Bay Day, June 7, was fantastic and lived up to all its expectations, including the all important financial ones, said Rob Crafa, the WaterFront Center executive director. "It was especially successful since this year's slogan was, 'Don't just participate in Bay Day, GET WET!," he added.

"Volunteers at Bay Day were almost thankful for the weather when we saw the number of people who, sick of the bad weekend weather, showed up in spite of the rain. Had there been good weather the crowds would have been enormous (Oyster Festival like even). Never ask the promoter of an event for numbers, but if I had to guess I would say 1,000 to 2,000 people throughout the day or about the same as 2002 which had great weather!"

While every race was important, everyone wants to know what happened in the Anything that Floats Race. As he stood on the Town of Oyster Bay showmobile for the awards ceremony, Mr. Crafa asked the crowd "Does it matter who wins?" They knew the answer, "No!"

What counts he said, was that everyone participated and everyone had fun. He then went about tossing prizes to the crowd: T-shirts, whistles and fun gear. He did say that the winning Girl Scout Troop 203 would all get a cruise on the Christeen.

Mr. Crafa said, "The students participating in the Anything that Floats Race will tell you the fun is in building the boats and trying to finish. Overall there were 20 entries in the race, so many student groups in fact that we had to break them into two separate races! If you insist on the competition results, they were: Speedster Winner: Jamie Deming in her boat Shrink-a-Dink; Community Challenge Winner: United States Coast Guard Eatons Neck Station with their entry USCGC Dangerous and 12 year and older Student Challenge was a tie by Oyster Bay High School Interact Club and Brentwood High School. Interact Club Advisor Rob Kurtz proclaims his team is still the defending champions! I believe Grenville-Baker Boys and Girls Club won the under 12 year old division amid controversy that their boat was too well built.

"The Row Around the Bay had 29 rowers in total for our first Guiness Book of World Record attempt for the largest raft up of vessels - we were just 663 short of setting the new record at 692. We are sure to get closer or even it set it at next Bay Day Sunday June 5, 2004 and yes it is rain or shine."

Save the date!

The Waterfront Center's motto is "Exciting students of all ages about the marine environment." For information call 516-922-SAIL (7245) or fax: 516-922-3970.