Choppy Waters for Spring Regatta

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Check out the choppy waters of the Rocketts Landing Collegiate Regatta from Sunday in this great Times-Dispatch video.

“High Winds led to choppy rough waters,” said the reporter, Jeremy Slayton.

Crew Time

Thursday, March 26, 2009

In an effort to kick off the spring season, the Virginia Boat Club and Rocketts Landing will host Richmond’s first – and only – major collegiate regatta. 

The inaugural Rocketts Landing Collegiate Regatta will be held March 29th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and it will feature club crew teams from schools all around Virginia, including VCU, George Mason, NC State and the University of Maryland.

I caught up with Mark Willis, the President of the Virginia Boat Club, to find out more. Willis has been the president of the Virginia Boat Club for about a year and is also the faculty advisor for the crew team at VCU.

“In past years we have hosted what are called masters regattas with participants who are college graduates or row as a hobbie,” he said. “Because we’re hosting a collegiate regatta this year, we expect things to be a little different with more of a student atmosphere. We’re still waiting to hear back from a few schools, but I am confident there will be quite a number of teams and at least 400 spectators on the river.”

According to Willis, the regatta will consist of 25 races with teams divided into several different categories.

 “They’re the ones who actually gave us the idea to host a collegiate event, and they have been extremely supportive financially and logistically,” said Willis.  “Since Rocketts Landing’s involvement we have seen an increased interest in rowing at the Virginia Boat Club.”

The Virginia Boat Club has been using Rocketts Landing as a home port since 1987, and it even has its own dock located near the power plant. The club descended from one of the earliest rowing teams in the United States founded in 1876.


Willis says that regattas on the James River used to be more popular and draw thousands of spectators.  This is why he is trying to expand the rowing program in Richmond and introduce the sport to younger athletes. The Virginia Boat Club offers numerous rowing classes for both beginner and advanced rowers, and Willis claims he in fact learned to row on a whim four years ago as a participant in one of these classes.
 
“I encourage everyone to try rowing,” he said. “It’s a good supplementary sport, a great way to stay in shape and a lot of fun to be on the water.”


 

Flying High Over Rocketts Landing

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Armed with a Canon single-lens reflex digital camera, Tom Stiles takes to the skies above Rocketts Landing. Stiles is the owner of Skyshots, a business that specializes in aerial photography, and he has been snapping photos of the Rocketts Landing development project from the cockpit of a Robinson R-22 airplane for the past three years.

During a photo shoot, Stiles and his co-pilot take anywhere from 50 to 60 digital photographs while maintaining an altitude of 1,000 feet, the minimum altitude allowed by FAA regulations.

“Many people do not have the opportunity to experience a bird’s-eye view of the Richmond-area first hand,” said Stiles during a phone interview. “So it’s nice to be able to share with those people what it’s like to be in the cockpit of an airplane through my photography.”

Sky Shots has been operating since 1999 and is currently based out of the Hanover County Airport. The company has been hurt by the recent economic downturn do to the lack of development projects in the Richmond-area. But Stiles says he still takes photos of about six to 10 sites a week.

The Rocketts Landing development project is of particular interest to Stiles because of its size and location.
 “It’s nice to see a new development in the old, industrial landscape that surrounds Richmond,” he said.  “Unlike other job sites which usually have only one square building, Rocketts Landing is made up of numerous buildings all set against a backdrop of the James River which depending on the weather changes color.”

Because Rocketts Landing is located within a five mile radius of the Richmond International Airport, Stiles must also be in constant radio contact with flight coordinators while taking photos of the development project.  

The pilot has had an interest in photography since high school and learned how to fly as a result of his father, a retiree of the United States Air Force.  He told me over the phone, “Flying lets you see the big picture which helps put the smaller issues in life into perspective.”

Photo courtesy of Skyshots.

Check back in a few weeks when we go up with Tom and post a handful more photos from above Rocketts.

The eagles have landed

Monday, March 16, 2009

The Times-Dispatch, in their neat series on the people and ecology of the James River, this week looks at eagles that live there. The population of our national bird almost disappeared because of chemicals, but has burst back on the scene.

“Today, a nearly 40-mile stretch of the tidal, freshwater James -- from the Dutch Gap area near Chester to eastern Charles City County -- harbors one of the country's top concentrations of eagles, herons and other fish-eating birds. The National Audubon Society has designated the region an Important Bird Area, a high compliment among conservationists.”

You can read the story here. I saw a bald eagle near the Nickel Bridge last year. It was amazing.

A taste of what's coming

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Last week I chatted with the restaurateur who will open Rocketts’ first eatery. This week I went to his current location in Midlothian.

Eating raw oysters on a deck surrounded by Virginia pines and waterfront views made me think summer was here. To sample the menu and ambience, (and hopefully glean some details on what we might expect) owner Kevin Healy invited me and a friend to the original Boathouse Restaurant at Brandermill (located on the Swiftcreek Reservoir in Chesterfield).  Healy has owned The Boathouse for 21 years and told me that the Rocketts Landing restaurant will have similar table fare, waterfront outdoor seating and décor. He said it will also have the same selection of Chesapeake and Bluepoint oysters - Crassostrea Virginica.

 To my satisfaction, The Boathouse oysters were about as fresh and juicy as could be. For an appetizer, my friend and I ordered half-a-dozen oysters Rockefeller and half-a-dozen raw Chesapeake oysters, which according to our waitress are saltier than the Blue Point oysters. The shallot vinaigrette accompanying the raw Chesapeake oysters was superb, and the Dijon spinach, Parmesan bread crumb and bacon combination of the oysters Rockefeller was cooked to a creamy perfection.

As my friend and I savored each morsel of the tasty mollusks, the sun set over the Swift Creek reservoir.  A diverse and lively crowd that ranged from business men to couples and families gathered around the surrounding tables and outdoor bar. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the warm Sunday afternoon.

Chef Wood and Kevin Healy have been working together for the past 30 years, and they share ownership of The Baker’s Crust at Short Pump. Chef Wood will help Healy select the sous-chef to be in charge of The Boathouse at Rocketts Landing.  He is known in some gourmet circles as the “The Architect of Food” for constructing such alternative appetizers as the Chicken and Avocado Egg Rolls my friend and I ordered after we finished our oysters. The egg rolls were fried to a flaky crispiness and came with excellent soy and apricot dipping sauces.

For the entree, I ordered the Daily Wood Grilled Mahi Mahi with mango pineapple salsa and Tillamook mashed potatoes. A large portion of filleted Mahi filled my plate and the tender, white fish was grilled to a medium temperature—just the way I like it. The mashed potatoes were also as smooth and silky as could be; however, the mango salsa could have been sweeter and didn’t compliment the potato side well.

My friend had the Crab Louis Salad which was large enough for two people and for $12 came with a hefty portion of Lump Crab meat. I would have preferred the asparagus in the salad to be grilled or sautéed instead of blanched, but all the remainder of the greenery was garden-fresh, and the Louis dressing was mixed with just the right amount of chili sauce.
We opted out of dessert. But, if we had any more room in our stomachs, we would have definitely chosen to finish the meal off with the Chocolate Mouse and Cheesecake Martini with raspberries, whipped cream and caramel.  

Seeing as how it is much closer to the city, The Boathouse at Rocketts Landing should a perfect place for Richmonders to wind down the workweek along the water with a glass of wine or beer. My very premature recommendation: the seafood – especially the oysters.

The inside scoop on The Boathouse Restaurant

Monday, March 09, 2009

Construction on the Boathouse Restaurant at Rocketts Landing is soon to be underway pending the allotment of a building permit by the City of Richmond. When we spoke on the phone, Kevin Healy, the owner, was in the process of picking out the restaurant’s dining room furniture. He said that once he receives the building permit, the restaurant will be completed and open for business in five to six months.

 Healy has owned and managed the award-winning Boathouse Restaurant at Brandermill, (located on the Swift Creek Reservoir in Chesterfield Country,) for the past 21 years.

“Call me crazy for undertaking such a large business venture given the current state of the economy, but at the restaurant in Brandermill, we have been experiencing a double digit sales growth since September,” he said. “I expect a similar restaurant for downtown Richmond to not be that much different.”

Before acquiring the Boathouse, Healy worked as a manager for four years under the leadership of Richard Ripp, president of the Richmond-based Restaurant Company. He started out as a dishwasher in the food service business when he was fifteen years old and attributes the success of the Boathouse to affordable prices, thorough training and business research.

The Boathouse can house up to 250 people and has been a longtime participant in the Brandermill community, serving as a setting for numerous regattas, family reunions, business meetings and weddings.

“It is more than just a restaurant,” Healy said. “It’s a place to celebrate life’s events.”
To create a comparable sense of community to Healy aims to build a restaurant at Rocketts that can accommodate similar functions and occasions.

It will be built below the Harbor Masters office on the second and third floor of the old power plant overlooking the James River. Chefs Gary Wood and Cory Sheldon of the Boathouse are currently putting together a menu for the Rocketts Landing restaurant that will feature an extensive raw oyster bar, open-flamed prime steaks, fresh seafood and Neapolitan wood stone fired pizza. 

The menu will be similar to that of the current restaurant, but Healy made it clear that the food offered at the Rocketts Landing restaurant will be better suited for Richmonders.

“We will always be tweaking the menu there, taking into consideration that Richmonders might want something different,” he said. “This is because I really want the restaurant at Rocketts Landing to evolve into a place of its own. It will be the only riverfront restaurant in Richmond and was almost meant to be.”

Check back next week as we take a closer took at the existing restaurant at Brandermill.

Finally some snow!

Thursday, March 05, 2009

Rocketts looks like a winter wonderland. Ok, maybe that's a bit cliche, but you gotta love the snow. There's gotta be some good sledding around Rocketts. I'll be ready for it next winter.

Not even some snow and ice can slow down the construction of the marina.