Video of the race
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=201010110321 Paddlers ride in Pumpkin Regatta • By Matt Ryan, • Burlington Free Press Staff • Writer • Monday, October 11, 2010 • SOUTH BURLINGTON -- Danny Boyce, snug inside the 1,099 pound pumpkin he grew in Benson, bobbed in the water beside the dock and sized-up the competition. • The champion of his heat, Boyce returned to Burlington on Sunday to defend his title in the third annual Giant Pumpkin Regatta. He brought three giant pumpkins to the race, but chose the homeliest of the bunch to hollow into a vessel. • "The other two are prettier than this one," Boyce said. "They're more pumpkiny. This one's pretty ugly." • Boyce's pretty-ugly pumpkin was one of 10 giant pumpkins entered in the race. The competition included one man who tried, unsuccessfully, to power his pumpkin with a weed whacker and a man and woman who rode together inside the same pumpkin, and finished last. • In the end, Boyce's strategy to "paddle really hard" earned him a second place finish. Parker Young, 16, of Jericho and his 819 pound pumpkin, grown by Wilbur Horton of Springfield, won the race. Young lost to Boyce last year. • "Dan was taking it easy today," Young said. • Thousands of spectators stood on the shore at Waterfront Park to watch the pumpkin races. • "This is a fantastic crowd," said Rich Tulikangas, regatta organizer and executive director of Linking Learning to Life in Burlington. "It's a tremendous showing." • The regatta raised more than $20,000 for the PILOT youth leadership program run by Linking Learning to Life and the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce, Tulikangas said. Most of the money raised came by way of companies that sponsored pumpkins in the races, Tulikangas said. •
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