Letter from Chip Northrup
Present Launch Site Preferred
The acquisition of Brookwood Point by the Otsego Land Trust was instigated in part and partially financed by me for use as a community rowing facility—specifically to teach high-school students to row. I discouraged the Cook Foundation from selling Brookwood Point to Richard Hanna and encouraged OLT to buy it when the Town of Otsego refused to acquire it for a park. We donated the funds to pay the land trust’s legal fees to acquire the land and have the deed amended. I also drafted a lease for the land trust to lease part of the site to provide community access for rowers. It is one of the only places on the lake that has community access for rowers.
The lake is very shallow north of the alluvial fan of the Brookwood Creek delta. That swampy area is not a good place to launch a kayak or a rowing shell. At full bloom, the weeds and lily pads are a challenge in a rowing shell. Rowing through lily pads involves cutting them up, a lose-lose proposition.
The present launch site has no lake vegetation, no lily pads, and a shallow rock bottom that facilitates beach launches, which are often preferable to dock launches for low freeboard boats such as kayaks and rowing shells.
The distance from the end of the proposed boat storage racks to the end of the proposed dock is approximately the length of a football field—a very long way for beginners to carry a kayak or shell. Kayaks and shells should be stored as close to their launch site as possible, since carrying a boat a long distance is a disincentive for beginners and casual paddlers. I coached high-school rowers for 20 years. A beginner will do that once, then take up another sport.
The Otsego Land Trust may want to move the kayaks and shells to the swampy area north of the creek in order to make more space available around the Tea House Garden for event rentals. That may be good for the event rental business, but it’s not better for beginning rowers. Would not pretend otherwise.
Chip Northrup
Cooperstown
