In the Britannica, the world’s oldest continuously published encyclopedia, ‘infinity’ is classified as something ‘that is unlimited, endless, without bound’. It is this principle that underpins the boat club on Teesside that shares its name and to which community rowing is finding a Northern restoration.
Founded in 2022, Infinity Boat Club is a registered charity aiming to bring the sport of rowing to underserved communities of school children in Teesside. Their mission is to use rowing to help school children realise their full potential both on and off the water. Backed by Stephen Peel, who had a successful career as a rower before turning his hand to investing, the boat club has already been making waves on the circuit under the stewardship of Keith Brown, CEO and rowing enthusiast for the past 50 years.
“Stephen was searching for the right type of project for a little while before landing on Teesside as a location,” explained Keith when we caught up. “Two things really struck him; the lack of facilities at so many schools in the area and the water at Teesside which allows people to use an interrupted 20+ km stretch all year round”.
The strategy was clear – to try and target schoolchildren who would not normally have any opportunity to row. “Tees Rowing Club have a flourishing junior section and we did not want to impinge on that, so our first challenge was finding a facility for these children that would work for what we needed,” said Keith. “I was wondering around and stumbled upon a facility that was set up with millennium funding for canoeing and kayaking but it’s been left for 12 years because no-one was sure what to do with it. After a lot of searching, we found the family that owned it, and they were quite happy to allow us to use the space.”
Fast forward a couple of years and the feedback for the first year of outreach and execution has been outstanding. “Care workers and parents have come into our feeder schools, stating that they have noticed a change in their child,” said Keith. “They’ve got motivation and they’re getting out. Stephen has seen this and witnessed first-hand the tangible impact a project like this can have on a local community.”
The Infinity team started going into schools towards the end of the 2023 school year, getting around 1200 children on indoor rowing machines. The involvement is completely free – Stephen is funding the entire operation, to the point that if he believes a child comes from a particularly difficult background, the boat club should supply meals at the end of the session too. “Stephen’s overarching mission is that the children should be vying for the same opportunities as people from more privileged backgrounds if Infinity stand behind them,” said Keith.
The benefit to certain individuals is already becoming apparent. “We were at one of our row shows and there was a 14-year-old who pulled a really impressive score,” remembered Keith. “When I asked him about it, he said ‘oh, is that a good score, I didn’t know what I was doing so wasn’t trying’. He’s just won BRIC U15 as a 14-year-old and he’s firmly got the bug now”.
Keith approached WinTech to provide shells for the club quite early on, realising that our combination of high-quality build and affordability was a great proposition. “We wanted to be with one main supplier so we could have a consistent and interchangeable fleet and order spare parts where needed,” explained Keith. “We went to WinTech, and I had a great relationship with Andrew already, so it all made a lot of sense. They have been incredibly supportive and at-cause to help us build this.”
Now that the program is up and running, manned ably by a host of coaches, trustees and supporters, the dreams are growing and the ideas expanding. The plan is to provide a solid foundation for the local community but with a competitive outlook, so that one day kids from Infinity Boat Club might line up alongside the greats of schoolboy and schoolgirl rowing.
“No matter what background someone comes from, Stephen is a firm believer that rowing can and will save you,” said Keith. “Kat Copeland, who is one of our trustees, came to the boathouse and said, ‘so many dreams will be made in this place’. I can’t think of a more apt summary for what we’re trying to do.”
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