13 July 2026

By Göran R Buckhorn

HTBS readers with a good memory recall we published an article about the Italian-made Donoratico eight, the Corsair, in April. Tom Gates reached out to the U.S. rowing community regarding the history of the Corsair, a boat that belongs to Northeastern University (NU).

The other day, HTBS received an email from Steven Hromadka in Cincinnati where he asked if HTBS and its readers could help him to get information about another Donoratico eight. Steven’s Donoratico has serial number 3833 and is labeled with FQSA 805.

The history that he has received is that the boat was used at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, probably by the Great Britain crew who won the silver medal in the eights. After the Olympics, the boat stayed in Canada and ended up at Xavier University in Cincinnati and then finally found its way to Steven.

To verify if the boat was raced at the Olympics by the British crew, HTBS contacted Hugh Matheson, who rowed at ‘4’ in the silver medal crew.

Hugh replied that he cannot remember, but wrote, “If challenged I would say [Coach Bob] Janousek bought a Karlisch VIII for the 74 season, a used Empacher IV’s in 75 and an Empacher VIII in 76.”

So, I looked in Chris Dodd’s brilliant book Pieces of Eight: Bob Janousek and his Olympians (2012) to see if Chris could shed any light on the matter. Of course, Chris has the answer. He writes:

Bob Janousek and his crew arrived in Canada three weeks before the Olympic Games, with two boats – the German Empacher that they had used for their unbeaten season save for the first race of the year against the Russians in Mannheim, and the British-made Carbon Tiger. The Tiger was the lightest boat ever built. [p 163]

The plan was, Chris writes, that the crew was going to first use the German boat named Leisure Sport and save the Tiger for the final. However, later Janousek told the press that he decided to let the Tiger stay in the boathouse and the crew were going to use Leisure Sport in the final, where the Brits came second, 2,5 seconds behind East Germany.

Consequently, the question remains which nation used the Donoratico eight? The nations racing in the eights at the Olympics in 1976 were, besides Great Britain, Australia, Canada, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Soviet Union, USA and West Germany.

There is also the possibility that Steven’s Donoratico was never used in the Games in Montreal.

If there is anyone out there who has more information about Steven’s eight, please contact HTBS, at gbuckhorn – at – gmail – dot – com and I will forward the information to Steven. You are also welcome to use the comment form.

Thank you!

See also Rick Stehlik’s article “The Return of the Doc Riggall” – how the bow section of the 1964 Olympic Donoratico eight Doc Riggall found its way back to Vesper Boat Club.