With little fanfare and only a small knot of friends to cheer them on, disappointed cardboard boat race fans staged their own “outlaw” race this morning in downtown Riverhead.
A team headed up by Mark Sisson of Mattituck — which has participated in the instantly popular madcap race event every year since its inception — had already built their vessels when the town pulled the plug on the annual event.
Their unnamed craft, powered by a crew of five, won a race against the only other participant, a vessel named “Hope It Floats” paddled by Sam Notaro and Gabby Comanda.
Notaro said it took “about 30 seconds” for he and Comanda to realize the “Hope It Floats” might not.
“I’m amazed we made it all the way around the buoy and back to the dock,” Notaro said.
This was the pair’s first foray into the world of cardboard boat-building. It took Notaro and Comanda about five hours to construct their cardboard and duct tape vessel, which has been sitting in Notaro’s garage.
“We were very disappointed the race was called off,” Comanda said.
They were awarded with the sole trophy in the contest, which was fashioned by Sisson out of blocks of wood and topped with — what else? — a roll of duct tape.
Sisson is now an old hand at cardboard boat-building. He and his teammates — dubbed the League of Awesome Cardboard Boat Builders — invested about 10 hours in constructing their boat for this year’s race, which was originally scheduled for June 26. It was initially postponed by the town 10 days before the race date, without a new date being set. The town later decided to cancel it altogether for this year, making the announcement two weeks ago.
Event cofounder and organizer George Gabrielsen, a former town councilman, was angry about the decision to postpone and ultimately cancel the race. That was a sentiment shared by the people who showed up for today’s “outlaw” event, either to race or just watch. They used words like “ridiculous” and “stupid” to describe the town’s decision.
“It drew thousands of people downtown, cost nothing to put on and was such a great event to spread goodwill for downtown Riverhead,” said one woman who came down to the riverfront to watch.
“It was my favorite event of the year,” said a passerby, who stopped to chuckle at the waterlogged remains of “Hope It Floats” lying near the riverfront boardwalk after the race. “It’s a shame,” he said, shaking his head. “I hope the town brings it back next year.” See photos and video from last year’s event.
Sisson’s teammates — Chris McHugh, Nora Catlin, Candy Paparo and Katrina Lovett — agreed.
Town officials decided in mid-June to postpone the race over concerns about water quality and the looming potential for another massive bunker kill. After they had trouble settling on a new date with organizers, they said, officials decided to cancel the event for 2016.
“We thought today would be a good day to do it, since Paddle Battle was taking place yesterday. We figured there had to be some kind of clean up taking place before that event,” Sisson said.
RiverheadLOCAL photos by Victoria Pendzick and (last 5) Denise Civiletti
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