Lucky you! There is still time to enter the Anything That Floats Race. The "wacky fun event for families, teams and individuals who have built their own boats out of non-traditional materials, sponsored by Friends of the Bay was postponed on account of rain. It will be held Saturday July 22.

Weather forecasters predicted rain for the entire weekend, which was enough of a promise to cancel the annual FOB Row Around Oyster Bay and the ATFR race. It also canceled the Saturday events for St. Rocco's feast although in actuality, the rain ended around 2 p.m. on Saturday.

What is most fun is that the ATFR is being heightened by a "challenge of car dealerships" said Denise Woodin. It started when the event was first announced at the June meeting of the Oyster Bay Chamber of Commerce. Robbie Hallock of Hallock Chevrolet loved the idea and encouraged Scott Davis of Oyster Bay Dodge, to get his workers to make an entry.

"We'll be the captains. We'll make this fun," said Robbie. Unfortunately, Scott's crew decided they weren't sailors.

The Hallock crew were all gung ho on the idea!

We're building a boat but it's top secret after all, call BMW and they won't tell you either. A girl from News 12 came here and we gave her a glimpse of the boat, under the cover," said Art Gruneisel, Hallock's body shop manager.

Art hasn't done this before but he lives in Northport and has seen others take part in their Wacky Boat Race. "I've seen friends in Northport do this, so I borrowed a friend's boat to see what works. I showed it to the crew and we made some modifications to it. "Tomorrow, Friday, we paint it and put the name on.

"Everybody gets together after work to do it. We're too busy during the day to take the time off," said Art.

That was all said last week, before the rains came!

On Monday, July 17 he was eager to get started. "Jim Brandt, the pin stripper is going to come by and do the final lettering. He has free rein on whatever he wants to do," said Art - that means even naming it - a task not attacked as yet.

Over at BMW of Oyster Bay, the Corssen brothers were great. "You want to see Das Boat," quipped Ray Corssen. "Talk to Michael, he's in charge. He's the captain."

Michael said Steve, the service manager and the technicians and details men were all enthusiastic about on the project. "They've been working like mad. I've been getting paddles from all the neighbors.

"All I know about is the paddles," said Michael, famed for his humor.

"Robbie called me and challenged me. I spoke to the Steve and he jumped at it, saying 'Great!'

"What was really fun was when they took it down to the beach to test it and it didn't float. They weren't discouraged. They went back to the drawing board. Now it floats!

"Whether it will go two miles, we'll have to see.

"Truthfully, I wasn't sure they wanted to do it, but when they heard Dodge of Oyster Bay wasn't competing, they got excited. Now there was less competition," he said.

Laura Corssen walked into Michael's office and said, "Life jackets for everyone!"

"Of course, said shop foreman Bob Bowman of Oyster Bay, who with Steve Gourlay, the service manager, has been working on the project.

He described the sinking a little more softly. "We tested it to see if the ideas worked, down at Beekman Beach. It didn't exactly sink. We just wanted to make it great. We made some changes to make it seaworthy.

"Think of them as slight design changes," he said.

One of his shipmates quipped, "We spied on the competition and made some proper changes." Who would believe that!

"We're all ready with life jackets and oars. We're all ready to go. Sink or swim, we'll be there," said Bob Bowman.

Even though there is a change of date, Oyster Bay Dodge will not be rowing. Scott Davis called to say they had a prior engagement and couldn't make the date.

Don't you miss the date. The day begins at 9 a.m. at Centre Island Beach for signing in for the Row Around. There will be T-shirts for all the participants. The NTFR registration starts at 11 a.m. and the race starts at noon.

Other groups are building boats too, so it should be a great day. The Friends Academy Summer Bridge Program members are building a boat, as is the Oyster Bay High School Interact Club and a young fellow named Brian, who keeps calling the FOB office with questions.

All and all - it bodes well for the event. For more information please call FOB at 922-6666 for more information, and remember, it's all a benefit to keep Oyster Bay Harbor the great place it is.

They are keeping the oysters in Oyster Bay!