nEW Opportunities
Taking advantage of the extensive U.S. coastline, coastal rowing brings the sport to highly populated areas with limited resources to support flat water training and racing. Coastal rowing is prominent in Europe, and a World Championship is currently supported by FISA.
Although coastal rowing is relatively unknown in the United States, it is incredibly popular in other parts of the world. In an effort to bring new interest to rowing, the sport is about to hit the biggest stage around:
Coastal Rowing Beach Sprints are being added to the 2020 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals in Oeiras, Portugal and the 2022 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegal. At both events, there will be five boat classes: men’s and women’s single sculls, men’s and women’s double sculls, and mixed sculls.
There are also proposals to include coastal rowing in both the Paris (2024) and Los Angeles (2028) Olympic Games.
With the potential of coastal rowing being added to the Olympic Games, USRowing will be looking to expand its connection with the coastal rowing community and begin the steps of establishing a high performance pathway and domestic regattas along the lines of current USRowing flat water regional championships.
a new class of boats
Coastal racing in the United States follows guidance and guidelines set out by World Rowing. The boats used in coastal competitions must meet an international standard size and weight, but are not readily available in the U.S. and Canada – currently a major sticking point in planning new events.
With current demand for coastal boats relatively low, it’s been challenging to get international boat builders like Eurodiffusion, Swift, and Filippi to supply boats to the U.S.
Hoping to fill the void, Massachusetts-based Next Boatworks is in the final stages of pre-production testing the REBEL C1x –advanced carbon fiber construction with innovative components make it light, and a sleek double-ended design maximizes speed by reducing wetted surface area.
