The Quinte Rowing Club traces its roots back to 1985. Scott Withers, now with the Durham Rowing Club, had been employed in the Brighton area, and approached ex-Olympian rower (Rome 1960) Frank Zielski about starting a rowing club in the Quinte region. In 1986, along with other individuals such as Frank Pinder, efforts were made to acquire rowing shells and other equipment. The new group eventually
managed to secure the use of a former bottling plant along the bayshore in Belleville, near the foot of Herchimer street, from the City. Gradually, through fundraising efforts, periodic infusions of publicly available sources of funding, such as the Trillium Foundation and Wintario, and the dedicated hard work of its volunteer supporters, the club managed to increase the size and quality if its fleet. Finally, in 1994 , the club was officially incorporated as a non-profit Ontario corporation. A major construction expansion was undertaken in 1996, with a tremendous amount of volunteer time and labour involved. This expansion added washroom and shower space for both male and female rowers, a workshop bay, an indoor rowing training tank a second storey exercise room with weights and rowing ergometers, and a small office. Today, the club boasts a premier rowing facility for Eastern Ontario and serves as a regional training centre. Rowers from other clubs and even from the national junior level, have used our facilities. The club has always prided itself for its contributions to the development of young rowing athletes. The spring high school rowing programs attracts nearly 100 participants from area high schools, and we have rowers that have gone on to Canadian National, Canadian University as well as US NCAA levels of competition. There is also a growing dimension to the sport in the adult segment that engages in recreational touring events, as well as adult masters competition.
