Kent Island Regatta 2019

*Which has been dubbed the Sea Grass Regatta. First a water spout in 2017, then torrential rain in 2018 and now Sea Grass!

First a A big thank you to Kent Island Yacht Club for hosting our event again this year and to Bob Wallace for all of his help in organizing this event with us and to his son, Brendan Wallace, and his wife, Kate, for running the Safety boat all day! Luckily we only had a single tow, Russ Bowler with his Early Classic Mixed engine. Thanks also to Jeff Weeber for running the Pit like a Boss and Capt. Peter Urbani, for staying in the water by the Race Committee all day long to clear props of the sea grass, with Benji Cantera’s assistance, and for doing several on-the-spot repairs and to our Race Directors, Commodore Keith Carew and Vice Commodore Capt. Peter Urbani for organizing another successful event!

It was a beautiful, sunny day at Kent Island Yacht Club on Saturday, July 20th for the 2019 Kent Island Regatta! The Heat Index was only a mere 114+. We had 22 racers registered and 21 racers who braved the heat wave and showed up ready to race with 15 boats, which made for a competitive and fun day of racing, despite the heat. Some of the toughest competition our racers faced was from the sea grass, which frustrated and annoyed novice and long-time racers alike! It broke a few winning streaks and was the culprit of many Did Not Start and Did Not Finish penalties. The only positive part of the sea grass was the swamp monster competition that Pete and Benji took part in throughout the day to the cheers of the spectators. Benji may have won this competition! See photos to judge for yourself!

From L to R: Capt. Peter Urbani, Benji Cantera

CCWBRA had a first photo-confirmed finish of a neck and neck race between Morgan Carew (81 Blue Hawaiian – white) and Annaliesse Cantera (114 Rolling Thyme -pink) in the 3rd race of the Post 79 Women’s Class Finals.

Morgan closed the gap to win by a bow tip and take home 3rd place! Thanks to Lena Cantera for capturing this exciting finish and all the rest of the pictures for us all to enjoy!

We also had a few new drivers of CCWBRA racers, including Capt. Lou Linden, who is racing 66 Mrs. Smirnoff, Nyree Wannell, racing with John Sanguinetti in 810 Dark & Stormy (with an assist from Tom’s 46 Rajic when 810 had some engine difficulties) and Molly Moran, racing with the Wilmot team in 109 Pink Lady. For her first race, Molly came in 2nd place in Early Classic Women’s!

There were several teams that showed up ready to race in several engine classes and in some cases, several boats, including Canteras’ The Mosquito Fleet, PropTalk’s Molotov, Carews’ Blue Hawaiian, Sanguinetti’s Dark & Stormy team and Art Gompf’s SNAFU team along with individual racers, Tom Kerr, Russ Bowler, Peter Urbani, Mike Serio and Lou Linden. The largest class was by far the Post 79 class with 8 engines registered to race, with Tom Kerr taking 1st place in Post 79 Mixed in 46 Rajic, Benji Cantera taking 2nd place in 114 Rolling Thyme and Frank Cantera taking 3rd place in 100 ConCon. Sara Orthwein lead the pack each heat in Post 79 Women’s in 1314 SNAFU, Kaylie Jasinski taking 2nd place and Morgan Carew taking 3rd in 81 Blue Hawaiian.

Russ Bowler pulled another Bowler Blunder at the races in the Late Classic Mixed, although I think the definition of the Bowler Blunder has been expanded from trying to race in the wrong event to now also missing the buoy at the finish and having to circle back to cross the finish line! This didn’t stop him from winning 1st place overall in this event!

This course appeared to cause a bit of confusion for several of the racers who missed the 2nd to last buoy to port and had to circle back or almost missed it. We won’t name names but they all figured it out without getting penalty points for not following the course!

We also had three generations of racer’s family competing in the double water slide competition to help beat the heat, with Keith barely inching out Tara Carew’s mom, who came out despite the heat to support the Carew-Blue Hawaiian team!

It was another successful CCWBRA racing event! Thank you to all for attending and to all of our volunteers!

Photo Credit: Lena Cantera – Post 79 Mixed Finals – Tom Kerr (46) across the start line first with a clean start! Followed closely by Frank Cantera (100), Spencer Feeny (109), Tara Carew (81), Art Gompf (1314) and Benji Cantera (114)

Click here to see more Lena Cantera’s photos from the KIYC Regatta!

Here are the complete race results for the 2019 Kent Island Regatta: