Oarsmen Eleven Rowing Club : Castleton NY 12033

Castleton on Hudson New York 12033 is a small village located about five miles south of the State Capitol of Albany. In it's hay day , Castleton was a small but busy river port and train stop. Those days are long gone of course. At present there is a Castleton Boat Club located on the river. But at one point for a few yrs there was a rowing club that made it's nominal home in that town. The name was Oarsmen Eleven Rowing Club. So named because of the original 11 members. I was one of them. We did not row sculls but had a 16 ft ocean going life boat built in the 60's by the Boston Whaler company. Four could row one on the tiller. Sort of like rowing " The Eights ." By the way I had upon occasion rowed the eights in my junior yr of High School. Hence that is how I was drafted into our society , from past acquaintance. Hello Tim Matheson where you now might be. Anyway my first trek was what we hoped was to be our annual early morning float down. We started near Troy at about 4:45 am and traveled down the river starting in the dark. Perhaps we were trying to prove we were tough. But it was about 17 above zero and we were freezing our asses off. Though I must say Albany never looked better than in that early morning light. Still we were overjoyed to land in the Papscanee Island Preserve area get the boat out and get warm. We went out to breakfast at the East Greenbush Diner after the team was reassembled. We all agreed that of maiden voyage was fun but not to be an annual event. Jesus it was cold. By the way brandy did help. So the club pretty much was a late spring to mid fall affair. We stored the boat in back of 110 Scott Avenue and took turns on use. The club was in existence from 1994 untill 1999. A few new members were added along the way but as we went deeper into middle age interest became less. Plus our wives grew tired of it as well.The boat ended up in 06037 and last time I heard went next to Croton /Harmon N.Y. For a while the club rowed the river from below the Castleton Thruway Bridge to near the Port of Albany and back again. Oarsmen Eleven.