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By Dennis Stierer
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By Doug Benz
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YOUNGSTOWN: Ready for regatta
35th Annual Youngstown Level Regatta set for this weekend
Hundreds of sailboats will pull up to the Youngstown Yacht Club Thursday night and into Friday, signaling the village’s biggest event of the year.
The 35th annual Youngstown Level Regatta will begin with a street party for the locals beginning 6 p.m. Thursday on Main Street.
Races will take place on Saturday and Sunday — with spectators lining up on the shores and on their boats in the water — and the event will wrap up with an awards ceremony at the Yacht Club on Sunday afternoon.
“This is the weekend we look forward to all year, for business,” said Bruce Paeplow, owner of the Youngstown Motel.
The regatta, started by village resident Don Finkle in 1972, has grown from a small 20 boat gathering to one of the country’s largest races of its kind, said Dick Roach, a member of the Yacht Club’s Board of Directors. Organizers are expecting an orderly 2,000 out-of-towners to the tiny village (est. population, 1,891) this year.
“The biggest thing is we’re stressing the racing and having a good time,” Roach said. “We want to cover our costs and make money on it, but mostly we want it to be great racing and a fun event for everybody.”
The Yacht Club runs the event in cooperation with the village.
Races are broken up into different types at the regatta — by both the class and length of a boat and by a handicapped rating system similar in some ways to golf, Roach said. It attracts experienced, “top-drawer” sailors from nearby areas and all over the Great Lakes.
About 10 races will be ongoing at a time, put together by professional race organizers who set courses based on the wind direction.
The event means as much village businesses as it does to the sailors who make the weekend trek to race.
“It really has a wonderful impact on the village,” said Sue MacNaughton, owner of The Dory on Main Street. She later added, “All the accommodations are booked in Youngstown and the surrounding area. For the restaurants, it’s great.”
Village Mayor Neil Riordan said the event affords the village prestige and a welcome economic boost.
“As one of the world’s largest and most famous level regattas, prestige alone is something the village welcomes,” he said. “And certainly the diversity of our Main Street businesses look forward to the onset of the crowd.”
During the day when races are happening, the village doesn’t look much different than usual, MacNaughton said. But in the evening, the racers and the people they know make the village a busy place.
There are other special moments for MacNaughton, as well. She enjoys watching the boats launch from the dock in the morning and hearing the national anthems on Saturday morning.
“With the recognition this little village gets for holding this event, and remembering it’s an all-volunteer run regatta and many of the volunteers are also village residents, it’s just very positive,” she said.
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