{"id":5663,"date":"2025-08-23T17:22:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T17:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jyc.org\/wordpress\/?page_id=5663"},"modified":"2025-08-23T18:07:27","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T18:07:27","slug":"2025-story","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jyc.org\/wordpress\/fools-rules-regatta\/2025-story\/","title":{"rendered":"2025 Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the Jamestown Press<\/a> 21 August 2025<\/p>\n

\"\"“Spaceballs” sails to a third-place finish Satuday during the Class IV race of the Fools’ Rules Regatta. The boat also was given the award for “Most Ingenious Design” by the judges. PHOTOS BY VERONICA BRUNO<\/a><\/p>\n

ANNUAL RACE FILLED WITH FLOATING FUN<\/h1>\n

The beach at East Ferry for the 47th time was transformed into a madcap scene of tools, parts and decorations as crews of \u201csailors\u201d worked to make seaworthy contraptions from items not designed to meet that goal.<\/p>\n

The allotted two-hour boatbuilding period for the Fools\u2019 Rules Regatta began at 9 a.m. Saturday with 26 frantic crews working on designs that ranged from Vikings and bananas to \u201cThe Flintstones\u201d and \u201cJaws.\u201d<\/p>\n

The choices were both mind-boggling and hilarious with \u201cThe Party Sharks\u201d choosing to stick a tub on top of their floating foundation, tethering it with components from a bike rack. Bystanders gawked at that \u201cvessel\u201d to see if it would float, which it ultimately did.<\/p>\n

Another ambitious project tasked a team with building a colorful craft around a beach chair. Perhaps the biggest surprise was witnessing the transformation of \u201cSpaceballs,\u201d the movie, into a ridiculous pirate ship, which shockingly finished in third place in the unlimited class with skipper Jonathan Jenney at the helm.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Party Sharks,\u201d skippered by Jerry Pezzullo, also managed to make it to the finish line in second place ahead of \u201cSpaceballs.\u201d First place in that class belonged to \u201cWings & Tails on the Water,\u201d a whimsical model with mermaid details designed by a group of childhood friends from Providence with a Minnesotan onboard.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re best friends,\u201d said Caroline Silver, 10, about the foursome that worked on \u201cWings & Tails.\u201d Her crewmates were Amelia Archibald, 9, who was in town from the Gopher State, and the Savage sisters, Zoe, 9, and Olympia, 7. They worked on the design through video chats.<\/p>\n

The girls also incorporated costumes into their setup with Amelia and Olympia opting for fairy wings as Caroline donned mermaid pants. Their parents set a budget of $100 for the design, which the girls were able to fit everything into, including two purple floats that made up the foundation of the vessel.\u00a0\u201cWe tested the floats in a pool,\u201d Amelia said.\u00a0Their hard work paid off as they won the race.<\/p>\n

The \u201cMeet the Flintstones\u201d boat managed to create the likeness of the prehistoric car from the animated series, complemented with their spot-on costumes. They even got the contraption to float, at least for a while. Not everyone could fit into the car \u2014 famously pedaled in the series by Fred\u2019s feet \u2014 with the other two floating behind in attached dinosaur-themed pool donuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should enter\u201d was what Jill and John Nosach were told by their sailing friends when they talked about the 2024 Fools\u2019 Rules Regatta. They even wrangled their daughter, Courtney Saari, a marine biologist, to join them. So, did they create something that floated?<\/p>\n

\u201cNo guarantees,\u201d Jill quipped during the boatbuilding period.<\/p>\n

The Fools\u2019 Rules Regatta has been an iconic summer tradition in Jamestown since it was founded by Karl Smith in 1978 to celebrate sailing skills in a goofy format. Vessels are not allowed to be assembled until that morning, and after two boatbuilding hours, they set sail on the 500-yard race overlooking the Pell Bridge.<\/p>\n

There are five classes. The first four classes depend on the number of sailors in the crews. Class 1, for example, is for single sailors and Class 2 is for crews of two. Class 5 allows an unlimited number of crew.<\/p>\n

Throughout the years, all kinds of tools have been employed to construct the vessels that often resemble cardboard barges stuck together with duct tape. Themes are left open for interpretation, which leads to silly creativity that has made the regatta one of the most memorable traditions in Jamestown.<\/p>\n

Winners and Awards.
\nClass 1
\n1st – “Downwind Dining”
\n2nd – “Lotus”
\n3rd – “Ship Right”<\/p>\n

Class 2
\n1st – “Beachball Bash”
\n2nd – “Hot Tub Machine”
\n3rd – “Los Pirates”<\/p>\n

Class 3
\n1st – “Zack & Jack Attack”
\n2nd – “We are Bananas”
\n3rd – “Channel 16”<\/p>\n

Class 4
\n1st – “Wings & Tails on the Water”
\n2nd – “The Party Sharks”
\n3rd – “Spaceballs”<\/p>\n

Unlimited
\n1st – “Haun Cloud 9”
\n2nd – “Team Ferrari”
\n3rd – “Meet the Flintstones”<\/p>\n

Most Ingenious Design – “Spaceballs”
\nJudge’s Award – “Meet the Flintstones”
\nWorst Example of Naval Architecture – “We are Bananas”<\/p>\n

[table id=1 \/]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the Jamestown Press 21 August 2025 “Spaceballs” sails to a third-place finish Satuday during the Class IV race of the Fools’ Rules Regatta. The boat also was given the award for “Most Ingenious Design” by the judges. PHOTOS BY VERONICA BRUNO ANNUAL RACE FILLED WITH FLOATING FUN The beach at East Ferry for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":42,"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-5663","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jyc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5663","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=5663"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jyc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5693,"href":"https:\/\/jyc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5663\/revisions\/5693"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jyc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/42"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jyc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jyc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jyc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}