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BRASS: Berkshire Rowing and Sculling Society Buying a rowing shell? Lew Cuyler’s biography of Ernestine Bayer
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Lew
Cuyler He was delighted and surprised
to find that the house he and Lew had done some single sculling on his own in college and welcomed the opportunity to resume the sport through the purchase of an old Alden ocean shell. At the time, there were only three or four scullers in the immediate area. In the next few years, he bought five used shells, some recreational, some racing, and began to compete seriously, finishing at or near the top in most races. By the time he reached 62 he had decided to take an early retirement from The Eagle, start a rowing club, sell rowing shells, and continue his writing career. The rowing club is now known as BRASS – the Berkshire Rowing And Sculling Society – a non-profit entity with about 50 members that re-habbed a building into a boathouse on Lake Onota. BRASS offers both sweep and sculling programs for younger and older rowers, men and women. Through his company, Berkshire Sculling Inc., Lew sells rowing shells for all abilities. He offers WinTech Expelorers, the wide hull and very stable Alden 16s and 18s and the Alden Quest for beginner and open water rowers and the faster Alden Stars, WinTech Explorers and Peinert Dolphins, also for open water and rough water rowers. In the racing shell category, Berkshire Sculling offers the Peinert 26, the Peinert X25, and, at the top of the line, the Levator Standard and Personal racers, and the Levator Torque. Lew is a member of U.S. Rowing, and the International Recreational and Open Water Rowing Association (IROW), a outgrowth of the former Alden Ocean Shell Association. Lew has also been a guest
coach at the Florida Rowing Center, near West Palm Beach, for the seasons
of 1999, 2004 and 2005. He has also coached BRASS rowers in single and
double sculls and has coached high school fours. In 2006 Lew won two gold medals in FISA world masters competition, one in the doubles and one in the mixed quad catergories.In 2007 and 2008, he won a golds in the mixed quad. “I received the gift of rowing when I was 15 years old. I had a career and family and wasn’t able to row until moving to Pittsfield,” he said. “Now I want to pass on this gift; hence the rowing club and rowing business. In the past 15 years I have introduced single sculling to hundreds of people.” Harriet, Lew’s wife
of 34 years, joins him in his enthusiasm for the sport. A nurse and exercise
physiologist, she has also coached extensively. She finished third at
the 2007 Head of the Charles women's race, ages 60-69
and also won 2 golds a the 2008 FISA World Masters Regatta in Lithuania.
Berkshire Sculling © 2010 Berkshire Sculling, All Rights Reserved
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his wife, Harriet, bought was only a mile from Lake Onota, a two-mile
long lake owned by the City of Pittsfield and the home water for the Williams
College crew.