BALANCE PURSUITS
COURTESY OF NORTH PALM BEACH ROWING CLUB
SHIP SHAPE
KEEPING PACE WITH THE NORTH PALM BEACH ROWING CLUB BY SKYE SHERMAN
You can’t watch George Clooney’s 2023 biographical sports drama, The Boys in the Boat, without googling local rowing clubs and seriously considering membership. PBI asked Jock Merriam, co-founder of the North Palm Beach Rowing Club, for a rundown on rowing and his own club. (npbrc.com)
of force, all while remaining perfectly balanced and without impact or torsion. Not only is it a glamorous and long-standing Olympic sport, it’s a way you can stay active for life and a pathway for many kids to good universities across the country; our little club is well represented across the Ivy
COURTESY OF BIRSE/THOMAS
PBI: Share a bit about the North Palm Beach Rowing Club (NPBRC). Merriam: We were established in 2007 as part of an initiative to bring rowing to a charter school for adjudicated kids, Palm Beach Marine Institute, where I was a board member. The school eventually closed, [but] the club remained in place and has been active ever since as a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit community organization. We provide direct access to the Intracoastal Waterway for human-powered watercraft, and our service offerings include learn-to-row classes, private lessons, and rowing and fitness programs for youth, adults, university and visiting rowers and teams, corporate and institutional groups, veterans and disabled athletes, recreational rowing enthusiasts, and the general public. Why are you passionate about rowing? At 77, I don’t feel old (yet) but statistically I am. Staying fit has been a lifelong goal, and rowing allows you to bring the power of virtually every muscle in your body through maximum exertion
Jock Merriam (above, left, and pictured below with youth competitor Lara Jones), co-founder of the North Palm Beach Rowing Club, participates in and advocates for the sport. Bottom left: a rendering of the club’s new permanent boathouse in Bert Winters Park.
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League, West Coast elite schools, and many other top academic institutions across the states. You’re never too old to give it a try. Plus, the scenery changes after every stroke, as does one’s attitude. What’s next for the NPBRC? We are currently fundraising and building a permanent boathouse inside the same park we operate from now, Bert Winters Park. This will be a landmark not just for the club but for the county writ large. It provides enormous benefits to the club and all our constituents and will be a magnificent structure—net-zero, LEED-certified, and able to house a fleet of 50-plus rowing shells. It also allows for indoor training, locker rooms, and coaching offices for the crew program and provides a home to partner not-for-profit groups serving disabled veterans/para-rowers and breast cancer survivors. Any rowing success stories out of the NPBRC that you can share? We have had great success with our youth program over the last year. Our girls U-17 double won the national championship in 2023, then placed fourth in 2024 as they rowed up an age category (U-19), even though they were still U-17. Our U-19 men’s pair also finished fourth this year. Both, along with other youth rowers, won state and regional medals en route to nationals. One of our adult members has won the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston several times.
PALM BEACH ILLUSTRATED
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9/30/24 3:43 PM