To the newcomers, it was a site to behold. To the locals, it is one heck of a party, steeped in great tradition.

These revelers came out to watch something far different. They came out to watch each other, party, and listen to music.

For the most part, the weekend event is considered controlled chaos with over 50 marine officers patrolling the waters and 100 yacht club members manning the race.

But no one will argue that the sheer number of boats, mixed with the obscene amount of alcohol could be a recipe for disaster.

However, despite the unruliness of year’s past, Rockville 2008 was about as tame as it could be with 2,000 plus boats rafted together up and down the creek.

But the spirit of Rockville is everywhere.

It’s seen in the sportsmanship between the sailors and their crew. It’s seen along the banks of Bohickett Creek where spectators come to actually watch the races and cheer on their family and friends. The spirit of Rockville can also be seen in the tradition of the water-side spectators who’ve been coming since they were young — some even racing in the regatta only to hang up their sailing gloves later in life to enjoy other aspects of the event.

The weekend of races round out a summer of sailing. It is what the Lowcountry considers the summer sailing finale.

The history of the regatta

The Rockville Regatta started out as a family friendly competition between island residents 118 years ago.

Confederate veterans converged on Rockville as a reunion of sorts. The village is the site where Robert Sandford claimed Carolina in 1666. It was considered a summer resort for plantation owners.

The veterans eventually brought their families with them to this little retreat and the water beckoned them to swim and sail.

The first official Rockville Regatta came in the summer of 1890 organized by two cousins,  John F. Sosnowski and Jenkins Mikell.

Soon, an actual regatta began to take shape, and  the first week in August after the summer harvest, was the official weekend.

Many things were born out of the Rockville Regatta including the Sea Island One Design first built in 1947 by Ollie Seabrook and Henry Scheel.

At the conclusion of the regatta, the Ellis Trophy is  awarded to the Sea Island One Design boat with the best overall record for the season.

It was presented Sunday by Dr. Daniel Ellis’ great-granddaughter, Anne Swinton Ellis Fitzgerald, to Dave Stanger on Cygnet2. His crew included  Dan Olivier, Will Cabell,  and Van Smith.

At the height of this historically popular race, almost 300 boats competed. Today the race only brings out 50 plus boats. That’s still more than Race chairman Dick McGillvray of Mount Pleasant expected to see.

He said there were no Sunfish Juniors racing this year, but almost 15 Sunfish Master racers. Regatta officials usually register about five.

Because of this, he said the youngest sailor was likely 18 and the oldest 70.

“We don’t advertise that race in part because we don’t have to. It’s been around for 115 years,” he said. “It kind of advertises itself. And we don’t like to advertise it because we have more people than we deal with to begin with. It takes a lot for DNR to keep that crowd straight.”

McGillvray said that no one was reported as being hurt this year - in other words EMS was never called out.

He said he’s glad it was an uneventful Rockville. “This was the largest crowd of spectators I’ve ever seen, but I say that every year. I’ve done this 15 years now and every time I look at the over head pictures don’t see how we can get any more boats in that creek.”

The results

McGillivray served as the race committee chairman/principal again for the 15 year.

He said Rockville racers saw some of the best winds ever, allowing Will Hanckel to take home the E-Scow win with five straight victories.

“The wind was some of the best we’ve ever seen and was coming from the right direction. at Rockville, the wind needs to be straight up and down the river and if we could choose - that would be exactly what we want,” he said.

Mount Pleasant resident Miles Martschink took second  in the E Scow division.

Stanger went 1-1-1-1-2 to win the SIOD class, followed by Stan LaRoche on Marcheta, who went 6-2-2-2-5. Third place went to Jay Bowen on Bohicket II.

Final results

E SCOW: 1. Will Hanckel: 1-1-1-1-1—5; 2. Miles Martschink: 2-DNF-2-5-2—20; Dan Perrin 3-2-6-3-6—20

SIOD: 1. Dave Stanger, Cygnet2: 1-1-1-1-2—6; Stan LaRoche, Marcheta: 6-2-2-2-5—17, Jay Bowen, Bohicket II: 2-4-3-6-4—19;

Y-FLYER: 1. Don Hill: 1-1-2-2-3—9. John Parker: 5-2-1-4-2—14; 3. Ewing Williams: 2-5-3-3-4—17

SNIPE: 1. Lewis Seabrook: 1-1-2-1-2—7; 2. Mike Palazzo: 2-2-1-2-1—8; 2; Andrew Sadowski: 3-3-3-3-3—15

SUNFISH SENIOR 1. Wayne Hiott: 1-1-1-1-1=5; 2. Reid Cabiness: 2-2-2-2-2=10; 3. Frost Parker: 3-3-3-3-3=9

SUNFISH MASTERS 1. Rick Whitehurst: 2-1-1-1-1= 6; 2. Les Cabiness 1-2-2-2-3=10; 3. Meta Frasch: 6-4-3-3-2=18

LASER 1. Bruce Easterling: 2-1-2-2-2=9; 2. Joel Lambinus: 1-7-1-1-1=11; 3. Barclay McCurdy: 4-2-3-3-3=15.

(Sully Witte can be reached at editor@moultrienews.com. See more stories online at www.moultrienews.com)

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