It was all hands on deck, or in this case, oars, at the Monaco Yacht Club on Tuesday as the MonacoUSA networking cocktail spotlighted the Société Nautique de Monaco (SNM).
From 6 pm to 8 pm, members worked off calories on a special rowing simulator while the more daring tested out a rowing scull at the Kelly jetty, under the guidance of Jean-François Gourdon, President of the SNM.
The Kelly jetty is named after Jack Kelly, Princess Grace’s father and one of the most accomplished American rowers in the history of the sport, winning an unprecedented three Olympic Gold Medals. Illustrating the historic tie between the Principality and sculling, Monaco hosts the Challenge Prince Albert II every February.
Monaco’s rowing club, which won the world championship in two classes in Lima, Peru, last year – Quentin Antognelli and Giuseppe Alberti picked up gold in the Men’s Coastal Double Sculls, while Mathias Raymond, Gaétan Delhon William Ader, Maxime Maillet, coxed by Pierre Zervos, won the Men’s Coastal Quadruple Coxed, just eight seconds ahead of an Italian team – will welcome 720 rowers from 31 countries for the World Rowing Coastal Championships from October 21 to 23.
Special thanks to Annette Anderson, MonacoUSA’s ever-energetic director, for another great evening, especially as she was run off her feet Tuesday morning with the MacMillan World’s Biggest Coffee Morning, a cancer fundraiser, at Stars’n’Bars.
First published October 5, 2016.