Narragansett Boat Club

Narragansett Boat Club has been rowing in Providence, Rhode Island since 1838, and describes itself as America's oldest rowing club.

It is a non-profit serving a diverse community of competitive, recreational, masters and youth rowers, and says it is recognised regionally and nationally for competitive excellence, community involvement and its long history in the sport.

The club runs adult and youth programmes through the year, along with a Learn to Row course for people who have never been in a boat. It also hosts regattas at its own site, which the club points out means members have racing close at hand whether they are juniors or grandparents.

The water is an urban river with more wildlife than that suggests: the club notes nesting herons, osprey and bald eagles among the flora and fauna along its stretch.

NBC is run by a President and Board of Governors working with a Treasurer, a Captain, a building committee and the coaching staff, with a part-time Executive Director covering fundraising and day-to-day oversight of the club, its fleet, its launches and its docks. It is, in other words, a volunteer-driven membership organisation of the kind where the admin genuinely competes with the rowing for people's time.