Alden Ocean Shells, Inc.

In 1977 brothers Gary, Steven, and Val Piantedosi began building wooden sculling oars. We supplied oars to all the boatbuilders in the US and Canada. Recreational rowing was exploding yet our capacity far outstripped the demand. We could not sell any more oars than the number of boats being sold. Rowing shells are fairly expensive and difficult to ship. We started designing our own line of boats and observed that all of our prototypes were very much like canoes. It dawned on us that instead of reinventing the canoe why not convert the hundreds of thousands of hulls already in existence. Gary Piantedosi, Olympic oarsman and MIT engineer, designed and patented the ‘Row Wing’ in 1987.
Rowingrigs.com was born. It has been our mission ever since to make rowing affordable and accessible. We supply our rigging as original equipment to boatbuilders around the world. Our rigs are specified by all kit builders. We developed the ‘Scout Rig’ for the Boy Scouts of America and are featured in their Rowing Merit Badge Booklet. We designed rigs to convert windsurfer hulls in the 1990’s and now we are converting SUPs.
Our rigs are not toys. We are serious racers designing and building serious gear. In 2020, and in our 60s, we continue to personally race (and win) all the gear we sell.