Bragging Rights

FrontRower™ powered boats are great for general recreation and low impact exercise, but some owners like to put their boats (and their bodies) through more challenging endeavors.

Here are a few accomplishments that entitle these adventurous rowers to some "bragging rights".

4,000+ Mile Gulf and Atlantic Coastal Row

Philly Joe rowing along the Atlantic coast.

Philly Joe Koladziejski wanted a challenge -- partly to show his support for troops battling terrorism and partly to keep himself in top physical condition following his own battle with stage 4b Hodgkin's disease, a form of lymphoma.

In 2002 he embarked on a journey he named the "American Victory Tour". His journey started in Texas, took him along the Gulf coast around Key West, Florida, up the eastern Atlantic coast to Maine and then inland into the Great Lakes—a distance of more than 4,000 miles.

Most of his trip was in the Intercoastal Waterway.  He didn't do it all at once, but rowed about six months per year, starting off each year where he left off the year before. Rowing his FrontRower powered canoe by day and camping, staying in hotels, or with people who heard of his trip and offered him hospitality and support along the way by night. Joe kept a journal and is planning on writing a book about his experiences and the many interesting people he met along the way. One of them (a news reporter named Kathy) is now his wife.

Rite of Passage Journey 2007

Three Tsimshian boys with dads at beginning of voyage.

In 2007, three 12 year old boys from the Tsimshian Tribe in Southeast Alaska completed a 156 mile circumnavigation of Revillagigedo Island off the coast of Alaska in their FrontRower powered rowboats. The journey was conceived as an Alaskan Native rite of passage -- to help the boys learn to become human beings in the modern world.  Here's a letter from one of the boys:

Dear Mr. Rantilla,
My name is Charlie Modig.  My Dad and I built a touring rowboat from your kit in the winter of 2007.  We also helped our friends build another touring rowboat.  All of our Moms helped us too.
We took the two boats to Ketchikan and with one other Dad and two friends we rowed around the Revillagigedo Island which is about 156 miles in July 2007.  My friends, Mathew and Ian, and I were all 12 then.
This last June we were invited to demonstrate the touring rowboat’s speed and maneuverability in Kodiak at a statewide gathering.  People were very impressed.
Thank you for your design of the kit and especially of the rowing machine.  I am including some pictures of the trip.
Sincerely,
Charlie Modig

FrontRower Survives World's Toughest Boat Race

Bill Seirsdorfer crossing log jam in Texas Water Safari.

Texas Water Safari 2012
The Texas Water Safari is a grueling race that starts in central Texas and finished in the Gulf of Mexico.  It is 260 miles long in the blistering heat and it is considered to be the world's toughest boat race.  Simply finishing gives you bragging rights.

Bill Seirsdorfer got off to a slow start with his FrontRower powered canoe because he had to single paddle in the early part of the race through log jams, narrow passages and portages.  But he says he gained 30 places when he got to more open water where he could row.  Bill finished in 85 hours and 2 minutes (and that includes sleep time).  Finishing 70th out of 139 starters of all classes, that's pretty good for his first time in this race.

FrontRower Sets Record in Blackburn Challenge

Blackburn Challenge 
The Blackburn Challenge is a 22-mile open-water race in the Atlantic Ocean held in Gloucester, Massachusetts. It is named after Howard Blackburn, the famous fisherman who survived five nights at sea with his hands frozen to the oars after his dory became separated from the mother ship during a winter storm in 1883. The race is one of the longest open water races on the East Coast and attracts some of the best open water rowers in the country.

In 1996, Ron Rantilla entered his Alden Ocean Shell fitted out with a FrontRower™ rowing system in the Blackburn Challenge Race. At that time the Alden Ocean Shell was one of the most popular rowing shells, and there were several with conventional rowing rigs entered in the race that day.  These were classified as "sliding-seat touring singles". 
 
Ron's boat, because of the unconventional rig, was placed in the "open" class, which started a few heats after the touring singles. Ron won the open class, and during the race, passed the entire fleet of touring singles, bettering the fastest by more than 7 minutes.
 
On that day, in the real-world conditions of a 22-mile open water race, competing with some of the best open water rowers in the country, the FrontRower™ proved its ability to outperform conventional rowing systems in the same boats.

Ron in Alden Ocean Shell