Sometime while she was in art school, Kellee Adams started rowing in an 8-person whaleboat. For the unfamiliar, whaleboats are big, heavy wooden boats based on lifeboats from the 1930s and 40s. The boat Kellee competed in was named “Renegade,” and it was sponsored by local beer great Anchor Brewing. One day during training, Kellee spotted a tiny fiberglass boat – a newly designed open water MAAS scull – zipping by. “I was like; I am in the wrong boat,” she said.
From there she tracked down Shirwin Smith, the founder of OWRC. Kellee was 27 when she began working for Shirwin, and she’s been there ever since. “It was so exciting, and my excitement has never dwindled.” So exciting that Kellee got a design job in Sausalito so that she could row in the morning. Then she started competing and bought her first boat – a MAAS Aero. Then she moved onto a MAAS 24 followed by a MAAS Flyweight. Kellee rowed so much that she wore out her first Flyweight.
Kellee loves to impart wisdom about rowing, but it comes from a lifetime of learning. “It's a whole philosophy about how the boat runs. People think you pull the oars through the water. It's about unweighting the boat,” she said. The boat is set up so beautifully, she said. You just have to stay out of the way. Easier said than done.
She mentions some of the things OWRC rowers think about: There’s current. Flat water scullers are less concerned with the current or which way the wind is coming or how it's breaking on your boat. It's just so different. When to shorten and when to lengthen. It overlaps with traditional sculling but it's also very different.”
All images in the gallery above by Kellee Adams.
When she’s not in her Flyweight or on her paddleboard, Kellee is digging into the landscape and enjoying the natural world. With a nod to her art degree from California College of Arts, Kellee's also a fantastic photographer and many of OWRC's favorite photos on Instagram and the OWRC website are hers. Kellee's appreciation of Sausalito is palpable. It’s what puts us closer to nature in our lives. “We are right in the elements, and it makes the experience so dimensional.”