Joe joined the team in 2023. He is a big fan of the Harvard Radcliff Crew and will find a way to help anywhere needed.  Hailing from Saratoga New York, Joe is our current long distant relationship, but we are making it work!  Joe is no stranger to rowing and managing regattas.  He has assisted in managing many local regattas in the New York area before joining the HOCR team.  If you got an email from the Launch Committee, it likely came from Joe. 

Roberto rowed the bow seat for UMASS/Lowell and coached for several years after that.  He has been volunteering for Launches since 2015.

Obviously, from his photo he is the Cooolest Co-Chair!

Yara joined the Launches committee in 2023 after 10 years in the rowing world as a rower, coxswain, and coach. She leads boat operations and takes care rounding up all of the launches that we use during the weekend. Take care of the boats and Yara will take care of you. She's affectionately known as the Chief of Controlled Chaos, and you'll probably find her with a megaphone on the MIT dock (or slumped in a camping chair in a rare moment of downtime!).

Erik is from a rowing family that includes an Olympian! He is managing our training program and also equipment operations.

Maddie is an experienced rower and coach from a family of rowers.  She has been at the Head of the Charles every year. Not just every year recently, every year as in since she was in diapers!  Maddie is always right there to lend a hand or offer a phenomenal solution to some complex problem.  Maddie joined the Launch Team officially in 2024 and we are so glad to have her.  She is not only the Head Coach at Gordon College, she founded their rowing program!

Bruce has been a 3-day launch driver in the Basin and at the Finish Line for 3 years and is now contributing as a Launch Committee Co-Chair.

Bruce retired from IT at a small bank in Marblehead and has been a passionate recreational sailor/powerboater for most of his (long) life. He rowed at Exeter and Cornell back in the 60’s and was in the bow-seat of an Italian-rigged Exeter cox’d 4 that finished second in the 1964 Prince Phillip Cup at Henley.  Bruce manages the training for the Launch Committee, manages the MIT dock, rigs the buoys and anchors, and works tireless to ensure a successful weekend.  Hint: Just complete your training modules…now!

George Hickey has been involved with the Head of the Charles Regatta for over 35 years. As a volunteer with the Emergency Services Committee, he used his American Red Cross experience to recruit and train all the lifeguards for the first Safety Launches in 1991.

In 2011, he moved from co-chairing Emergency Services to co-chairing the Launch Committee. Hint: If the answer to your question is written on your name tag, please don’t ask…