More than 100 rowers hit Wasilla Lake for Moose Nugget Regatta

July 15, 2007

By MATT TUNSETH/ Frontiersman

WASILLA - Rowers from as far away at the Kenai Peninsula ripped through the surface of Wasilla Lake Saturday in fiberglass racing shells built for speed.

An estimated 110 rowers from three clubs took part in the Moose Nugget Regatta, which was hosted by the Anchorage Rowing Association. Also participating were the Soldotna-based Alaska Midnight Sun Rowers and the Kenai Crewsers from Seward.

Race director Ed Hall said this year marked the first time the event has been held on Wasilla Lake - which is directly adjacent to the Parks Highway in downtown Wasilla - after previously taking place on Lake Lucille. Hall said the change of venue was a good move both for rowers and spectators.

&#8220We moved it here because it's way more visible,” she said.

There was plenty to see as the long, sleek fiberglass boats as big as 65 feet knifed their way through the calm lake surface. Teams of as many as eight rowers at a time raced from the far end of the lake back to a finish line near the public swimming area.

As they finished each race, exhausted rowers hunched in their seats and high-fived each other for a successful run. While the boats may look as if they move effortlessly through the water, rowers said it's not as easy as it looks.

&#8220It's hard work,” Anchorage rower Julian Mason said. &#8220If you do it right, everything by your eyelids hurts.”

Mason was a member of the Anchorage Rowing Association's eight-man crew that narrowly beat out another ARA team in a one of more than a dozen heats contested Saturday.

The races featured both &#8220sculling” and &#8220sweeping” shells - or boats - with one, two, four and eight-member teams. In a sculling shell, each rower pulls two oars, while sweeping shells have only one oar for each rower, with oars alternating out each side of the shell.

Along with the rowers, most teams also used a coxswain, a team-leader who sat at one end of the boat to shout directions, encouragement and call out the stroke cadence.

Michal Wilson of Anchorage served as coxwain for several shells Saturday. A collegiate rower at Wheaton College in Illinois, Wilson said sitting at the front of the boat and calling out directions over a microphone isn't as much fun as handling the oars.

&#8220I'd rather be rowing,” she said.

Still, getting to be in charge of the skull does have its advantages.

&#8220It's kind of fun to boss people around,” she said.

Nearly all the competitors Saturday hailed from either Anchorage or the Kenai Peninsula, but race director Ed Hall said she's hopeful that holding the event on Wasilla Lake will help spur curious rowers in the area to look into starting their own club.

&#8220We'd love to have a Mat-Su one,” she said.

Contact Matt Tunseth at 352-2265 or matt.tunseth@

frontiersman.com