From The Editor: May, 2025

Setting out to row 9,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean unsupported takes courage, among other things. The Maclean brothers, as chronicled by Terry Galvin, beginning on page 38 of the May issue of Rowing News, developed that courage by bravely taking to the waters off their native Scotland as boys, as well as conquering the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. Their current challenge, rowing from South America to Australia, will develop their courage further—as long as it doesn’t kill them.

For rowers across North America, especially the youngest and least experienced, taking to the water with boatmates to race this spring requires bravery, too—the bravery to line up against peers from rival schools and clubs and push themselves beyond their assumed limits, opening an exhilarating sense of what’s possible through exertion, resiliency, and a practiced tolerance for physical pain and mental strain found in few other pursuits in life.

Win or lose, through the competitive adversity to which they and their boatmates subject themselves, they’ll become stronger, more experienced, and a bit more courageous for having been brave enough to line up at the start and match their training, teamwork, and effort against rivals doing the same. Each will suffer, and only one boat will win, but all will come out of the race changed, improved, and better prepared for the next race.

Rowing News celebrates the winners, recognizes excellence in our sport, and, we hope, inspires the rowing community we serve. Most crews get to do it again next weekend, and then, all too soon, the last championship weekend arrives and the final speed order is determined on the racecourse—as it should be.

Little in life will be defined so clearly as the results of a regatta, but every rower will lead a better life from having had the bravery to develop courage in a boat.