Friends of Rensselaer Rowing       www.forr.org : Needs                

All donations for Crew should be made directly to RPI Crew, Rensselaer Union, Troy NY 12180.

Our financial mission is to serve as a funnel for donations. Our goal is to organize alumi and friends and encourage them to donate to Crew as groups.

Needs, some sooner, some later.

Two Coxed Fours- $11000 each- Currently Crew only owns one 4+, a 1993 Vespoli Performer. As the only 4+, the boat has seen extensive use and is in pretty rough shape. Our goal is to purchase one each for the men and women.

Cox-Boxes- $535 each- On the Hudson in the Spring, a Cox-Box is not a luxury item. Being able to clearly hear a coxswain not only makes a boat faster, it makes the boat safer.

Used Eights- $5000 to $7000 each- Crew currently owns three older eights for novices and, with the addition of the new Robison 8+, two newer eights for the varsity. With an annual influx of approximately sixty novices, there is a large amount of demand for older boats for the novices to learn and race in for their novice season. The coaches have also expressed a desire to have all of the novices practice together, something that just can't be done with only three novice eights. We want to get boats that are new enough that they wont turn in to a maintenance nightmare in a year or two, but old enough that they are relatively inexpensive.

Two Launches and Motors- $5000 each- Once Crew has enough eights to put all of the novices on the water at once, they will need more launches and motors to maintain a safe coach to rower ratio. To permit this, they will need at least two more launches and motors.

More Eights- $20000 each- The 1996 Racer and the new Robison (a 2002 Racer) will not last forever. Eventually they will need to be used by "JV" or "2nd Varsity" crews and the Varsity replaced with newer boats. The 1996 Racer is fast approaching this point.