The Quinte Rowing Club traces its roots back to 1985. Scott
Withers, now with the Durham Rowing Club, had been employed
in 
the Brighton area, and approached ex-Olympian rower (Rome 1960)
Frank Zielski about starting a rowing club in the Quinte region.
In 1986, along with other individuals such as Frank Pinder,
efforts were made to acquire rowing shells and other equipment.
The new group eventually managed to secure the use of a former
bottling plant along the bayshore in Belleville, near the foot
of Herchimer street, from the City.
Gradually, through fundraising efforts, periodic infusions
of publicly available sources of funding, such as the Trillium
Foundation and Wintario, and the dedicated hard work of its
volunteer supporters, the club managed to increase the size
and quality if its fleet. Finally, in 1994 , the club was officially
incorporated as a non-profit Ontario corporation.
A major construction expansion was undertaken in 1996, with
a tremendous amount of volunteer time and labour involved. This
expansion added washroom and shower space for both male and
female rowers, a workshop bay, an indoor rowing training tank
a second storey exercise room with weights and rowing ergometers,
and a small office. Today, the club boasts a premier rowing
facility for Eastern Ontario and serves as a regional training
centre. Rowers from other clubs and even from the national junior
level, have used our facilities.
The club has always prided itself for its contributions to
the development of young rowing athletes. The spring high school
rowing programs attracts nearly 100 participants from area high
schools, and we have rowers that have gone on to Canadian National,
Canadian University as well as US NCAA levels of competition.
There is also a growing dimension to the sport in the adult
segment that engages in recreational touring events, as well
as adult masters competition.
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