Fun comes first in the St. Petersburg GOB Regatta
Issue 72 : May/Jun 2010
Steve Lang started something big in St. Petersburg, Florida. As a Good Old Boat subscriber, beginning with the very first issue, it was only natural that when fellow sailors decided Tampa Bay needed one more sailboat race he’d think of a race involving good old boats and, inspired by the popular Annapolis regatta by that name, he’d think to name it the Good Old Boat Regatta. He planted a seed among other St. Petersburg sailors. Pretty soon there was a gung-ho committee. Not too long after that, a race was born that was successful beyond anyone’s wildest dreams.
More than 50 boats and many associated crewmembers turned up on Saturday, January 23, for Tampa Bay’s first-ever “sailboat race for the rest of us.” The boats were divided into four fleets from spinnaker racers to a “good old fun class.” The boats ranged in size from a 44-foot CSY to a wooden racing dinghy, the 21-foot Fish Class gaffer. There were a whole lot of boats in between . . . just about one of every sailboat type ever built. Or so it seemed. You can see what they were, who sailed them, and how they fared at the race website, www.spsa.us.
Although we didn’t get to sail that day, Jerry Powlas (my husband and Good Old Boat co-founder) and I had the best seats in the house. We hopped aboard a small Boston Whaler, courtesy of the St. Petersburg Sailing Center, driven by Zac Oppenheim, watercraft program coordinator at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg. We zipped around the fleet, taking photos at the start, a couple of the marks, and at the finish. We wound up with photos of all the participants, I hope. That was my goal. I had about 400 photos when the day was done.
Fun for all
The real appeal of Good Old Boat Regattas is that, although these may be races and they’re officiated like races, the pressure’s off. They’re fun for observers and fun for participants. There’s none of that shouting aboard about “trim, trim, trim!” Only a few crews take the trouble to sit on the windward rail. And there are no protests.
Instead, these racers are taking photos of other racers. They’re smoking cigars. A few have dinghies in davits. The best captains make sure no one aboard misses out on lunch. Some of the beverages may have some alcohol content. They’re fairly laid-back about the start (it was the rare boat that crossed the line at the gun).
Instead of arriving with a cutthroat attitude, they went out for a daysail with a bunch of other good old boats and then retired to the yacht club afterward to discuss what each observed from his own unique spot in the race. In that regard, a sailboat race is not unlike the six blind men and the elephant: each has a perspective of events that is unique to that boat. Only Jerry, Zac, and I on the Boston Whaler had a broader perspective, but we all knew the sailors were having more fun.
In fact they were having so much fun it’s a sure bet there will be another Good Old Boat Regatta in St. Petersburg next January. The enthusiastic committee members have already started making plans. Next year, they’ll be ready for the crowd that is sure to come. It’s time now for Steve Lang and the committee that made this first-time event so successful to take a bow.
Karen Larson and her husband, Jerry Powlas, the founders of Good Old Boat, have been sailing their C&C 30 on Lake Superior for nearly 20 years, but not in the hard-water season — that’s when they go see what good old boaters are up to in parts of the country where it’s still warm enough for sailing.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
