This event is amazing in and of itself. But we were fortunate enough to have Anezka Sebek, when not rowing, shoot video of the on the water rowing by many of the participants in the amazing Whitehall boats. It is a tribute to the stability of the Whitehall and, the stabilizer in her cell phone, the Samsung S22, (and, of course, she’s a VERY good videographer!). The Samsungs have advanced Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), which physically adjusts the camera lens or sensor to compensate for unintentional movements, producing videos that have a professional and generally blur-free result.

You will seldom see footage of rowers in these boats because, well, most of the time they are ROWING! The best they can do is take still shots of places and rowers. By watching this powerpoint video you can learn a lot about rowing traditional boats, using traditional thole pin oar locks, in sweep propulsion (the four rowers each row with two hands —most of the time— on one oar).

The Whitehall was designed to handle the turbulence on the waters of Hudson Harbor in the early history of Manhattan. It needed to be fast and stable. As you will see in these video sequences, these boats are just that. So, get over to Village Community Boathouse and jump into one any Sunday at noon! Try it for yourself. You won’t regret it!