The contestants in the Rochester Annual Memorial Day Boat Race were awarded for their participation later in the evening on May 27 during an awards ceremony at Rochester Memorial School.
The very first race was 80 years ago, and 93 year-old Louise Watling has attended all but two of them, cheering on friends and family members, but never competing in the race.
“I like to watch the kids,” said Watling, who sat in the audience as her son, Vice President of Alewives Anonymous, assisted during the awards ceremony. “It’s a good hobby for them. It keeps them busy.”
She did, on occasion, take advantage of the cleared-out river route the day following the race in a canoe with her husband, she said, pointing out that she will be 94 this July.
This year there was a total of 65 teams who signed up for the race, and all but one crossed the finish line.
“There’s always one – or more,” said Boat Race Chairman Arthur Benner. This year, participants from all over the Southcoast, and some from Millbury, Plymouth, and Rhode Island, came out to race their homemade boats in the annual event that is one of Rochester’s best-known traditions.
Benner tossed out a few statistics to the crowd, saying that this year’s tallest competitor was six feet, eight inches. The shortest was 34 inches. The youngest was three years old, and the oldest, 63. The lightest contestant was 33 pounds, and the heaviest, 265 pounds.
Jonathan Hartley of West Wareham, 58, was deemed the 2014 “Old Man of the River,” and he placed 54th overall.
The Junior Boys Division winners, Jack Barrows and Matthew Brogioli, took first place this year for their third year in a row and received a plaque recognizing their accomplishment. This was the first time in the history of JB division that anyone has had three consecutive wins.
There was only a one-second difference between a near-tie, which Benner said was the closest the race has seen in a while.
After the awards were given out, there was a special raffle for participants in attendance in recognition of the 80th year since the tradition began.
“Now all the fish and geese and frogs can settle back into the river,” said Benner. “We’ll try to keep it going and see what we’ll do on the hundredth.”
By Jean Perry
