GoMOWSA’s Mission
The Gulf of Maine Open Water Swimming Association (GoMOWSA) is a nonprofit organization that supports and promotes the sport of open water swimming in southern Maine, New Hampshire and northern Massachusetts. Our aim is to conduct and support formal and informal open water swim sessions, clinics, and other events that benefit current and aspiring swimmers of all ages. We also aim to support swimmers undertaking solo marathon swims in the region. Our activities are conducted year-round in the Gulf of Maine and its tributaries as well as lakes and ponds.
The GoMOWSA board, committee members, and general membership are stewards of the sport of open water swimming. GoMOWSA believes in access to open water swimming for all who aspire to learn and take part. We promote safe swimming and the awareness of the potential challenges and hazards intrinsic to the sport. We actively educate participants and group members and strive to communicate best practices, highlight personal responsibility and smart choices including hazard assessment of wind, weather and water conditions, hypothermia awareness and injury prevention.
Funds raised from membership, registration fees, and merchandise sales are donated to nonprofit organizations after operational costs have been covered. Priority charities include those that also aim to support swimming such as learn-to-swim activities and those that focus on environmental awareness and protection of our precious bodies of water. Additional information on the specific non-profits we support will be provided on this site as those entities are identified.
GoMOWSA Board Members
Betsy Sandberg - Chair
In 2023, by swimming from the Isles of Shoals to Rye Beach, Betsy celebrated the 50th anniversary of the effort to spare the New Hampshire Seacoast from becoming the world’s then largest oil refinery and supertanker port. She was in kindergarten in 1973 when her mother became the chair of the citizens group from Durham that made national news, ultimately defeating the project and preserving the seacoast. Betsy was a swim instructor, water safety instructor, lifeguard, age group swimmer and captain for the Oyster River Otters. She was also a 4-year varsity swimmer in high school before turning to rowing.
Betsy returned to swimming after a hiatus of nearly two decades which included her undergraduate degree at Brown University, a masters degree in public health at Boston University, medical school at Dartmouth and pediatric residency training at Massachusetts General Hospital. Her return to swimming was in the “parents lane” during her son’s swim practices and on deck as a USA Swimming stroke-and-turn and start official. She joined Great Bay Masters Swimming in 2005 and focused on pool swimming for a dozen years before she felt the magnetic pull of the New Hampshire seacoast and open water swimming. She now believes that waves and surf are an integral part of the water experience and is inspired by others who share the same passion for open water swimming as well as people who are just getting acquainted with the sport.
She has served on the boards of the New Hampshire Public Health Association, Great Bay Masters Swimming and as a founding member of Gulf of Maine Open Water Swimming Association.
Outside of her work as a pediatric hospitalist, Betsy hits her “reset button” by open water swimming, hiking in the White Mountains, and by enjoying her home garden. Her husband and adult son are also open water swimmers.
Alec Rooney - Vice Chair
Alec started open water swimming as a kid with his grandmother, Pat, who loved swimming anytime, anywhere. Pat, Alec, and a community of swimmers swam in the Solent on the south coast of England where Pat lived and where Alec spent his summers. Although Alec was an avid swimmer, he never swam competitively as a young person.
When Alec’s daughters started swimming and joined the Seacoast Swimming Association swim team, Alec’s love of swimming was re-awakened. Alec became a USA Swimming Official so he could help officiate meets. That experience drew him into competitive pool swimming himself with Great Bay Masters. Through that community, Alec met members of the Seacoast Open Water Swimming group who invited him to swim with them in the beautiful waters around the Maine and NH seacoast. That amazing and welcoming community not only renewed Alec’s passion for swimming in open water, but also became a well of support and friendship that has been a cornerstone of Alec’s wonderful life on the seacoast.
Outside of swimming, Alec is an engineer who enjoys solving problems and helping to build companies. He is a Case Western and Stanford graduate who has helped found a number of startups. He now focuses on providing consulting services to companies on software development and building solutions with generative AI.
Alyssa Langlais - Secretary
Alyssa considers herself a “reformed triathlete” as she came to her senses after several years and realized that the swim is the best part! A childhood pool swimmer, Alyssa challenged her fears of open water to take on progressively longer open water distances. She is the first person to swim the “Gulf of Maine Lighthouse Hat Trick” including White Island, Isles of Shoals, NH to Wallis Sands, NH; Boon Island, ME to Long Sands, York, ME; and the Boston Light Swim, Boston, MA. Alyssa has also completed the Border Buster in Vermont and, in 2023, she swam from Wallis Sands to White Island and back. Alyssa is certified by World Open Water Swimming Association (WOWSA) as an open water swim coach.
Alyssa is an artist, specializing in paper collage, mixed media collage and digital works inspired by water and swimming. Her work uses color, texture, and graphic forms to explore memory, evoke symbolism and record time. You can find her work on Instagram @aquafoxatelier or www.alyssalanglais.squarespace.com.
Professionally, she works in the GLAM space (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) with over 25 years of experience in curation, collection management, registration, information management and technology. She currently heads projects and services for a tech company providing software for GLAMs in North America and worldwide. She graduated Wellesley College, majoring in Anthropology and Linguistics and holds a series of certifications in preventative collections care and museology.
Cheryl Coletti-Lawson - Treasurer
Cheryl is proud of her identity as an “adult-onset swimmer”, having begun her competitive swim career at the age of 51. It began with a 300-yard swim at the Nashua YMCA Triathlon in 2017 where she was told, right before jumping in the water, that her wetsuit was on backwards! After several triathlons, she discovered that running and biking weren’t her favorite things to do. She learned that she prefers to avoid large groups of swimmers and to swim for longer distances without a wetsuit.
Fast forward two years: in August 2019, Cheryl completed the width of Lake Tahoe, swimming 12 miles from Homewood, California to Glenwood, Nevada and completed several 10k swims in Barbados, Harrison Sound Bermuda, and Newport, Vermont. She is currently the only person to have completed a double crossing of Newfound Lake in New Hampshire, 12 miles from Bristol to Hebron and back. She is also currently the only person to have completed a double crossing of Lake Sunapee in New Hampshire, 16 miles from Newbury to Georges Mills and back. Her most recent marathon swim was the Vikingholm crossing of Lake Tahoe from Nevada to Emerald Bay, California, 12 miles. Everywhere she travels she looks for the opportunity to swim. In 2023, with the assistance of the open water swim community, she participated in the Grand Prix Sicilia Open water relay team in Avola, Sicily. She has swum from the Isle of Shoals off the Coast of Maine, the island of Vanua Levu, Figi, La Jolla California with unexpected guests…..sealions, and in the beautiful waters of the Adriatic Sea in Hvar, Palmižana, Croatia.
When she isn’t swimming or focusing on all things family, she is the Chief Operating Officer at The Lawson Group in Concord, NH. In 2021, Cheryl was awarded the Outstanding Women in Business award from the NH Business Review. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and her MBA from the University of New Hampshire. She resides in Henniker, New Hampshire with her husband, Scott, and her two teenage children.
Bob Fernald - Project Manager, Swim Events
Bob is a native of New Hampshire and a distinguished open water ultramarathon swimmer, coach, and event coordinator. He offers coaching services to individuals in the Portsmouth, NH seacoast area, working with swimmers aged 6 to 72, and covering distances from short open water swims to ultramarathon-level events. In his own words, “I help individuals discover the joy of freestyle open water swimming, enabling them to cultivate their newfound passion.”
Annually, Bob conducts open water safety clinics for various organizations, such as the NH State, Rye, NH and York, Maine lifeguard operations as well as specialized clinics for open water swimmers and triathletes. He involves families and schools through Rye Parent Teacher Association and North Hampton “People Active in Learning” program. He generously shares his expertise with local youth swimming teams as a guest coach, focusing on inspiring the next generation of open water swimmers.
Bob has been instrumental in establishing regional swims such as the Nubble Light Challenge, Kingston Open Water Swim, Save Our Shores Swim, and the NH Coastline Garbage Swim. He also created the Gulf of Maine “Hat Trick” Marathon Swim Challenge, which includes the Boston Light, White Island, and Boon Island swims. Additionally, he coordinates Gulf of Maine marathon swims for both individual participants and relay teams. Over the years, his involvement in open water swimming has raised nearly $200,000 for local charities, including The Michael Phelps Foundation, National Awareness for Mental Illness, YMCA, and Blue Ocean Society.
As a member of US Masters Swimming, Bob has served as an open water safety official and rules official for USMS events. He is a certified marathon swim observer and has supported numerous ultramarathon swimmers. His contributions to the sport have been recognized with the New England USMS Frank Wuest Award and with membership in the New England USMS Hall of Fame.
In 2016, Bob achieved the prestigious Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming, a feat accomplished by fewer than 350 swimmers to date. This accolade includes completing the English Channel, swimming around Manhattan Island, and traversing the Catalina Channel, with his combined debut swim times ranking him as the 10th fastest in history for that year.
Bob has served on the boards of directors for Save the Indoor Portsmouth Pool, Great Bay Masters Swimming, Nubble Light Challenge, and the Gulf of Maine Open Water Swim Association nonprofit organizations over the past 15 years.
Professionally, Bob is the principal of Fernald Consulting Services. His work experience includes holding senior leadership roles in operations, product development, and business development across various sectors, including semiconductor capital equipment, emergency communications, unified business communications, telecommunications, hospitality, and safety technology.
Bob can be contacted via LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram (@openh2obob), or by email at fernaldbob@gmail.com.
GoMOWSA Committees
GoMOWSA seeks enthusiastic volunteers who are interested in moving the sport of open water swimming forward. Volunteers may wish to help put on local events, to organize or participate in educational sessions for the swim community or the general public, or to help support swimmers with marathon swimming support or ratification.
Committees Under Development
Event Planning Committee: Help Event Director with swim event planning, promotion and execution
Merchandise Committee: GoMOWSA and GoMOWSA sponsored event logo design, merchandise selection and ordering, store management, distribution
Outreach Committee: Develop program ideas for swim and safety education, environmental stewardship
Swim Ratification Committee: Develop GoMOWSA “Rules for Swim Ratification,” develop mechanism for submission of swims, set up and manage database, review swims submitted for ratification
Social Committee: Plan events to promote fellowship within swim community
CONTACT US if you’d like to become involved. We would love to hear your ideas!