Freak Accidents Mark Head of the Charles

Three rowers were injured and two champion teams disqualified from the Head of the Charles Regatta after freak boating accidents during the week of the regatta.

In the first incident, on Wednesday morning at 7 a.m., John Yasaitis, 55, was struck by an eight-person racing shell. Eyewitnesses told the Boston Globe that the rubber-tipped prow of the boat penetrated his torso, hurling him into the water. According to police, he was bleeding and badly injured.

The eight-man boat had been filled with employees of the Gentle Giant Moving Co. According to John O’Toole, president of the company, Yasaitis had been passing two other scullers around a blind turn at a very narrow point in the Charles River.

“It was a freak accident...the timing had to be exact for something like this to happen. Our boat was moving slowly, so he must have been rowing hard,” O’Toole said. “The other scullers could have blocked his view.”

According to O’Toole, two of the rowers jumped into the water to assist Yasaitis, and one used his emergency medical training to help the injured man.

Yasaitis is in good condition at Mass. General Hospital.

The Marine Unit of the Mass. State Police said that an investigation into Yasaitis’ injury is ongoing.

In another unrelated incident Sunday, a lightweight eight-person shell from George Washington University collided with a Brown University heavyweight women’s eight boat during warm-ups prior to racing in the regatta.

Moving at full speed toward one another, the racing shells collided in the basin of the Charles River between 3:30 and 4 p.m.

According to Liz O’Leary, head coach of the Radcliffe crew team, the bow rowers in each boat were thrown into the river.

“The bow riggers of both boats were essentially ripped off,” O’Leary said. “It’s a tremendous [amount of] force, if you think of eight people [in each boat] moving in full speed in opposite directions.”

Peggy McKendry, the bow rower for the Brown shell, suffered a broken rib and a cracked vertebra, O’Leary said.

She was treated and released yesterday from Mount Auburn Hospital, according to hospital spokesperson Michael O’Connell.

The George Washington rower was also hurt, according to the Providence Journal.

Both accidents resulted in a good deal of anxiety and dashed hopes.

Yasaitis had been scheduled to compete on Sunday in the men’s Grand-Master singles category. He had won a silver medal in the U.S. Nationals over-50 division.

O’Toole said the Gentle Giant employees in the racing shell were shaken by last week’s accident.

“Everyone was traumatized...Three of the men spent all day with [Yasaitis] in the hospital,” O’Toole said. “We’re extremely concerned for his welfare.”

The George Washington and Brown teams were both disqualified from the race because of the damage to their boats and because of their injured rowers.

After a finishing fifth in the Women’s Championship fours, the Brown women would have challenged the world-champion U.S. women’s team in the Women’s Championship eights category.

O’Leary blamed the accident on the chaotic nature of the warm-up area.

“It happened in the basin...[where] the traffic pattern was not clearly defined or well-patrolled,” O’Leary said. “I don’t think the boats’ coaches are going to be blaming one another.”