First Annual Tampa Bay Good Old Boat Regatta
Sponsored by Good Old Boat Magazine
Hosted by St. Petersburg Sailing Association
January 23, 2010
St. Petersburg, FL
The Good Old Boat Regatta,
Boats of a certain age converge on Tampa Bay
If 52 vastly different sailboats get together, can you still have a regatta? Can you call it a race even if the competition differs over decades of design variations in materials and rigging? Can a race work if all participants are only alike because they are, umm, pretty old? Can you have a race that involves everything from gaff-rigged catboats to sharpies to classic full-keel designs, even if most of these boats and their skippers have never raced, or certainly not raced in years?
The answer is yes, if it's a Good Old Boat Regatta. The folks of the St. Petersburg Sailing Association put out the word last fall that they were going to stage the first-ever racing event on Tampa Bay for boats of at least 20 years' vintage. The organizers expected maybe 20 boats and crews to attend their first event, held on January 23. Instead they were blown away by the number, age, and amazing condition of the yachts that attended, the enthusiasm shown by area sailors, and the fun that ensued when the registration list topped 50 two weeks before the race.
Elizabeth Mills, Commodore of SPSA, was thrilled to organize the troops to put together parties on Friday and Saturday evening, make registration packets, and arranging dock space for the rapidly growing event. She sent out an email to officers and volunteers with "WOW!" as the subject and the race was on.
Boats came from all over the west coast of Florida by trailer and tow. Norm Buechting left a voice mail, "I'm coming" and showed up in the parking lot, recruited help to step the mast, and nabbed a crew for the race without knowing anyone before the regatta. A Fish Class boat, once popular in Tampa Bay from the 1920s to the 1960s, was towed over from Apollo Beach with 92-year-old skipper Harold Balcom representing the Tampa Sailing Squadron. A fleet of five vessels followed Mike Denney's Puff from Safety Harbor while Bruce Bingham led the squadron from Boca Ciega. Sinisterre was the vanguard from Davis Island while the college kids from the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, arrived in a Tartan older than any of the sailors aboard!
Snowbirds and vacationers, people came from all over the country hoping to crew and willing to lend a hand. After all, where else would one rather be in January, if not in Florida? Good Old Boat contributor Tom Wells from Missouri even wrote a song about the regatta. ("It's Jan-u-ar-y. They're shivering up north. But down here in the warmer climes the good old boats go forth.")
The concept of racing good old boats is not new. A group of Annapolis sailors, sidelined by the Chesapeake Bay Racing Association when their class sizes became too small to be viable in local races, started an alternative race. Thinking of it as "the sailboat race for the rest of us," these sailors created a race that welcomed any boat as long as the first keel of its type was laid before 1975. The first Annapolis Good Old Boat Regatta was held in October 2000. Eventually there were nearly 100 boats on the line, and the founders were forced to limit participation to the first 80 boats to sign up each year.
Steve Lang, owner of a 1964 Pearson Vanguard, noticed the action in the Chesapeake and approached the SPSA to host a Good Old Boat Regatta in Tampa Bay. The logic was that all the hot shots were off at Key West Race Week in mid-January. "So why not get the rest of us together for a regatta of our own?" he asked.
Regardless of whether their "racing craft" was a classic from famous builders like Columbia, Morgan, Rhodes, Cal, or Hinckley, skippers and crews had a good time. No matter whether their boat had its original sails or a new mylar racing set, no matter whether their boat's hull was patched or shiny, these sailors didn't take themselves too seriously. There was a minimum shouting of "trim, trim, trim!" and not a single protest or reported collision despite close quarters (due mostly to various skippers admiring or showing off their boats!). There are very few racers sitting on the rail, but there were a number of dinghies hanging from davits. The boat that took top honors for good looks was Mudlark, a Norwalk Island Sharpie skippered by John Archard, but every boat there deserved honors.
The regatta had four divisions starting with the typical PHRF spinnaker, non-spinnaker, and true-cruising. This race was different in order to accommodate the staysails, gaffs, and spruce spinnaker poles. The forth division was a Good Old Fun class for unrated boats and had no rules, except a prohibition against internal combustion. As it turned out, every division had between 10 and 15 entries. Dave Ellis served as principal race officer and was careful to explain the course and announced official actions on VHF along with some useful advice, like, "You'd have a better start if you were on the west side of the line with all the other boats until after the starting signal." The four division winners were Eclipse, a Chrysler 27; Sazerac, a Ranger 26; Grrr, a Tartan 37; and Shutterspeed, a Tartan Ten.
With the exception of the 1937 Fish Class dinghy, the fleet was almost evenly divided between boats built in the '60s, '70s, and '80s. The most popular builders were Pearson and Morgan, while LOAs ran from the smaller San Juan 21 to a CSY 44. Regardless, the old adage that they "don't build them like they used to" had many examples that proved the point on the water in 2010. Almost every yacht was shipshape and captains were obviously proud of their restoration and maintenance efforts.
One may well ask about the definition of a good old boat. To the sailors in Annapolis, it's a boat designed before 1975 and in Tampa Bay it was boats built before 1990. To the founders of the Tampa Bay Good Old Boat Regatta, it's not the exact date the hull hit water, but the celebration of good old boats and the sailors who appreciate them. And to the founders of Good Old Boat magazine, which can't help but sponsor races of the same name, it's any well-loved sailboat at least 10 years old or older. Just as in the race, anything goes when it comes to good old boats. Their sailors just want to have fun.
Back To Top
