About Us
The History
In 1989, Thomas Wright, III, helped launch the Cape Fear River Rowing Club (CFRRC) by providing the first modern boathouse on waterfront property. Ten years later, the property at the foot of Nun Street was sold to make way for residential development and the club sought a new location. Upon learning of their predicament, Bill Kaylor, owner of the Pointe Harbor Marina offered CFRRC waterfront access and eventually built and leased a building to use as a boathouse. In the spring of 2009, CFRRC moved its sculling facility to the Wilmington Marine Center (WMC). The club’s relocation was completed when the sweep boats and launch dock were moved to WMC at the beginning of 2010. The boathouse was named the Jana C. Moore Boathouse in 2023, dedicated to our fellow rower Jana Moore.
Rowing on the Cape Fear
Rowing in the Cape Fear area is a time-honored sport. This Wilmington Star newspaper article appeared May 29, 1875 and expressed the benefits of rowing, as true today as they were then:
A rowing club for our city is the newest. Our suggestion made a few days ago has met with the endorsement of several gentlemen, great lovers of the art of rowing, who appear to see more fascination in a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether than in the excitement of a yacht race and the consequent anticipation of an imperative order to jump out, climb on the bottom and hurrah for help. There really seems to be sufficient material in our city for such a club. It will add much to the variety of the aquatic sports in our section, besides the benefits that will be derived from rowing, which is a healthful, invigorating exercise. We have often thought, while paddling a canoe along the serpentine course of Alligator Creek, in search of new worlds to conquer, that if it was only reduced to a science, how much better it would be. The rowing club will, we think, be a favored institution, as combining pleasure and healthful exercise.
– get in touch –
Have a Question?
If you have any questions or would like to get in touch, please feel free to contact us at info@capefearriverrowing.org and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
Location:
The Cape Fear River Rowing Club is located at Wilmington Marine Center (WMC) at 3410 River Road, Wilmington, NC 28412 . WMC offers a gated secure location for our rowers. It is situated 1.4 miles south of the State Port main gate, off River Road.