Our History.
The Open Water Rowing Center (OWRC) was founded by Shirwin Smith in 1985 with four heavy, early design open water shells. OWRC was one of many water-sports housed at Onshore Marine on Schoonmaker Point; shells, kayaks and wind surfers all shared the indoor storage (with pool table and hot tub) and launched from the beach.
For 20 years, OWRC’s affairs were guided and overseen by a Management Committee composed of volunteers. With the assent of members of the LLC, the OWRC Management Committee incorporated Open Water Rowing Center as a non-profit membership benefit corporation in 2020. The non-profit corporation, guided and overseen by directors elected by the membership, is set to be the vehicle for OWRC’s continued development of rowing on San Francisco Bay.
We actively seek to create a safe and inclusive community of rowers. We value and welcome diversity of racial and cultural identity and background, nationality, sexual and affectional orientation, religious background and/or belief systems, family structure, age, mental and physical health and ability. OWRC is listening, learning (and un-learning) in these times. We are committed to being part of the solution, not part of the problem.
The Boats & Boathouse
Less than a year after Shirwin created the club, the Onshore Marine building was demolished in preparation for construction of a new marina. OWRC moved a short distance south on the waterfront to the foot of Napa Street, next to the Gallilee Harbor houseboat community. After a long year and a half in tight, shared quarters, with temporary sheds for boat storage and where low tide meant no rowing, OWRC moved back to Schoonmaker Point and the new, spacious marina building.
1987 - at OWRC's temporary location while the Schoonmaker building was completed; Bill Berger, one of the very early members, has always made sure that the boathouse gets whatever woodworking it needs, from boat slings to oar washing racks to oar racks.
Our first ‘fleet’ of rowing boats!
1985: Our first home on the Bay!
That same year, OWRC – a huge fan of Maas shells – became a Maas Boat Company dealer. Maas shells at that time were a world apart from the other “recreational shells” used on open water; significantly lighter, more responsive and faster. In years that followed, Maas Boat Company regularly upped the ante; as soon as rowers mastered the newest shell design in even the roughest conditions, Chris Maas would be planning a new design that would push rowers’ skills to the next level.
Maas Boat Company in 1988, and Chris Maas checking electronics on Bill Berger's new Aero, set up for Catalina racing.
From the late 80s through the 1990s, OWRC expanded to two boathouses, storing over 100 shells and OWRC rowers became a frequent sight on the waters off southern Marin. A dedicated core of OWRC rowers regularly competed in – and often won – the West Coast long distance regattas: San Diego Bay to Bay, Catalina to Marina del Rey Rowing and Paddling Derby, Monterey Bay Cross Sound, and the Great Cross Sound Race in Seattle, as well as the popular Bay Area regattas – South End Club’s Bridge to Bridge, our own Open Ocean, Petaluma River and Tahoe. At the same time, OWRC also encouraged recreational rowing, introducing (and reintroducing) hundreds to the pleasures of rowing on the Bay.
