Greetings to the Friends of UCI Rowing,

I am honored to introduce myself as your new Chief of Stewards for the Friends of UCI Rowing. I was fortunate enough to cox the first boat UCI sent to the Intercollegiate Rowing Association championships in Syracuse in 1971, and one of my fellow Stewards, Mike Thompson, rowed seat three in that same boat. Together, along with all of us here at the Friends of UCI Rowing, we are excited to bring you important news about the achievements of our current athletes and a fantastic opportunity they’ve earned to represent UCI internationally.

For the first time in 39 years, UCI will send a boat to the Henley Royal Regatta on the Thames in London in early July. This is a significant step for the rejuvenated rowing program at UCI and we couldn’t be prouder of our athletes and their chance to represent our community at such a prestigious event.

This is where you come in as an integral part of our team. The Friends of UCI Rowing has the important charge of making sure our crew gets the financial support they need, and to do that we need your help raising the funds to get them across the Atlantic. As the Chief of Stewards, I promise to never conduct our fundraising efforts through irritating phone calls to your home at all hours, but instead hope that emails you can address at your own convenience will be rewarded with your generosity.

The trip to the Henley Royal Regatta is a phenomenal opportunity for our athletes to demonstrate the success they’ve achieved on the water this year. With your generosity, they can showcase their talent on the international stage. As your new Chief of Stewards, I’m honored to lead this effort and look forward to all the exciting projects we have coming up this year. While you’re on our website, check out updates about the program, and stay tuned for new information about both our men’s and women’s programs and the coaching staff.

Many, many thanks to Theo Khachaturian for his leadership as Chief of Stewards these last 2 years. I can’t wait to carry on the great progress he’s made for our crew program.

Thank you very much,

Vince Mestre
Class of ‘73 and ’75
Friends of UCI Rowing
Chief of Stewards

Contribute Today

Visit our crowdsourcing page to contribute today!

It’s as simple as a visit to our crowdfunding page (link above). The student-athletes will be conducting their own outreach to friends, family, and alumni, using this page on our website to track their progress, but we can help them reach their goal faster!

Enter any amount you wish, your name (or “anonymous”), then checkout and choose your payment method: credit card, or PayPal.

Prefer to Send a Check?

Please make it out to “Friends of UCI Rowing,” write “Henley” in the notes section, and drop in the mail to:

Friends of UCI Rowing
P.O. Box 9096
Newport Beach, CA 92658