Fremont Rowers Prepare to Win the Windemere Cup

By Suzanne Ferris

From bow to stern: Chrissie Marshall, Barbara Smith, Nancy Otterholt, Karin Rogers, Penny Lewis, Suzi Jennings, Karen Bolin and AnneMarie Klinke. Coxswain is Ellen Lam.

What makes boats go fast? Is it equipment, experience or brute strength? What possessed Martha's Moms coach Denni Nessler to choose five women over sixty for the racing eight?

Because these five women--Chrissie Marshall, Barbara Smith, Penny Lewis, Karen Bolin and Annemarie Klinke--are good oarswomen possessing a skill set that provides not only strength, but emotional stability and stamina during a race. The five possess a staggering amount of cumulative race experience, having won medals recently at the 1998 Nike Master's World Games, U.S. Nationals and the Head of the Charles.

They'll be joined by Nancy Otterholt, Karin Rogers and Suzi Jennings, rowers in their forties. The eight is slated to race in the Masters Women's over 50 category on Opening Day. (One can row in the masters category once you reach 27.)

Martha's Moms is a group of 24 women that row out of Fremont's Lake Washington Rowing Club; they moved to Fremont recently from their longtime home in the Lakeside High School boathouse at the north end of Lake Washington.

Martha's Moms was founded 17 years ago by three women who had children in the rowing program at Lakeside and wanted to experience rowing themselves. The Moms had the support of Dan Ayrault, Lakeside's headmaster in 1984. Ayrault was a legendary oarsman who won two Olympic Gold Medals. With Stan Pocock and Martha Beattie as coaches, the group was destined to do well. Martha Beattie called it as she saw it, and this quality of being objective about who to boat for a race explains the cheerfulness of the group.

The Moms have a shared goal of remaining not only fit late into their lives, but also remaining truly competitive. All have balanced family life, careers and rowing three to four times per week for many years. The Moms are as diverse in their career choices as they are in their ages. Among the entire group of 24 rowers, you'll find teachers, an oncology nurse, an accountant, a ceramic artist, a banker and an exercise physiologist.

The intergenerational support to the younger Moms is heartfelt, and it manifests itself in everyone's daily behavior. No one whines about what seat they get in a boat or whether or not they are in a particular race. This attitude transcends what normally passes for just good manners. These older Moms have been successful and don't need to prove it to anyone. So the competition is for the glory of the club, and what it represents to the aging female athlete.

The subtle nature of the sport is personified not only by the interplay with the water and wind, but the interplay of the personalities in the eight. Each person works to their utmost so as to not let down the boat. The Moms seat race, which means each position is open to whomever is qualified to row it the best. This process involves switching people in and out of a given place in the boat and running 1,000 meters to see if the time improves. It is time-consuming, but Martha's Moms adhere to the motto: "You work hard, you get a seat."

The Moms chosen for the eight have rowed for 40 years cumulatively, and therefore have the technique down cold.

The new coach, Denni Nessler, was a pair partner with Sabina Telenska, the current stroke for the UW Women's Varsity Crew. Coxswain Ellen Lam recently coxed the Moms at the Head of the Charles.

Watch Martha's Moms compete for the Windemere Cup at 10:30 a.m., Saturday, May 6. The 2,000 meter race starts east of Foster Island and the finish line is the west end of Montlake Cut.

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