2008 Reunion Row, June 8

The Practice

On Saturday, June 7, the classes will get a chance to practice on the Charles, in 7 AM and 8:15 AM time slots. Please let us know in advance so the time slots are balanced.

The Race

During the Reunion, June 8, 2008 alumni will compete by reunion class to claim first, second, and third place medals. In the previous Reunion Row in 2003, the class of 1963 edging out two other teams, '73 and the combined classes of '68, '58, and '53 who tied for second place. Final times were 1963: 1:02.5, 1973 and 1968/58/53: 1:03.5... For details see elsewhere on this site.  The competition begins at 7:30 a.m.

The Challenge

The Row consists of two heats, a qualifying heat and a final heat, using eight-man shells. Both heats begin at the near side of the Harvard Bridge and end at the far side of the boathouse pier. All boats compete with a handicap of 1.5 seconds for every five years out.

We expect at least one boat each for ‘53 thru ‘03. Earlier classes do not row, but are encouraged to organize to cheer and/or organize a class crew luncheon. Some classes will try to field separate lightweight and heavyweight boats. Others may have separate men’s and women’s boats. There will be one or more "pickup" eights for 5 years classes without multiples of 9 folks present.  There will also be "pickup" eights for non-reunion alums that want to row. 

We encourage all alums to attend regardless of their graduation year and regardless of whether they are capable of going out in an eight.  Let’s see if we can break the record turnout of thirteen boats in 2005.

Get Psyched!

Brad Layton '92 leads the 2007 MIT Reunion Row attendees in the MIT Fight Song

At this time we are recruiting reunion row captains who will help organize each class   Please contact me, Ron Young, if you would like to know more about what this task involves.  I have posted a toolkit of advice. 

Document for Organizing Reunion Rows

Members of 5 year Reunion Classes communicate with their class’s reunion row captain, mostly by email. For a sample of past communications see:

Edited EMail trail documenting the 2003 Reunion Row(38 page PDF file)

They can then start planning boat-seating assignments.  If there is interest, the reunion row captain could incorporate a practice row and/or crew luncheon.

We expect to have practice row opportunities on Saturday morning before the Row, from 7am - 8:15am and  from 8:15am - 9:30am, scheduled on a first-come-first-served basis. Boats and time slots are in short supply, so the advantage is to the best organized.   Most winning crews had participated in practices.