On your mark, get set, sail!

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On Wednesday, July 24, the most creative, colorful, and humorous rafts to grace the waters of the Great South Bay set sail in the basin of the Bay Shore Yacht Club.

The Rise of the Minions boat was fashioned to look like a giant banana. The American Flyer boat sported patriotic American flags. And the neon-pink Pirate Barbie boat had a Ken doll duct taped to the mast, with pink duct tape over his mouth.

The reason for all the creativity?

The rafts were handmade by kids participating in the annual Huck Finn race.

The young sailors built rafts out of anything except wood, glass, or metal, and raced each other in the club basin in a tournament-style competition.

“Over a few weeks, they will create a team, and they have to make a boat out of anything that floats,” explained Brooke Pitta, the co-chair of the Bay Shore Junior Yacht Club family events. “Then, Kate McIntyre and I, my co-chair for the Bay Shore Junior events, came up with a few rules, such as paddles, no paddles, boogie boards or no boogie boards.”

The event is part of the Bay Shore Yacht Club Junior Sailing program. The program, taught by U.S. Sailing Level 1-certified sailing instructors, teaches sailing skills in a safe and fun environment. While the seven-week season, which runs from June 24 through Aug. 9, features plenty of exciting activities on the bay and at the clubhouse, the Huck Finn race is certainly a fan favorite every year.

Excitement was in the air as each team of young sailors arrived with their homemade boats and checked out the rafts made by their friends, carefully scoping out the competition. The kids, aged 8 to 13, compared how they made their boats with friends from other teams.

“It started with a boogie board, and then we put a lot of noodles, I think like 20,” said Kathryn Pitta, a sailor for the Rise of the Minions raft, while wearing the team uniform: a yellow beanie and Minion goggles. “We made it into a banana shape, then we wrapped it in tablecloth. We taped on bananas, added a noodle on the side for handles, and a lot of duct tape, I think like 10 rolls.”

In a tournament-style competition, the teams were called upon to jump in with their boats according to age. The teams were tasked to have one sailor on top of the boat at all times, as the other members acted as engines, propelling the boats to the end of the marina and back.

The competitors utilized skills they learned as part of the junior sailor program, like sailing on the downwind. They also created their own strategies: Delaney Dunn on the Crazy Coconuts boat used a water gun to distract their competitors while racing.

While 11 boats had been signed up to compete, with two to six kids competing per team, a surprise 12th instructors-only team competed with the sailors as well.

Ultimately, a team of three junior sailors, including Casey McIntyre, Quinn Greaker, and Cole Pupke, won the champion round of the competition, and were crowned as winners. Their small raft, named We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat, got the job done, as the small boat moved swiftly and quickly across the water.

The young sailors, regardless of the outcome of their races, and their friends and family who watched the competition, all had a delightful time.

“It’s just old-timey fun! A chance to put down all the electronics, get creative, think outside the box, put on the engineering thinking cap and work with a team of peers using materials found around the house to achieve a sea-worthy vision,” shared Brooke Pitta.

To learn more about the Bay Shore Yacht Club, visit www.bsyc.com.