About the NRC
The Nelson Rowing Club is a community rowing center in the southern interior of British Columbia.
The NRC’s boathouse and dock are situated alongside the West Arm of Kootenay Lake at Lakeside Rotary Park. Our rowers enjoy easy access to many kilometers of pristine water from this location.
Our History
The Nelson Rowing Club was loosely formed in the late 1870’s. Rowers along with members of the Nelson community built a large floating boathouse at the foot of Josephine St. in 1896. This boathouse established the NRC as one of the first registered rowing clubs in BC.
During this era Nelson rowers competed successfully at regattas throughout the Pacific Northwest in the NPAAO circuit.
In 1939 the NRC boathouse was badly damaged during a severe winter storm. This, coupled with the event of the second world war, contributed to the club’s decline. The boathouse survived in a damaged state until the mid 1950’s when it was dismantled and the club was forced to close.
In the latter half of the 1960’s the club was revived under the leadership of Hank Barone and a second floating boathouse was built at the far end of the Kootenay Launch Club. In 1971 Nelson hosted the rowing trials of the Canadian team selection for the Pan Am Games. With a loss of leadership in the mid 1980’s the club entered another dormant period in its history.
In 1987 Dominique Preney, a former French national team rower, began the work of rejuvenating the club. Preney promoted the sport locally and enlisted the support of Rowing BC to re-establish interest. The NRC became a registered non-profit society in 1989. In 1990 their boathouse was destroyed beyond use by harsh weather and Preney facilitated a relocation to Lakeside Park where the club took up residence in an unused portion of the City’s public bath house. NRC membership grew steadily throughout the 1990’s. By the end of that decade they had outgrown their temporary space and began to lobby for a new building.
The new boathouse project was led by Maurice de St.Jorre who joined the club in 1993. Newly retired from a career as an engineer in the mining industry, Maurice dedicated hundreds of volunteer hours to the goal of creating a new land-based home for the NRC. He was deeply involved in all aspects of that vision, from designing the building plan to securing grants and organizing funds. Maurice liaised with the City of Nelson and the Province of British Columbia to establish a site for the building and legal permits for use of a dock adjacent to the clubhouse. The new boathouse was constructed by LVR Secondary School’s shop class under the guidance of their teacher Dave Afford. The building was roughly finished in 2001 and the ramp and dock were put in place the following year. Maurice was an active rower with the NRC well into his 8th decade.
Dominique Preney continues to invest his time and energy with the club as a board member, coach, head of maintenance and mentoring oarsman.
The Nelson Rowing Club continues to operate as a volunteer run organization with a healthy membership and an ever expanding inventory of equipment.
Did You Know?
Nelson is the hometown of Lorne Loomer who rowed with his UBC 4- crew in the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia. Their boat won the gold medal race ahead of all contenders by a distance of 200m. Their victory was the first gold medal performance by a Canadian rowing team in the history of Olympic competition. Lorne Loomer and his crew mates were inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1957.