{"id":4089,"date":"2023-09-01T14:00:33","date_gmt":"2023-09-01T14:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jyc.org\/wordpress\/?page_id=4089"},"modified":"2023-09-01T14:13:00","modified_gmt":"2023-09-01T14:13:00","slug":"2023-story","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jyc.org\/wordpress\/2023-story\/","title":{"rendered":"2023 Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

2023 Fool’s Rules Regatta
\n<\/strong><\/h1>\n

From the Jamestown Press 31 August 2023<\/p>\n

FOOLS RUSH IN AT EAST FERRY<\/h1>\n

\u2018Wonderful tradition\u2019 entertains as usual at East Ferry
\n<\/span>By\u00a0<\/span>ohtadmin\u00a0<\/a>|\u00a0<\/span>on\u00a0<\/span>August 24, 2023<\/span><\/p>\n

BY VERONICA BRUNO<\/span><\/p>\n

Bright sunshine, clear skies and temperate weather may have signified an ideal summer day, but the commotion on the beach Saturday at East Ferry was anything but a casual scene.<\/p>\n

Mayhem paid homage to sublime ridiculousness at the 45th Fools\u2019 Rules Regatta when sailboats \u2014 contraptions, really \u2014 raced 500 feet, including a vessel that was constructed from crates, which was afloat due to inflated balls that were embedded underneath. There was a replica of a Jamestown ferryboat made from cardboard, a duck-decorated drift and a fleet of inflated mattresses and pool floats. There also was a golf-inspired vessel fit with paddling clubs, not to be outdone by the structure that was paddled by hockey sticks.<\/p>\n

Sponsored by the Jamestown Yacht Club, participants were given two hours to build their contrivances once the cannon was fired at 9 a.m. Races commenced at 11 a.m. in five classes, determined by the number of sailors onboard, with the floating catastrophes hitting the water with mixed results. Some boats sank, but most just chugged along, with a singlehanded vessel seemingly heading out to sea rather than the finish line.<\/p>\n

Alex Hirsh goes head over heels after crossing the finish line in first place onboard Hold my Drink in the singlehanded class. PHOTO BY ANDREA VON HOHENLEITEN
\nAlex Hirsh goes head over heels after crossing the finish line in first place onboard Hold my Drink in the singlehanded class.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came over and met for this event,\u201d said spectator Vicky Bernard, of Andover, Mass.<\/p>\n

Bernard was with her husband, Alan, their son, Andy, daughter-in-law, Liz, and teenaged grandson, Matthew, who traveled from Tolland, Conn.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re scoping it out for next year,\u201d Vicky said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to enter,\u201d Andy added. \u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re here, to figure out what works and what doesn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

More importantly, however, the Bernard family was in Jamestown to see \u201cwhat\u2019s the funniest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a dimension of sea worthiness to humor that you have to have,\u201d Andy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just seems hilarious,\u201d added his son, Matt.<\/p>\n

The last time the Bernards tried to meet up at the Fools\u2019 Rules Regatta, their car got a flat tire and they never made it. This year, the family was ecstatic to witness the revelry together for the first time, especially the boats that sank.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s half the fun,\u201d Vicky said.<\/p>\n

Allison Mankin and her daughter, Molly, are staying at their place in Jamestown for the summer. They also were in the crowd to watch the foolishness.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used to do it when I was a little kid,\u201d said Molly, of Boston. \u201cBuilding your own boat, when you\u2019re a little kid, is like the coolest thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allison, who lives in Washington, D.C., when she\u2019s not in Jamestown, calls the regatta a \u201cwonderful tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur family loves engineering,\u201d she said. \u201cThis was a good start in the fun, engineering department.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the Mankin family has completed the course in the past without sinking, they are not decorated fools.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe never won anything,\u201d Allison said. \u201cMaybe we\u2019ll do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

For some spectators, it takes a while to work up the courage to enter. Peter Firmin, for example, of Narragansett, was thinking that \u201csoon\u201d might just be the right time to finally enter the sailing competition. That was decades ago. Firman\u2019s been to about 30 regattas as a spectator.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re contemplating entering soon,\u201d he quipped. \u201cIt\u2019s not easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Firman said \u201ca challenge of confidence\u201d had prevented him from taking the next step in the tomfoolery. He also noticed the use of bamboo for the first time on one of the designs, and eyed the inflatable dragon floats used on another boat with suspicion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seemed a little bit of an unfair advantage,\u201d he quipped.<\/p>\n

Firmin recalled the funniest moment he witnessed in his three-decade span as a spectator, which happened about 15 years ago. It was a four-person design that included a love seat strapped to the upmost top of the vessel. The creative, yet unwieldy, concoction ended up toppling into the water. If Firmin were to leave the safety of the beach for the high seas in 2024, he insisted that his design \u201cwould be something relatively foolish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Class 1
\n1st place: Hold My Drink (Alex Hirsh)
\nClass 2
\n1st place: Flying Unicorn (Ryan Goodburn)
\n2nd place: Mr. Zipp (Marr Archibald)
\n3rd place: OS Racing (Aiden Hastings and Abby Bickley)
\nClass 3
\n1st place: Banana Power (Greydon and Rowan Silva)
\nClass 4
\n1st place: Fail Boat (Sean O\u2019Donnell)
\n2nd place: Aqilla Gorilla (Ellery Hastings and Caroline Buckley)
\nClass 5
\n1st place: Jamestown Ferries (Deb White)
\nMost Ingenious Design: Double Bogey (Andrew and Asa Avery)
\nJudges\u2019 Award: Evil Ace in the Hole III (Chris Roemelin)
\nWorst Example of Naval Architecture: Bottle Rocket (Mark Campbell)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2023 Fool’s Rules Regatta From the Jamestown Press 31 August 2023 FOOLS RUSH IN AT EAST FERRY \u2018Wonderful tradition\u2019 entertains as usual at East Ferry By\u00a0ohtadmin\u00a0|\u00a0on\u00a0August 24, 2023 BY VERONICA BRUNO Bright sunshine, clear skies and temperate weather may have signified an ideal summer day, but the commotion on the beach Saturday at East Ferry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4089","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jyc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jyc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jyc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jyc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jyc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4089"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jyc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4094,"href":"https:\/\/jyc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4089\/revisions\/4094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jyc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jyc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jyc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}