“Let’s go Lisa! Let’s go Lisa!”
Thousands of spectators at Nanaimo’s 39th annual Silly Boat Regatta were cheering for Lisa Mertin as she paddled alone on her makeshift boat by the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) team. Mertin was the only crew member who could manage to sit on the boat without immediately slipping and falling into the water.
Dozens of boats participated in this year’s regatta, with tens of thousands of dollars raised in support of the Nanaimo Child Development Centre which has provided a wide range of services for children with developmental needs since 1967. Last year the event raised over $112, 000.
Paddling around the course in front of Sway’ A’ Lana Lagoon in Maffeo Sutton Park, the RBC boat was a distant last-place in the heat, but Mertin’s persistence and determination made her an instant fan favourite.
“I wasn’t letting my team down, I was determined to get it done,” Mertin told The Discourse after the race.
Near the end of the course, Mertin did wind up in the water, but didn’t give up, instead getting behind the boat and using it as a flutterboard to push it the final metres to the finish line.
Mertin said hearing the crowd cheer for her “made [her] want to swim more and finish sooner.”
Silly Boats fund lifechanging services
Michelle Kocourek, a resource development coordinator at the Nanaimo Child Development Centre, is one of the organizers of the Silly Boat Regatta.
She became involved with the centre after her first grandson received services there before he died at the age of nine.
“What we do at the centre changes lives,” she said. “My grandson came through the centre, and I know that firsthand.”
Kocourek said she speaks highly of the staff at the centre and what they do.
She said the $125,000 fundraising goal for the Silly Boat Regatta would help ensure children, like her grandson, would be able to access services such as speech and occupational therapy, family and infant development and a free play group for the community.
Last year, the centre provided services to 1,900 families for children who ranged from newborns to youth who are 19 years old, Kocourek said.
But can they float?
This year’s Silly Boat Regatta had a total of 36 teams participating, including one from Makerspace Nanaimo who created a boat resembling the car from the 1968 film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which transformed into a boat in the movie.
Ron Rattink, Makerspace’s “professor of propulsion”, gave The Discourse a tour of the boat. It was built around an adult tricycle that had its wheels converted into paddles using empty barrels underneath it to help it float. A soundsystem installed on the boat played the iconic song from the movie and also featured a few sound effects.
Bently Born said this was the first year Makerspace Nanaimo had entered the race and raised over $1,000 for the Nanaimo Child Development Centre.
“We’re kind of geeky, so we don’t really get together too much, and this really brought us all together to do this project,” Born said.
Even though this was the first year in the race, Born said that Makerspace has helped the centre for “many, many years” with smaller projects when asked.
Sheila Malcolmson, MLA for Nanaimo—Gabriola Island, has been attending the event since 2016 when she was a member of parliament and was part of a group of judges for the most creative designed boat.
“It’s an opportunity to say thank you to the businesses and groups that are stepping up and helping children in Nanaimo, and just to celebrate the totally goofy nature of the Silly Boat Festival,” she told The Discourse.
While the centre receives provincial funding for both child care spaces and services for children with special needs, Malcolmson said she knows that “it is by no means all of their budget,” noting that the centre has a lot of community support that was being celebrated at the regatta.
Malcolmson said she enjoys seeing the “imagination and optimism” of the participants.
“There have been some really amazing moments of watching the most unlikely vessel make it over the line, and to have everybody on shore cheering them on, it just gives me goose bumps every year,” she said.
The winner of this year’s race was the Aarsen Gutters team, whose boat was made out of wood, aluminum and drainpipes and flew both a Canadian and Ukrainian flag.
