Competitive crew

A number of Jewish Pittsburgh rowers are finding success in the sport of crew competition at the regional, national and even international levels, while helping to spur interest in the sport here.
Nearly a third of the team representing Pittsburgh at a recent invitational regatta in Boston, in which they finished in fourth place, were Jewish.
Competing in the Cambridge Boat Club Invitational Relay Regatta on Boston’s Charles River were Maureen Kelly Busis, Herb Cohen, Jackie Goldblum, Steve Irwin, Toby Yanowich and coxswain Sonya Berkovitz. They are members of the Three Rivers Rowing Association’s Men’s and Women’s Masters Teams, which were invited to participate by the regatta’s sponsor, the Cambridge Boat Club.
During the race, teams of 20 men and women raced five relay legs totaling 14 miles in approximately an hour and a half. Boat classes included eight and four-oared coxed sweep boats, and quadruple and double sculls. This is the only event of its kind in the United States.
The course is long and technically demanding, with teams racing downstream to turning stakes and back, for a total of two miles for the smaller boats, and four miles for the larger boats.

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