GONE WITH THE WIND

Wind wreaks havoc on Fools’ Rules Regatta
By ohtadmin / on August 15, 2019

BY ROBERT BERDZUK

A.J. Laurent was in a class by himself last Saturday.
The North Kingstown 11-year-old sailed the sole ship across the finish line at the 42nd annual Fools’ Rules Regatta.
No foolin’.
He was the only one — out of 44 entries.
“I watched it last year and I got really excited about it so I entered a boat this year and it was really fun,” he said after cruising to his victory by a few hundred yards in the 500-yard race.
The first-time contestant designed the plywood and PVC boat, named “GCNII,” himself based on an Opti, which is the type of boat on which he takes lessons. The sail was a cut-up inflatable house.
“I thought a catamaran would be a good idea because it’s less friction in the water and it seemed to work out really well,” he said.
A.J. said he was surprised by his easy win.
“I was expecting to be neck and neck here, but I’m amazed with this design,” he said. “It worked out really well.”
He was the only one things worked out well for as a westerly wind — when there even was a wind — pushed most of the participants’ boats off course into the mooring field and toward Newport.
While “Under the Sea in Hawaii” and “SkyDog” came within about 5 yards of crossing the finish line in the four-person and unlimited classes, respectively, no one in either the two- or three-person classes came close and had to be towed back to shore.
The judges decided to declare the closest to the finish line as the winner in each category, said Greg Hunter, the chief fool of the event hosted by the Jamestown Yacht Club.
“It was surprising,” he said. “We thought as the first race evidenced that some are going to be able to make it down and some not and clearly a lot more didn’t.
“There really wasn’t anything we could do except hope the wind would shift to our favor or maybe the tide because once we started going in one direction, we weren’t going to move the starting line because that would have been unfair to the one who already went off. It was just disappointing, that’s all.”
Hunter said he was happy with the number of contestants, as well as the approximately 500 spectators in attendance.
Some of those who participated were second-generation Jamestowners, including Joe England’s grandsons, Evan, 12, and Joel, 10, Mystic, Conn., residents taking part in their first bit of foolishness.
The Winona Street resident’s wife, Maryann, persuaded the boys to take part, like their mother had when she was a child.
“My kids used to do it — their mother used to do it and their aunt used to do it 25 years ago when they were about their age so it’s going through generations,” he said.
The boys’ boat was constructed from Tupperware buckets, Gorilla tape and paracord, a design with which they helped.
“They came over last night and we started preparing around 7 o’clock last night and we were here at 7:30 this morning,” England said. “It’s been a lot of fun.”
A pair of twins from Seaside Drive also were freshman entrants aboard a lavishly designed movie-themed vessel.
Xavier and Vivian Catallozzi, and Nora and Leo Evans were sets of 6-year-old twins joined by their mothers aboard “Toy Story 4.”
“We wanted to do something fun since ‘Toy Story 4’ came out this summer and the kids were excited about it,” Tiffany Catallozzi said.
Tiffany, who has lived in town for 11 years, discussed the idea with Haley Evans, who moved to town last summer as part of her husband’s military job. They crafted their boat from PVC pipe and plywood with an umbrella sail. It was festooned with characters and letter blocks from the movie.
“It sounded like a lot of fun,” Haley Evans said. “We love dressing up in costumes and we love doing craft kind of things so it was perfect for us.”