Chilly weather in New York wasn’t enough to keep veteran go-fast powerboat photographer Tim Sharkey out of the sky last weekend, as Saturday found him on board a helicopter capturing a casual annual fun run on the Hudson River. Starting at Stony Point and heading up the river to Kingston for lunch at the Old Savannah restaurant, the 124-mile round trip attracted more than 50 boats—on a 50-degree day—and almost 200 people.
Among the participants were Rob and Vinny Winoski in Bronx Phantom, their 34-foot Phantom V-bottom, and Sharkey happened to catch the father-and-son duo getting more than a little out of shape at one point during the run. To Sharkey’s relief, the somewhat extended wild moment ended without drama.
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Wild and wooly on the Hudson River, Rob and Vinny Winoski emerged unscathed in their 34-foot Phantom V-bottom. Check out the slideshow above. Photos courtesy/copyright Tim Sharkey/Sharkey Images.
“For a second, I thought it may have barrel-rolled for the way it caught the next wave,” said Sharkey, who also shot video of the entire event. “But knowing this father-and-son team’s experience if anyone was to be able to recover from it with that Phantom it would be them—and they did.”
According to organizer Jonathan Godfry, who was joined on board his 40-foot Sutphen by his fiancé, Debbie Shapiro, and friends, the appeal of the event is all about the waterway and the season.
“The Hudson River is gorgeous, period, end of story,” he said. “But this time of year it’s even more beautiful with the foliage on trees changing. And, yeah, I think it’s a ‘last hurrah’ of the season for some people. My boat is getting winterized next week.
“We had people come from Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York and Long Island,” he continued. “We started at 11 a.m. and got back to Stony Point about 5 p.m. It’s a good ride. We stop at the second bridge, the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge, to let the slower boats catch up because this is a fun run. We were able to raft-up all the boats together in a canal at the restaurant. Lunch was $30 a person—they shut the place to the public for us—and nobody left hungry. How the run grows, really, is just by word of mouth and OSO (OffshoreOnly.com). Everybody keeps coming back, and bringing more people.”