Copyright The Boston Globe
For members, though, it’s not so much about winning and losing but about the experiences they share in the Community Rowing Boathouse, in Brighton, and during the crisp mornings on the water testing their endurance in the physically demanding sport. The mastermind of the team is Catherine Saarela, a coach at Community Rowing, which hosts programs for people of all ages and abilities. She was inspired by the example of her father, an octogenarian who swims. “I had seen birth dates of some of my rowers on one of my rosters, and I thought, ‘Oh I have octogenarians, wouldn’t it be really cool to put together an octogenarian eight,’” she said. The team, now in its fourth year, has grown beyond Saarela’s expectations, with more than 12 rowers attending practices. Oftentimes as adults age, she said, their social circles shrink, creating isolation. Coming together as a team, training, singing, and rowing expands their community. “This is a situation where, for a lot of these rowers, their friends’ circle has diminished,” Saarela said. “[It’s] just a natural sequence of life. I feel so fortunate that they’re my friends.” On a cool Sunday morning several weeks before the regatta, the sun peeked over the trees and glistened on the Charles as a group of eight rowers piled into a boat to start their practice. Soon their oars were cutting through the cool water in perfect synchronicity. Unlike other rowing groups, this team only got together three times to practice before taking on one of the most famous regattas. While they do not make the qualifying time for the Head of Charles, the team registers as a charity boat, raising money for Community Rowing. Bill Becklean, 89, brings a professional’s energy to the team. He has been rowing for 75 years, beginning while attending Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. “I weighed just 80 pounds so I ended up a coxswain,” Becklean recalled, referring to the crew member who directs the boat. He later rose to fame when the Yale University eight boat he coxswained won gold in the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, granting Becklean the title of medalist on a global stage. Now, on the Charles River, he directed the boat of octogenarians as he did years ago in the Olympics. “All together now,” Becklean called out as the team completed a sprint down the river during the end of their recent practice, the last one before the regatta. Ed Wertheim, 81, a professor at Northeastern University’s business school, has been rowing for over 40 years. He said that one day he was driving down busy Storrow Drive and saw rowers out on the water. “I thought, ‘I need to try that,’” he said. Since then, he has been rowing. Like many of the other rowers, Wertheim said he enjoys the physical challenge and camaraderie of his fellow rowers, but also the blissful diversion from everyday life. “At times when you’re rowing down [the Charles] you can’t see a road. It’s like you’re in the country,” he said. When the team finishes a sprint down the river during practice, their rowing comes to a halt and the coxswain’s call quiets, but a different sound fills the chilly morning air. As the team relaxes and drinks some water, one of the rowers, Andy Anderson, starts singing the lyrics to his song “Cruising down the River,” which he wrote specifically for the Octogenarian 8. Just like when they are rowing, the team members stay in sync as they sing the lyrics: “We like rowing the Charles Coach Catherine is there to help It’s legs, back, arms and arms, back, and leg Each stroke is a work of art As we cruise down the river on a Sunday afternoon.”
