The Village Community Boathouse (or VCB) is a

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

-based nonprofit dedicated to promoting rowing, boat building, environmental stewardship and human-powered recreational boating on the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

and the New York Estuary. VCB is entirely run by volunteers and financed by donations and modest membership fees. The organization is the only one in New York City providing public rowing in the

. Free rowing session are offered usually two or three times a week, mostly in the warmer months from April to October, weather permitting. VCB is located within the

Hudson River Park Hudson River Park is a waterfront park on the North River (Hudson River) that extends from 59th Street south to Battery Park in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The park, a component of the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway, stretches and ...

at the south side of

Pier 40 Pier 40 (officially known as Pier 40 at Hudson River Park) is a parking garage, sports facility, and former marine terminal at the west end of Houston Street in Manhattan, New York, within Hudson River Park. It is home to the New York Knight ...

, which is at the intersection of West Houston and West Street. The boathouse also organizes and attends, chiefly for and with its members, rowing competitions and races. Youth and alumni races are held yearly in the fall. Once a year there is a Row Around Manhattan where most of their boats get launched and members and sponsors set out to circumnavigate the 30 miles around Manhattan. That events doubles as the annual fundraiser.

History

Mike Davis was the founder of Floating the Apple, the first organisation dedicated to making the waters around New York City accessible to the public. The boathouse along with a few others grew out of his efforts. One of the leading members of the boathouse, Rob Buchanan, is quoted in Mr Davis obituary as saying: “Mike had a kind of Johnny Appleseed vision in which Floating the Apple would spawn a series of spinoff boathouses ....”

Programs

Among several youth and education related programs are the rowing and navigation classes that the boathouse offers in cooperation with the

New York Harbor School The Urban Assembly New York Harbor School, also called the Harbor School, is a public high school located on Governors Island. This school is unique in New York City, which has of waterfront, in that it attempts to relate every aspect of its curr ...

for their students. In addition to Pier 40, VCB also runs a public rowing branch in

Prospect Park lake Prospect Park is an urban park in Brooklyn, New York City. The park is situated between the neighborhoods of Park Slope Park Slope is a neighborhood in northwestern Brooklyn, New York City, within the area once known as South Brooklyn. ...

and since 2016 boatbuilding classes at

Brooklyn Bridge Park Brooklyn Bridge Park is an park on the Brooklyn side of the East River in New York City. Designed by landscape architecture firm Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, the park is located on a plot of land from Atlantic Avenue in the south, und ...

during the summer months. In 2016 a 14-foot-long Whitehall rowboat was built in bi-weekly and weekend boatbuilding sessions.

Recognition

The organization has been recognized with the 2014 Village Award by the

Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation Village Preservation (formerly the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, or GVSHP) is a non-profit organization which advocates for the preservation of architecture and culture in several neighborhoods of Lower Manhattan, New York. ...

for “connecting us to the waterways – those vital waterways that are so important to the history and development of Greenwich Village and all of New York City. The Village Community Boathouse is awarded a Village Award for its unique and accessible way of connecting the Village to the Hudson River, and New Yorkers with our maritime history".

References

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External links

Village Community Boathouse
Environmental organizations based in New York City Non-profit organizations based in New York City Water organizations in the United States Organizations based in New York City Organizations established in 2008 Hudson River Community organizations Hudson River Park 2008 establishments in New York (state) West Village Education in New York City Water transportation in New York City Rowing in the United States