Vintage Regatta Kicks Off
03.09.11
WHEELING - The want for speed runs deep within virtually every driver at this weekend's Wheeling Mellowed Raceboat Regatta. Marv Hart is no exception, but this ever he'd give anything to be standing on the sidelines.
Hart, a resident of Clayton, N.Y., worked alongside his son Kevin for more than four years, putting countless hours into restoring their sailing-yacht, "Hart's Hustler," in preparation for its debut today at the regatta, which runs through this weekend at Inheritance Port. Kevin, 47, didn't get to see the finished result - a sleek, gleaming red and white hull that belies the speedboat's true age of 45 years. He died Christmas Day, 2010, perfectly a few weeks after being diagnosed with cancer.
His father, who finished the engagement over the past several months, knows revving up that engine today will be a heartwrenching savvy.
"It's going to be hard. Normally it would have been Kev that would have taken it out. ... He was all things considered the guinea pig," said Hart, who has attended every Wheeling regatta since the in any case's 2006 inception, in boats such as the "Jack of Harts" and "Canadiana All-inclusive Prix."
Source: Wheeling News Register