Boat racers blindsided as regatta is canceled
Officials: Deadlines ‘ came and went’
Vendors were calculating lost business, boat racers were lamenting a lost opportunity, and public officials were confirming their lost trust in the event organizer Wednesday, a day after the cancellation of this year’s EQT Three Rivers Regatta.
Few knew about organizer LionHeart Event Group’s unpaid bills and lack of permits and insurance for the three- day annual extravaganza before a news conference Tuesday morning at which regatta board members, with top city and county officials, announced the cancellation. This was to have been Pittsburgh- based LionHeart’s third year running the regatta.
In May, Dale McCue, co- owner of Cruisin’ Tikis Pittsburgh, blocked off his company’s cruise schedule so the regatta could use his boats free of charge for short rides and as a spot for judges, photographers and videographers. Mr. McCue was willing to give up an estimated $ 15,000 in revenue for the three- day weekend in exchange for the exposure that came with being an event sponsor.
Going into his second year working with the regatta, Mr. McCue saw no reason to be alarmed, but he started to worry when his emails, calls and texts to LionHeart over the past two months went unanswered.
“I couldn’t get ahold of anyone,” he said Wednesday.
Still, he assumed the event would go on because the Coast Guard had announced river closures for this weekend.
Like other vendors and sponsors, he learned about the cancellation from Tuesday’s news conference and said he had not heard from LionHeart.
Mr. McCue has now reopened his tiki boat schedule for the weekend and is advertising on social media. While there have been some bookings since then, he estimates the company is still looking at an $ 8,000 loss.
“Our weekends have been booked and are booked through the beginning of September, so this weekend there’s no doubt in my mind that we would’ve been fully booked,” Mr. McCue said.
Mr. McCue plans to calculate his exact losses and explore legal options against LionHeart.
Food trucks were having the same problem: looking for business for this weekend. BRGR staffers were “scrambling” to find events for their trucks this weekend, as the cancellation would likely cost the restaurant thousands of dollars, events coordinator Jessica Pekarcik said.
“In all fairness, we’ve had no issues up until this year with the organizers. We’ve always done well,” said Ms. Pekarcik, who has brought the BRGR truck to the event since 2016. “We never felt like it was unorganized until this year ...”
The alarm began to sound for public officials as fireworks exploded over the city skyline July 4 — a show presented by LionHeart.
That’s when Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich learned from Point State Park management that they had been hearing different stories from LionHeart owner Derek Weber.
By that point, Mr. Hissrich had been working for a year to collect $ 28,000 that Mr. Weber owed the city for police services for the 2017 and 2018 regattas. The city said it was assured payment was on the way.
But it soon became evident that LionHeart was behind on other necessary paperwork and payments. Point State Park Manager Jake Weiland warned that LionHeart hadn’t yet checked the boxes on its agreement to secure the park for the regatta, which was to begin Friday.
Mr. Weiland — who said he works in “lockstep” with the city — told LionHeart soon after July 4 that it had until July 18 to obtain liability insurance, get a city event permit, and pay the roughly $ 15,000 fee to use the park.
“The 18th of July came and went,” Mr. Weiland said.
So did July 23, the second deadline.
“In between those times, there were certainly emails going to LionHeart,” Mr. Weiland said. “There were reminders, and plenty of them.”
Mr. Weiland said state park officials and the city set a final deadline for Tuesday morning.
“I can’t express enough how the commonwealth, the city, and Sports and Exhibition Authority bent over backwards to try to make this event work,” he said. “But you can only give an event manager so much time before you have to put a halt to it.”
Neither Lionheart officials nor regatta board chairman John R. Bonassi could be reached.
Mr. Weiland said LionHeart would be billed $ 2,500 for the space taken up by a Pittsburgh- themed sand sculpture that was already partially completed inside the park.
Florida- based artist Jill Harris said Wednesday that tent and security companies had donated services to protect the sculpture through the weekend so Pittsburghers can still enjoy it.
The show will also go on for the performance art group Squonk Opera, which was set to debut a new piece at the regatta. The group has moved its Saturday performances to PPG Plaza in Downtown.
Those sad about the regatta’s cancellation can also count on some river racing action, albeit slower and quieter: Kayaks, canoes and stand- up paddleboards still will be racing in the American Cancer Society’s Paddlesport Championship on Sunday. The second annual fundraiser starts at 11 a. m. and covers a pair of 3- mile loops on the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers from the Point to Heinz Quay.
But those with a need for speed will miss the Formula 1 and Formula Light boat races, popular regular features of the regatta, in which some 20 teams were set to compete Saturday on the Allegheny River. The event was part of the NGK F1 Powerboat Championship series, directed by Tim Seebold.
He also learned about the regatta cancellation Tuesday morning, then rushed to make sure all racers knew before they departed for Pittsburgh.
The regatta was to be the fifth of seven stops, from Texas to Toledo, Ohio, on this season’s schedule, and a historically important one.
As noted in a July 26 news release from the race series, “A significant piece of powerboat racing history happened in Pittsburgh back in 1982, as this event became the very first race in the United States for Formula 1 race boats. At that inaugural race, British driver Roger Jenkins ( 1982 F1 Powerboat World Champion) won the prestigious Three Rivers Regatta Trophy, beating Italian F1 racing legend, Renato ‘ The Maestro’ Molinari.”
The winner of the 2018 regatta, Ashton Rinker, of Riverview, Fla., was last year’s series champion and is this year’s series leader. After learning that the Pittsburgh races were canceled, he posted on his Facebook page Tuesday, “Man this sucks now can’t give Rusty Wyatt that spanking he needed again lol. Sad day for us dedicated teams to our wonderful sport. See you guys in Springfield,” Ohio, where the series resumes Aug. 9.
Mr. Wyatt said he and his crew of seven, plus wives and girlfriends, were “loaded up” and ready to tow their Formula 1 boat to Pittsburgh when the news reached them in Innisfil, Ontario, Canada. Like most other racers on the circuit, he has a day job — he’s an elevator technician — and he races on weekends.
Now, this weekend is free, and Mr. Wyatt plans to use it to keep working on his boat, which had some motor problems at the Bay City, Mich., races July 12- 14.
He heard that one Texas team was headed to Pittsburgh when news of the cancellation hit their phones. “It was definitely the latest time they could tell us,” he said. But he and his team hadn’t yet even booked a hotel, so they’re not out any money.
In fact, he figures that he would have spent $ 5,000 or more on the trip here. He really wanted to hit Pittsburgh’s “rough water” — because the waves bounce off the concrete walls on both sides of the Allegheny at the Point — but, “A little more test- and- tune is never going to hurt.”
Mr. Wyatt said that when a Texas race had to be canceled last season due to flooding, organizers added a race at the end of the season — in New Martinsville, W. Va.
But Formula Light racer Dustin Pearson of Mt. Pleasant, Mich., said this cancellation is so late in the season that there may not be time to reschedule another race. Not only was he “bummed” at the news, but so was his wife’s family members who live in Pittsburgh and who wanted to watch him race.
He’ll still be racing this weekend, but on the Ohio River in Ravenswood, W. Va., at the Powerboat Nationals.