It's Never Too Late.......

Eight years ago I decided some space had opened up in my life that I wanted to fill with a new form of exercise—rowing. Though I knew nothing about rowing when I was in college, and had never even watched it, I somehow still had a fascination with it. For one, I love being on the water. My husband and I built our own 36’ sailboat, which we launched in 1979, and one of my happiest occupations while cruising has been to row my Minto dinghy about the bays we anchor in. Rowing seemed like the perfect way to get me on the water during the winter.

My husband and I both are longtime inhabitants of the Madison Park area, and his advice was to seek out Charley McIntyre. So I did. Charley wasn’t the least bit fazed that a slim, not-so-tall by rowing standards (5’6”) 60-year old was wanting to learn to row. So teach me he did. First the nice “stable” double wherries, with Charley stroking. Then the single wherry on a line, as he strung me out from the dock and I thought I’d never been in anything so unstable in my life! Gradually I got my bearings and my balance, Charley deemed me ready to begin rowing with a group. I looked at several boathouses and groups, but it was Charley’s group of mixed gender, non-competitive rowers that both looked attractive as a group to get to know, and had a schedule that fit for me.

I’ve been happily a part of the Charley McIntyre Rowing Club since then, slowly learning to hold my own in an eight, quad, double, and finally, one of those lovely, slender singles. Charley is one of the most graceful rowers I have seen. A row in the double with him at first always seemed to be an exercise in patience, because he would move so slowly. But I learned that the slow speed gave me something extra—it gave me time to watch, balance and learn to feel his movements. Not that he always rowed slowly—he could pour it on when he wanted. The most remarkable row I remember was a row through the cut in the quad with Charley stroking. In the cut he would usually have us do a push for “60” strokes, and the 60 we did that day was both the fastest and smoothest I have ever seen us row. How did it happen? I have no idea, but it was magical. We all just slipped in behind him and somehow achieved that flow.

I will treasure his quiet, calm directions, and even miss his Ole and Lena jokes, and the fact that from season to season, the man with the most prodigious memory I’ve ever seen could not sort out the different kinds of ducks we would see, always having to ask our bird expert, John Lundin, what he was seeing. I’m sure others on the water will miss his unsolicited rowing advice.

Thanks, Charley, for gifting me with a wonderful way to be on, and in, the water, and for knowing that it’s never too late to get started.

Kae Hutchison