Charleston Regatta, Sad Fate Of A Once Great Festival!

SHOCKLEY · Post by **SHOCKLEY** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 12:37 pm

It enrages me to no end that the politicians killed this off!!

Regatta's sternwheeler tradition coming to an end

Brad McElhinny
Daily Mail staff

Friday August 31, 2007
So few sternwheelers are docked on the Kanawha River this year, organizers are considering dropping the word from the name Charleston Sternwheel Regatta.

"I think it is silly to continue promoting ourselves as a sternwheel regatta when those days are gone," said Regatta director Sharon King.

""What we need to do is revisit that. We're going to kind of segue into Charleston Regatta. Being on the river and having activities there will still allow us to use our trademark name of Regatta. After 37 years, I think that's OK."

The number of sternwheelers participating in Regatta has ebbed and flowed over the years. As recently as 2000, the 30th anniversary of the festival, there was a record of 30 full-size sternwheelers and three baby sternwheelers.

This year, there are two: Miss Sterling and the Karen Leigh.

Many of the rest of the majestic boats instead have gone to a new festival in Point Pleasant. Organizers of the Tribute to the River festival there expect about 30 sternwheelers to dock along the Ohio River on Saturday.

"It's a shame," said Tom Jones, a 67-year-old Kanawha City resident who is the owner of Miss Sterling. "We had the best thing going in Charleston. I was born and raised here. You can't turn your back on Charleston."

The Miss Sterling was built in 1926 in, of all places, Point Pleasant. It was named for the Sterling Oil Co. and shoved oil and gas barges up and down local waterways. Jones bought it and restored it in 1983 and has participated in every Sternwheel Regatta since.

He has friends who would be upset if he and his boat didn't appear.

"If I didn't bring that boat down here, they'd hang me," said Jones, who used to own a trucking company.

"We used to do all kinds of things. We used to push and race. Now we do nothing but sit and talk to each other."

The festival was launched in 1971 by Nelson Jones, who was 12 years old. He had heard childhood stories about the steamboat race his father Charlie Jones and others organized in the mid-1950s.

So the festival Nelson Jones started was all about the sternwheelers. It featured races on the Kanawha River.

Even by 1993, the festival was moving away from its original focus. That year, Nelson Jones didn't participate. Instead, he raced his boat, the Laura J., in St. Albans. Construction of Haddad Riverfront Park eliminated the downtown levee as a dock, and the City Council nixed the idea of the West Side's Magic Island as a substitute.

Two years later, for the Sternwheel Regatta's silver anniversary, Jones was back on board and helping to organize a strong sternwheeler turnout. Months before the festival, he announced at least 28 sternwheelers were participating.

This year, prompted by the competing festival in Point Pleasant, organizers have had to face facts that the Sternwheel Regatta hasn't really been about the sternwheelers for quite some time, King said.

The Point Pleasant festival -- along with upcoming festivals in Marietta, Ohio, and Wheeling -- have more to offer for sternwheel captains, King said. The Ohio River is deeper, the docks are broader, the stages are turned to better let boaters hear the music and the organization is more attuned to what sternwheel captains want, she said.

"The Regatta's position is real simple," King said. "We cannot afford to do for the sternwheelers what has been done in the past. We realize that river communities like Point Pleasant, Parkersburg and Marietta can afford to do more.

"I've gotten a lot of calls from sternwheelers, and I literally told those people to go to Point Pleasant this weekend or Marietta next weekend."

The Sternwheel Regatta has had trouble obtaining the barges for the big boats to dock, King said. In past years, Amherst Industries has helped obtain the barges and put up the cost for insurance. But King said Amherst can't be expected to do that year after year.

Organization also has been a challenge, she said. Many years, Nelson Jones stepped up with leadership. This year, he was expected to participate in the Point Pleasant event, although organizers said his health has made that doubtful.

Without Jones, there is often a void, King said.

"We've never been able to get a strong river committee, to get someone to step to the plate and say, 'I will take this over,'<#148> King said.

In Point Pleasant, everyone is excited about this weekend's sternwheeler event. The big boats already have started docking there, even though the events don't really get started until 8 a.m. Saturday, said director Jack Fowler.

The highlights include a riverboat whistle blow, a singing contest by the crews of the sternwheelers and sternwheel races on the river. An Episcopal priest will be there to bless the boats.

"We're kind of an ideal location for the sternwheelers to get together to go on to Marietta next weekend," Fowler said, referring to the Ohio River Sternwheeler Festival.

Fowler was aware that the Sternwheel Regatta is this weekend also. He knew a lot of sternwheelers that have participated in the Regatta in the past would be in Point Pleasant instead.

"I guess that was something they all had to do," he said. "If you have two events, you have to make your choice."

On the Kanawha River on Thursday, Frank Burdette was feeling pretty lonely. He's the owner of the Spirit of South Charleston. Burdette, 54, was without his own sternwheeler because it has been leased to the state to ferry people to and from Blennerhassett Island in Parkersburg.

Nevertheless, Burdette was on the dock at Haddad Riverfront Park, helping visitors get set up. There were about 30 small pleasure boats bobbing up and down in the water, but Burdette was missing his sternwheeler friends who were in Point Pleasant instead.

"It's a special occasion there, and you can't blame them," Burdette said.

Contact writer Brad McElhinny at bradmc@dailymail.com or 348-5129.

CoolBreeze · Post by **CoolBreeze** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 6:17 pm

It's Charlestons biggest "non event" now.

The Charleston Yes-We-Have-No-Sternwheelers-Regatta

genlock · Post by **genlock** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 6:23 pm

And they are not letting boats plug in to shore power.
Except the boat owners that are "invited" to do so.
Also no lawn chairs or byob. Must buy from vendors.

SHOCKLEY · Post by **SHOCKLEY** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 11:13 pm

So Sad...

Going from a 10 Day Festival where I saw 100,000+ show up for the Beach Boys and that same amount or more a few years later for Alabama, and now it has fallen to this..

Pathetic..

PassiveObserver · Post by **PassiveObserver** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 11:57 pm

I'm a little confused by the concept anyway. The sternwheeler is more associated with Parkersburg WV/Marietta OH than it is with Charleston.

SHOCKLEY · Post by **SHOCKLEY** » Sat Sep 01, 2007 3:16 am

Didn't used to be that way actually..

The guy that started the Charleston "Regatta" was a long time Sternwheel guy (It was in 1971 that they commemorated a race) and they even used to build Sternwheelers at a place called "Ward Boiler Works" which was located right by the south side bridge in Charleston and at another location in Cedar Grove.

20 years ago it was one of the nicest festivals of it's kind in this part of the country..

cgarison · Post by **cgarison** » Sat Sep 01, 2007 1:45 pm

So the Sternwheel Regatta can now join in sharing the same fate as the Tri-State Fair & Regatta.

No big deal. It is progress. I am sure someone will create a new festival that will celebrate something and it to will become big and then fade into nothing.

David Paleg · Post by **David Paleg** » Sat Sep 01, 2007 1:52 pm

Is the Bridge Day Festival still going strong as ever? I think someone got killed last year while base jumping. Don't know how that will affect it.

Oldiesdude · Post by **Oldiesdude** » Sat Sep 01, 2007 2:06 pm

I was thinking of starting an "IPHONE REGATTA". You could have events like:
Events
The farest toss
The longest, longdistace dialed
The largest download in the fastest time
For Vendor's
Iphone Pie (ie: Apple pie)

And other many other wonderful events & ideas.

Of course, I have never seen an iphone, except on TV, and may never... but hey, it's progress ... WE must capture and act on the moment.

Do iphone's float?... They could be set up with engines and paddlewheels.

David Paleg · Post by **David Paleg** » Sat Sep 01, 2007 2:36 pm

Do they have a camera in them? Attach them to balloons and see which one travels the farthest while the camera captures the scenery the whole time.

Or send one up in a fireworks shell to show an explosion from the inside.

SHOCKLEY · Post by **SHOCKLEY** » Sat Sep 01, 2007 10:11 pm

Nah... Eventually some City Politician will claim that it costs too much and that they can't get a sponsor, and that will die too..lol

CoolBreeze · Post by **CoolBreeze** » Sat Sep 01, 2007 10:53 pm

David Paleg wrote:Is the Bridge Day Festival still going strong as ever? I think someone got killed last year while base jumping. Don't know how that will affect it.

I helped found Bridge Day as we know it. I doubt a death a year could stop it now. So far, we've only had 3 deaths on Bridge Day in 26 years. Considering the many thousands of jumps, that's pretty amazing.

I think if anything... the National Park Service will help to kill-off Bridge Day eventually. They never liked us to begin with and still don't. We have to get a waiver from them to even DO Bridge day. (and that waiver actually comes from Washington, thanks to some big time WV politicians. If it wasnt for them, Bridge Day might have been gone already)

Here's my Bridge Day History Page:
http://www.mywvhome.com/bridge/

Here I am testing the diving board:

David Paleg · Post by **David Paleg** » Sun Sep 02, 2007 1:16 am

That reminds me of the scene of Worf walking the plank in Star Trek Generations.

Zak Tyler · Post by **Zak Tyler** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 2:41 am

David Paleg wrote:That reminds me of the scene of Worf walking the plank in Star Trek Generations.

speaking of Klingons, i went to an apartment party in lynchburg this weekend and dude had one of those kingon battle sword thingys hanging on his wall. if i new how to spell "bachlatgh" i would call it by it's name...

when i called him out on it, he said that his dad made he and his brothers learn klingon back when they were kids... even made them learn to ask for water in klingon before he'd give them some while out hunting... (dude was completely wasted)... then he started singing klingon drinking songs. he was funny as hell, but a very weird dude!

The-Hammer · Post by **The-Hammer** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 4:09 am

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Bat%27Leth

Bob Campbell · Post by **Bob Campbell** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 8:35 am

What a shame. And I thought I'd saved Regatta in '04.

Clay JD Walker · Post by **Clay JD Walker** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 9:53 am

'04 regatta was my first, and it was quite impressive. I honestly thought last year's regatta was cool, simply because of the caliber of acts that were brough in...at least on the country side...legendary, yet still affordable, and non offensive.
Let's face it...it's Charleston WV...a land of political BS, and cheap/poor folk. My father and I have this discussion every time I come back home...people would rather drive x ammount of miles and pay to see something, or eat somewhere, rather than support what's going on locally! OR...if there is something locally going on, such as regatta, they complain because it isn't the same...not that I'm pointing out Shockley, but if one wants change at an event such as Regatta, well, change it!

So...go see the Power play, and let's all hop in the van and head out for a great fun day at Camden Park! Actually, let's nix that last part...I haven't had my tetnis shot recently.