at those Olympics. And, of course, Kay Worthington, from 1979 with the University of Toronto, won two gold medals, in the eight and coxless four, at the 1992 Olympics. She was a Hanlan member as well. We’ve certainly had our share of great rowers.”
In more recent years, Sydney Payne, 2021 Olympic medallist in the Womens’ 8+, was a junior rower at Hanlan. Payne is currently giving back to the Hanlan community as a coach, working with Hanlan Head Junior Coach Julia Toljagic. Hanlan athlete Katie Haber won a gold medal at both the 2015 and 2019 Pan Am Games in the lightweight women’s double and bronze medal in the lightweight women’s single at the 2016 World Rowing Championships. Hanlan rowers have also experienced success at the masters level, including at such as Royal Canadian Henley, Head of the Charles. Dr. Ralph Manktelow won medals in singles and crew competitions at the Royal Canadian Henley, national and Olympic masters regattas. The club also sent crews to the World Masters Games in Edmonton in 2005 and Australia in 2009.
UCC and Havergal athletes have also gone on to great successes, too many to count. Of special note is the 100th Royal Canadian Henley in August 1982, when a UCC eight won the prestigious Hanlan Memorial Challenge Trophy, donated in 1910, with none other than Margaret Hanlan, Ned’s daughter, there in person to hand the silverware to the happy UCC crew. Not only that, few people know that near the top of that silver trophy is engraved with willow tree scenery and the inscription ‘Hanlan’s childhood home Toronto Island.’
Spirit of Hanlan
“We try to tell our members it’s important to share our passion for rowing with newer members and everybody needs to help teach and show them the ropes,” said Marly. “We also try to encourage our members to have a positive attitude all the time. We are passionate about rowing, but don’t take ourselves too seriously. We still like to have fun.”
Thank you to JC Marly, Richard MacFarlane, Janet Bolton and everyone at the Hanlan Boat Club for their generous contributions and help in completing this profile. Photos are property of the Hanlan Boat Club.
