THUNDER ON THE SHREWSBURY

September 28th & 29th, 2007
 

sponsored by the Long Branch Ice Boat & Yacht Club

Photo's supplied by Tom Van Dike.

Friday - September 28th

My wife Donna and I have been to many non racing events involving Skiffs.  Having never been to a Skiff event in New Jersey, where it all started, we didn't know what to expect.  We have met Skiffers from NJ at various events outside of NJ and we all enjoyed a common interest, SKIFFS.

Reading the discussion board of a local Speed Skiff internet site, we really didn't know what to expect at Long Branch.  We arrived Friday afternoon at the LBIBYC to find a lot of Skiffs already in the parking lot.  Warm welcomes and introductions started immediately.

We finally unhitched Heartbeat and headed back to the room to get ready for the Friday Night Dinner that the LBIBYC was putting on.  Again, great conversations with new and old friends along with good food.

Saturday morning the boats went in the water for a long day of what turned out to be introductions to Speed Skiffs.  The dock and front lawn was crowded with spectators who were full of questions and eager for rides.

I had the privilege of taking Mark Van Winkles father Marshall, for what I thought would be a short ride. Note - he participated in two races around Long Island in a wooden skiff in the 50's.  We were out for about 45 minutes.  In addition to running with other Skiffs, we ran with a V-Drive, a offshore and two wave runners that topped out at 72 mph. Luckily Heartbeat had a little more, it might have been embarrassing.  I can't tell you how many Skiffs took how many people for rides, but it was a lot. All afternoon Saturday the spectator fleet grew out on the water.

Saturday night, the  LBIBYC out did themselves again with another great dinner.  Oh by the way lunch was good too.  I squeezed it in between rides and answering questions.

The members of LBIBYC and volunteers should be proud of themselves. They put on a great event.  Gary Gifford of Stuart Florida described the event like this, " With everybody you talked too, you felt like you became immediate good friends with".  Where did the LBIBYC find all these great people?  Altogether there were over 20 Skiffs.  None of them reflected the negatives that one might expect after visiting local Speed Skiff web sites.  They must have had something better to do.

Looking foreword to next year.

Paul Nowack

JS22 Heartbeat