The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

DESPITE watching his Campari Lady in Red, Lady Nathalie get caught by two boats during the St Valentine’s Day Massacre, Eleazor ‘the Sailing Barber’ Johnson still left Montagu Bay over the weekend smiling from ear to ear.

Johnson, the local organiser, was more than thrilled with the overall success of the two-day regatta that attracted thousands of spectators for the Bahamian Brewery’s Sands Man in the Boat sculling, the youth Optimist sailing, the E class sloop sailing and the grand finale, the A class ‘Catch Me If You Can’ race.

“It took a lot of money to pull it off,” said Johnson, who noted that his committee had a budget of more than $50,000 for the two days of competition. “We had to bring in the boats from the Family Islands and that cost us about $35,000. It was very well attended. It came from the help of God.

“What I wanted to do was to help the people out. Those who had the stalls selling the food and drinks should have made thousands of dollars. I think the intake for those two days was at least a quarter of a million. It was great. It was the biggest event I ever had.”

Johnson said persons from Black Point, Exuma, Ragged Island and Long Island were among the 10 stalls set up in Montagu. He thanked his many sponsors, including Sir Durward ‘Sea Wolf’ Knowles, Minister of Agriculture V Alfred Gray, Bahamian Brewery and Sands Beer, Bristol Cellars and all who made a contribution, as well as the RBPF for keeping law and order because there were large crowds.

“I hope that next year, we pull more than the 51,000 people that attended this year,” he said. “They came to see my boat win, but she didn’t win. I won because I was able to draw a lot of people to the regatta. I was very impressed with the success of the regatta, even though I wanted my boat to win.”

After getting caught on the head start given over the A class boats for the second consecutive year, Johnson said he’s looking at making some adjustments for 2016. He’s hoping next year to also include the Tida Wave and Ruff Justice, the only two A class boats who didn’t participate this year.

“You will never know what will happen when the boats get out there,” he said. “Nobody expected Ed Sky to catch me, but she was the first boat, followed by the Running Tide, as the only boats to catch me this year. I might do an ocean race next year. I might let the A class boats compete in a race on Saturday before they do the challenge race on Sunday.”

Before the year is over, Johnson said he intends to have a Back-To-School Sailing Regatta in August for the high school students.

“We need to start teaching them now how to sail these boats,” Johnson said. “We need to have more young people get involved in the sport.”