ULRICH LEMCKE

PRESIDENT, Friends of the Hooch

ATLANTA ROWING CLUB, New Jersey

Rowing has given me, my wife and my long-time friends.

How did you get started with rowing and the Hooch?

I started rowing in college and rowed for CAL from ’73-‘77. I wanted to play intermural basketball but I was not that good at it, so rowing it was. I was the seven-man in our Varsity 8 that won the IRA National Championship in ‘76. In ’77 I rowed in a straight four at Henley Royal Regatta and somewhat embarrassingly lost the British National Lightweights in the semi-final of the Wyfold Cup. The silver lining was meeting my future wife, Elise, at Henley. After graduation from CAL, my wife Elise and I moved to Atlanta for work. It took about six months to discover the Atlanta Rowing Club (ARC) and I have been involved ever since.

I started working the Hooch in 1983. I did multiple jobs for a while. I helped a lot with the logistics side of organizing it. Busing people in from parking lots, boat control, trailer parking, etc. Elise was the regatta secretary, did the graphic design for the Hooch t-shirts and programs, and our house became the central meeting place, mainly because Elise was a great cook and everyone brought great food.

When the Hooch outgrew the venue in Roswell, it was moved to the Olympic venue in Gainesville. Gainesville was never quite set up for the event, and the logistics were always tough. There were very few hotels, everyone had to be bussed to the site, and the two-lane road into the venue was often snarled with traffic.

The year before the Olympics (at Lake Lanier on the same site), Elise and I along with several others from ARC, helped with Olympic site logistics and planning, and were volunteers at the pre-Olympic test regatta. The Atlanta Olympic Committee had many rules that were hard to enforce with the international teams that came in early to train. After that experience we threw in the towel, bought tickets for 1996 and ended up watching the events rather than working them. It was wonderful to watch these amazing athletes compete. We provided housing for the parents of one of the German women rowers and were able to meet both her and her boyfriend who was in the silver medal winning German men’s 8.

In 2005, when the Hooch had grown so much that we also outgrew the Lake Lanier venue, we moved the Hooch to Chattanooga. The city had just renovated its waterfront and was perfectly set up for running large events like the Hooch. The city and the community have fully embraced the event and have been more supportive than the Hooch could ever have hoped for.

What does the Head of the Hooch Board President do?

I’m the President of Friends of the Hooch, the directional/organizational branch of the Regatta. Apart from setting up and running our board meetings, I and the other six board members have a responsibility to deliver on the board’s mission, which is to promote rowing in any way that we can and to make sure that we operate in a way that supports sustainability. A big focus this year is to support women coaches by offering full tuition scholarships to the Women’s Coaching Conference scheduled for the end of November/early December. Also, we were able to offer discounted entry fees to the Hooch for teams who participated in river cleanups where they row. Both efforts were made possible through our partnership with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the tireless efforts of our Hooch volunteers that make it possible to run this regatta in a manner that enables the Hooch to make charitable contributions to support our mission.

How else are you involved in organizing and running the Hooch?

There are seven Assistant Regatta Directors (ARD) that report to Mike Connors, who is the Regatta Director. Each ARD manages a different part of the Hooch. I’m responsible for the logistics and planning for the Hooch that happen in advance of the Regatta itself. This includes managing the team that signs up all of our volunteers, registration, development of each year’s race schedule, food management where meals are arranged for our volunteers and referees, hotel management to make sure that those needing hotel rooms in Chattanooga are accommodated, developing the site layout and site maps, and finally making sure the there are medals and trophies to award to the top finishers at the regatta.

Are there any plans to make the Hooch bigger?

We are starting to hit the limit on what we can do without adding another day to the Regatta. We’ve typically run 2,100 boats over our two days, about 1200 on Saturday and another 900 on Sunday. Getting all these crews on and off the water during daylight hours and still giving them the half day Friday to practice is really the most we can do. One opportunity for growth is to increase participation through the Virtual Hooch Regatta, which we run in January. We’ll be promoting that more this year to increase participation. It is run virtually on ergometers in 2000-meter sprint racing format rather than 3-mile head racing format. Last year, one of the Master’s participants set a world record, which was pretty exciting.

Favorite part of the Hooch?

When you get there and see it all come off. It’s magic to see, a real treat. Also, it’s just fun. We have youth, collegiate and master’s participants and everyone is clearly enjoying the regatta. A close second is working with all our partners in Chattanooga, who have been so incredibly supportive and helpful over the years.

Any pre or post Hooch rituals?

I’m not too ritualistic, but sometimes a group of us will have a nice wrap up dinner on Sunday night at a local Chattanooga steakhouse. Incredibly that sometimes ends up including discussion on how to make the Hooch better the following year.

What has rowing meant to you in your life?

Rowing has given me a lot. As I mention before, I met my wife in Henley England, that’s one of the biggest pluses! It’s also given me my long-time friends. People who typically get into rowing are patient and don’t mind hard work. They generally train for a year to have five races in the Spring with a couple more in the Fall and would appear to be a bit crazy. In fact, they are very dedicated to any endeavor that they pursue and that makes them the type of folks I very much enjoy being with.

Big changes of the last few years or upcoming changes to look forward to?

We were very fortunate to partner with TVA as our Title Sponsor for 2022-2023. This sponsorship enables the Hooch to maintain the assets that make it possible to run the regatta, as well as providing funds for charitable donations that support our mission.

As I mentioned earlier, the Hooch is currently providing support women coaches, river clean-ups, and for many years has supported para-rowing. For more information on how to support those activities, visit us here.