Cal-Sag Canal Beats Out Crystal Lake for University Regatta

It looks as if the Gay Games Regatta was not a prelude to Crystal Lake becoming a big time venue for crewing.

The Chicago Tribune reported 9 days ago that the Cal-Sag Canal will be the site of a Southland Regatta today. It will take place at Fay’s Point, a condominium and marina being developed on the canal.

Universities from which some 300 women rowers will participate are Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Notre Dame and Wisconsin.

The comment from Blue Island Mayor Donald Peloquin sounds so much like Crystal Lake Mayor Aaron Shepley’s boosterism, which included willingness to consider excavating one end of Crystal Lake or the other or, maybe, both to make it long enough for Olympic regattas.

Here’s what Shepley told the Northwest Herald:

” If it even became remotely possible, I’d be tickled to tackle that one. That sounds like the closest thing to reality.”

Here’s what the Blue Island mayor said:

“It’s especially gratifying to see our river become an outstanding recreational resource for these athletes and the community at large.”

Of course, the West End would have to be dredged to 3 meters—about the depth when I was the only early morning fisherman on the lake the summer of 1958, which is doable—and the lake would have to be lengthened about 100 meters.

Was Shepley thinking about sacrificing the homes on the west end of Crystal Lake or the recenty re-modeled Crystal Lake Beach House to make the lake long for an Olympic race?

Races on the Cal-Sag Canal Sunday will be 2,000 meter and 3-miles. Crystal Lake is about 1¼ mile long.

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The top photo is from the Gay Games Regatta. The bottom two are from the high school regatta held this past May 5th. Upper Arlington, Ohio, won this race. All pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them.


Comments

Cal-Sag Canal Beats Out Crystal Lake for University Regatta — 3 Comments

  1. Cal,
    You need to drop by one of our board meetings (1st Wed. of the month, 6:30, upstairs at Duke O’Brien’s) and find out what’s really going on with the rowing program on Crystal Lake.
    Crystal Lake wasn’t “beat out” as the site for the regatta because there was never a contest. And the Chicago area has other rowing venues. Besides the Cal-Sag there’s the Rock River (Rockford Rowing Club), the North Branch of the Chicago River (Dammrich Rowing Center) and the Chicago river (Lincoln Park Juniors et al.).
    And it will have no effect on Crystal Lake’s future as a rowing venue. The Greater Chicago Junior Rowing Championship will still be held there next year. Rochester Junior Rowing and Culver Academy are interested in a tri-meet with CLRC Juniors, again. And I believe Marquette, Notre Dame and Northwestern are still interested in racing on Crystal Lake too.
    The next time you want to blog on rowing feel free to drop us a line at info@crystallakerowing.org. We’d be happy to answer any of your questions and fill you in on what’s really happening with rowing on Crystal Lake.

    Regards,
    Ted Pounds, CLRC Director for Juniors

  2. Point taken. Crystal Lake was not in the running.

    I did get some pictures of rainy day rowers within the last month.

    There were more of them than fishermen, I think.

  3. Cal,
    Regarding my invite to our BOD meeting. Just wanted to let know we moved this month’s to Monday the 12th because too many of our board members are out of town today (Wed.).

    Regards,
    Ted Pounds, CLRC Director for Juniors

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