Renewal Of Regatta Proposed Once-Popular Crew Races May Return To Coeur D’Alene
Decades after a popular crew regatta on Lake Coeur d’Alene fizzled out during the Great Depression, an Eastern Washington sports promoter is trying to bring the event back to life.
Mark Sansom, head of Safari Design Group in Yakima, said if all goes as planned, 200 rowers and more than 2,000 spectators will descend on North Idaho next April. Sansom said area college teams have responded enthusiastically to the two-day Olympic-style races, which he said also might attract rowers from the eastern United States.
“This is the type of event that Coeur d’Alene could use to market the community,” Sansom said. “When you say Kentucky, you think of the Derby. When you say Bloomsday, people think of Spokane. Someday, the Coeur d’Alene Regatta could become synonymous with North Idaho.”
Rowing regattas were an important part of Lake Coeur d’Alene life in the first third of the 20th century. The sport was so popular that a permanent grandstand for 12,000 spectators was erected near Tubbs Hill in 1914, and the regatta attracted upward of 20,000 fans during its peak, Sansom said.
The last regatta was held in 1933. It was disbanded due to the era’s financial woes.
Next spring’s renewal would be held in the calm water just west of Wolf Lodge Bay. Higgens Point would be used as a staging area, and college teams, masters-division rowers, and crew clubs would use the former Interstate 90 route to park their boat trailers.
Sansom is expected to meet with the Kootenai County Parks Department’s waterways committee on Tuesday. Committee member Sandy Daniels said that while the regatta is nearly a year away, an event like this is complicated and difficult to organize.
“There’s just so much pre-planning that has to go on,” Daniels said.
Kootenai County sheriff’s Sgt. Dan Soumas said Sansom has been working with the marine division to make sure all necessary permits for the event have been obtained. While Sansom is confident the regatta will happen, he said final approval of the project by the parks department hinges on a number of things.
“Basically, they are concerned that there are enough safety and security provisions both on shore and on the water,” he said, adding that the regatta still needs between $60,000 and $90,000 in sponsorships.
Safari Design Group already has enlisted the help of The Coeur d’Alene Resort, which has pledged some discounted and complimentary rooms during the event for both participants and officials.
Hagadone Marketing’s Patricia Deitch said the race would be resurrecting what once was one of North Idaho’s seasonal highlights.
“I definitely believe it would be something that would define springtime in Coeur d’Alene,” Deitch said. “It would give an earlier kickoff to a season that normally begins Memorial Day weekend.”
She said that both the men’s and women’s crew teams from Washington State University and Gonzaga University have committed to the event. Officials with those teams were in Sacramento, Calif., at a race and couldn’t be reached for comment.
The North Idaho College crew club adviser, Martin Stacy, said he’s hopeful the school can field a team but that it typically doesn’t begin practicing until April, about the time of the planned regatta. This year, the NIC team’s practice has been delayed by high water until next week at the earliest.
But Stacy said that he was excited about the prospects of an event like this returning to Lake Coeur d’Alene.
“It’s a great alternative to jetskiing,” he said. “There’s a tranquil quality to Lake Coeur d’Alene that needs to be rediscovered.”
xxxx Luncheon Organizers for the Coeur d’Alene Regatta are hosting a luncheon forum at The Coeur d’Alene Resort Conference Center on June 3 beginning at noon. The luncheon is aimed at soliciting sponsors and other support for the event.