All-Girls · City Island · New York
Small by design.
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Small by design.
Fast on purpose.
A close-knit, all-girls rowing club where everybody knows everyone's name — and the results speak for themselves.
A close-knit, all-girls rowing club where everybody knows everyone's name — and the results speak for themselves.
Sister groups, mixed boats, alumnae who come back — and every senior knowing every new rower's name within her first week. None of it works at 200 athletes. That's not a limitation. It's the mechanism. And it produces girls who row in college, stay healthy, and love the sport.
Twelve hours, spent well — and regionally and nationally competitive.That's the standard, and that's the strategy.
"Nobody else in New York gets to warm up like this."
Eleven weeks of training and six race days, from Schenectady to the Head of the Charles. This is the one we wait all year for.
Register on RegattaCentral
Registered athletes: please complete payment in full by Sunday, September 13.
Fall is a glorious time to row — easily the best rowing of the school year. The water is warm and far calmer than spring, and the sunsets over Long Island Sound are absolutely spectacular. Winter is hard work indoors, and spring brings challenging weather and a race-focused intensity. Fall is the season to fall in love with rowing.
The work of the season is technique: finding the rhythm and harmony that make really great crews seem to move effortlessly. Practices are miles and miles of technical steady-state — low-intensity work that builds a fitness base and engrains great technique, stroke after stroke, in golden light.
And the racing is generous. Six race days from Schenectady to Boston to our own Halloween Throwdown, down long courses lined with trees in full foliage change — without the championship pressure of spring. New to us and still curious? Your athlete is welcome to try the first week of the season — just reach out.
This week, at practice. Nobody else in New York warms down like this.
| Squad | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U19 | 4:00–6:30 pm | 4:00–6:30 pm | 5:30–7:00 am | 4:00–6:30 pm | 7:00–10:00 am |
| U17 | 4:00–6:30 pm | 4:00–6:30 pm | — | 4:00–6:30 pm | 7:00–10:00 am |
| U16 | — | 5:30–7:15 pm | 5:00–7:00 pm | 5:30–7:15 pm | 9:30–11:30 am |
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, U19 and U17 move indoors 5:45–6:30 pm for a focused erg piece or lift. U19 athletes add two 30-minute steady-state cardio pieces on their own each week; U17 add two 20-minute pieces. Westchester athletes are encouraged to arrive early for a pre-practice run or erg.
Attendance matters. The calendar above makes room for planning around it — please use it. Lineups are built around who's coming, so every practice counts toward race eligibility. Running late? Text your coach so lineups can adjust — boats sometimes leave the dock for the Hutchinson River and can't be joined mid-practice. Hi-viz: as the evenings darken, hi-viz outer layers become required at practice — U16 from 9/17, U17 and U19 from 10/11.
| Date | Event | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Sun 9/13 | Parent information meeting — Zoom, 8:00 pm | All families |
| Sun 9/20 | Apple picking, Harvest Moon Orchard | Athletes & families |
| Sun 9/27 | Mohawk Invitational — Scotia, NY | U19 · U17 · one U16 8+ |
| Sun 10/4 | Head of the Passaic — Rutherford, NJ | All squads |
| 10/16–18 | Head of the Charles — Boston, MA | 1V8+ only |
| Sun 10/25 | Head of the Fish — Saratoga Springs, NY | All squads |
| Sat 10/31 | Halloween Throwdown — City Island | All squads |
| Sun 11/8 | PITY Cup — Port Washington | All squads |
Overnight regattas include a team hotel night — athlete accommodation is already organized, so there's nothing for parents to book. Details go out by email before each trip. Note: no practice club-wide over the Head of the Charles trip (10/16 – 18).
Families here plan far ahead — so here is the entire 2026–27 rowing year, in one place, now.
*Youth Nationals: qualified crews only — top four at States. Canadian Henley eligibility requires training through July.
A closer look at every season Regatta guide for families
Spring is championship season. An athlete who travels during it hurts her crew's ability to train and perform — so plan holidays for Thanksgiving, the winter holiday break, and the second half of February break. And an honest tip from the coach: summer is the best rowing of the year, and ironically the season most people skip. Row July. Travel in August.
Racing and standardized testing can coexist — it just takes the calendar you're looking at. SAT and ACT dates this year: Sep 19 (ACT), Oct 3 (SAT), Oct 17 (ACT — Head of the Charles weekend for the 1V8+), Nov 7 (SAT), Dec 5 (SAT), Dec 12 (ACT), Feb 27 (ACT), Mar 6 (SAT), Apr 10 (ACT), May 1 (SAT), and Jun 5 / Jun 12 (SAT / ACT — Nationals window). And a quiet mercy of the modern calendar: most regattas that fall on a test weekend now run on the Sunday, so true conflicts are rarer than they used to be.
The official Boathouse team shop opens Tuesday 9/1 and closes 9/5 — it will not reopen until the end of winter, so order the splash jacket (it's navy, whatever the photo suggests) plus leggings and long sleeve now. Racing uni orders also close 9/5. Everyday CIR merch is available year-round on SquadLocker — and every ordering link lives on the Fall Master Spreadsheet, emailed to families.
Long Island Sound, the Hutchinson River, long rows to the Throggs Neck Bridge — and a boathouse on an island in New York City.
Rowing worldwide is moving from experience-based labels — novice, JV, varsity — to age-based classification, and City Island Rowing is embracing it. Under the old system, a girl who started in 7th grade was, by 9th, lining up against seniors — a ninth-grader still waiting on her growth spurt, racing fully grown women. That was never fair. Now every athlete trains with her own age group and races the field she belongs in.
Where rowers are made. Skills, watermanship, and racing from the first season — whether she's rowed a week or three years.
Inside U16 →
The bridge year. Bigger engines, sharper technique — and for athletes on trajectory, invitations to train and race up.
Inside U17 →
The 1V and 2V. The most volume, the fastest boats, the biggest races — the pinnacle of the high-school rowing experience.
Inside U19 →Movement between squads is fluid and earned — ability, mindset, physicality, and trajectory against proven metrics. High-performing U17 athletes are already training in the U19 block, and an athlete can race a U17 and a U19 event at the same regatta. The pathway is stated out loud, because that's what makes it a program rather than a favor.
Rowing is an incredibly expensive sport, and we strive to make sure that our athletes have the training and race equipment they need to be regionally and nationally competitive.
100% of your donation goes to our Capital Equipment Fund, and as a 501(c)(3), all donations are fully tax deductible. We would be so grateful for your support.
