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Big day for Gardella family at Great Dock Canoe Race
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Great Dock Canoe Races
32nd Annual Great Dock Canoe Race at the Naples City Dock on Saturday May 10, 2008.
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With one aw-what-the-heck phone call, the Gardellas turned Mother’s Day weekend into their own personal celebration.
The super-team of Frazier Gardella and sister Dail Frates, who have a combined eight overall wins between them, paired for the first time to take the 32nd running of the Great Dock Canoe Race on Crayton Cove on Saturday.
“I called him on (Thursday night) and said, ‘You wanna race?’ ” said Frates, in town from Vermont to attend the marriage of their brother, Charles, on Saturday night. “I hadn’t been in a canoe for four years.”
There was no rust, as Frates, who’d won the overall title with Anne Grady from 1997-99, and Gardella took advantage of the male-female handicap — which shaved two minutes from their actual finish — to post a 19:47 around the three-mile course.
The adjusted time helped them edge another brother-sister pair, Casey and Cheyenne Jenks (adjusted 20:03), and Rod Price and Ryan Stahl, the Orlando duo that actually crossed the finish first (20:09).
“I am a little surprised that we squeezed it out,” said Gardella, the five-time champ who, until his sister called, hadn’t finalized his rowing partner. “We were just looking to have fun and didn’t really care how we finished. We had always wanted to go together and we never really had this opportunity.”
The siblings maintained that their victory wouldn’t overshadow Charles’ wedding vows to Heather — “This is their day,” Frates said with a laugh — and blended into a crowd where smiles were contagious.
The end-of-season institution drew almost 5,000 to Naples Bay, most of them soaking in the sun, suds and spectacle of Dock Restaurant owner Vin DePasquale’s beloved outdoor festival.
“It never gets old,” DePasquale said of the race, which generated a $6,000 donation for the Fun Time Early Childhood Academy. “It’s so exciting to see the community come together for this. Everybody’s smiling and having a good time. This has always been about fun and it’s great to see it’s still making people feel so good.”
Maybe no one was more indicative of the race’s connection between old and present-day Naples than 77-year-old Cyril Marks, who wore a 1982 Great Dock Canoe Race T-shirt to this year’s festivities.
“I came across it and said, ‘I gotta get back out there,” said Marks, who moved to Naples from his native Zambia in 1980. “There’s memories here. I used to close (The Dock) on most nights.”
Some new memories were made on Saturday, where the Gardellas weren’t the only family paddling their way into race history.
Bill and John Ervin took first in the “Ambitious Amateurs” race, crossing in the No. 109 canoe in 22:03, while another father-son combo, John and Anthony Mortellero, finished 43 seconds ahead of them to claim the “Next Generation” award.
“This was my team,” John joked of his pairing with 17-year-old Anthony. “I’ve gotta enjoy it, because next year he’ll be good enough to have his own team.”
Of course, the memories weren’t all great.
Sam Sweeney’s canoe tipped less than 20 yards from the finish, and his pricey new iPhone was the last of his personal effects to emerge from Naples Bay.
“We were doing so good,” he said. “Apple Store, I need a new iPhone for effort.”
Danielle Gilman and C.J. Gilman won the Chuck Bruce Broken Paddle Award for sportsmanship, while the Naples Daily News team of Chad Gillis and Fritz Otiker took first in the 700-yard Tippycanoe VIP Sprint between representatives of local businesses.
For the second time in three years, the NewsBank canoe claimed the $1,000 prize for best-decorated boat — a floating tribute to Disney’s “Toy Story” — and promptly donated it to Fun Time Early Childhood Academy.
“They were so surprised that they hugged us,” said NewsBank’s Mary Ann Dulaney, who presented the oversized check to the Fun Time group. “They couldn’t say enough, and that makes all the hard work well worth it.”
The NewsBank team spent several months on this year’s creation, starting with a handful of brainstorming sessions shortly after DePasquale and the organizers settled on a wide-open “Whatever Floats Your Boat” theme.
The group created a floating Buzz Lightyear-inspired spaceship with boat fenders, gardening buckets and other household items, then Helene Koutouzos spent weeks searching for hard-to-find movie dolls and collectibles to decorate the hull.
“Then,” team member Deborah Harmer said, “we don’t know if it floats until it passes under that banner.”
Lucky for the team, in full attire as Woody (John McLean), Buzz (Scott Sawyer) and the rest of the group — costumes made by Linda Paschal — it floated to first in a field that included an aquatic banana split, a pair of pirate vessels and a canoe stocked with inflatable men.
“They’re always clever,” DePasquale said, “and it was part of a great day for us. Everyone had fun, and that’s the beauty of this. You don’t have to be successful out there. Some of them need help just getting out of the canoe ... and they love it.”
32nd Annual Great Dock Canoe Race
At Crayton Cove
Award Winners
(Male/Female teams get 2-minute handicap; Female/Female get 4-minute handicap)
Overall Winners (Adjusted time)
1. Dail Frates and Frazier Gardella — 19:47
Ambitious Amateurs (Adjusted)
1. Bill Ervin and John Ervin — 22:03
2. Joe Molter and Jackie Molter-Conrecode — 20:46
3. Tyler Clawson and Jim DePalo — 23:08
Practically Professionals (Adjusted)
1. Frates and Gardella — 19:47
2. Casey Jenks and Cheyenne Jenks — 20:03
3. Rod Price and Ryan Stahl — 20:09
Next Generation (Adjusted)
1. John and Anthony Mortellero — 21:20
2. Eric and Hannah Klopf — 26:33
3. Peter and Parker Klopf — 29:38
Tippycanoe VIP Sprint
1. Naples Daily News (Chad Gillis and Fritz Otiker) — 4:54
2. Wilson Miller (Al Reynolds and John English) — 4:57
3. Rotary (Randy Long and Dowdy Brandon) — 5:53
Chuck Bruce Broken Paddle Award for sportsmanship
Danielle Gilman and C.J. Gilman
Theme Prize
1. NewsBank (John McLean and Scott Sawyer) — “Toy Story”
2. Wilson Miller (David Cosselet and Katie Binkowski) — “Good Humor Ice Cream”
3. G.N. Organics (Dave Carpenter and Bob Best) — “Zephyr”
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