About this club
Georgian Bay Rowing Club is a not-for-profit organisation on Little Lake in Midland, serving Southern Georgian Bay. It rows from Little Lake Park at 783 Little Lake Park Road and offers competitive, recreational and learn-to-row activity from April to October.
Rowing reached the Midland community as recreation in the early 1980s through Guenther Drews, an experienced German competitor. A small group formed a club in 1984, then incorporated as the Georgian Bay Rowing Society in 1985 with Drews as its first president.
The young club initially worked from members' properties, beaches and trailers, and for a period stored its sole boat on land supplied by a local doctor. It moved to its permanent Little Lake Park home in 1995.
Current options include adult and youth learn-to-row, an independent competitor category, daily seasonal equipment access and storage for privately owned shells. Its adaptive programme, delivered with Community Living Huronia, gives adults with intellectual disabilities supported rowing opportunities.
The club has developed provincial and national-level athletes, including rowers who represented Ontario at the Canada Summer Games and continued into Canadian and US university programmes. Its masters crews have won efficiency awards, and Diane Barr and Chris Huet won every race they entered in 2025, including the US National Masters Championship in the lightweight double.
Georgian Bay hosts the Muskoka Fall Classic on Gull Lake in Gravenhurst. The event is a three-kilometre head race, was advertised in its fifteenth year for 2026, and awards first-place crews the Golden Honey Jar. Its 2026 Little Lake calendar also lists a Come Try Rowing day and a Spring Beach Sprints event.
Upcoming competitions hosted by Georgian Bay Rowing Club
No upcoming competitions listed yet.