Sunday afternoon, just as the crowd began to get restless, the annual Crucian Christmas Festival Boat Races kicked off at the Albert Edwards Fish Market, a victim of its own popularity..
The event was scheduled to begin at noon, but it took a two-hour delay to get all the boats registered and the fun to begin.
By all accounts the races proved to be worth the wait. Crucians and tourists from the Celebrity cruise ship all cheered as the races got under way. A couple from Wisconsin, who declined to give their names, said they had never seen so much excitement for a boat race and were sad they wouldn’t be able to stay for the whole event.
A total of seven races took place, each containing an A, B, and C class. Each lettered category represents the parameters in horsepower that the boats had to meet:
• A-Class, 600 hp and higher
• B-Class, 400-590 hp
• C-Class, 100-300 hp
First, there was a circuit race, in which the boats had to maneuver around several buoys and complete two laps. The smallest boats went first – C-Class – followed by B and A respectively. The crowd cheered loudest during the B-Class race because the boats maintained a closer distance than in the other two.
Next was the most popular race, the drag race, which was slightly hampered because of the presence of the cruise ship. Normally the races start at the west end and head east, ending at the cruise ship pier, but because a ship was docked, they went in reverse: ending the race by the western-most buoy. Taddy Todmann, a drag race car driver, was especially excited during the round.
“I love the drag races – they are more competitive and go in a straight shot which make them more fun to watch,” he said.
The waterfront became increasingly busy after the drag races, as people of all ages packed into the park to watch the final race, called the “open-off,” which followed the same course as the drag races but was comprised of all of the boats in each class – a total of eleven.
Trophies were awarded in the different categories, but a list of winners was not available.