RC Laser Regatta Cruises Mackle Park

The Marco Island Model Yacht Club started out as the simple enjoyment of a few friends who took pleasure in model sailboat racing in the canal behind a friend’s home here on Marco. From those humble beginnings rose an inspirational story of staying the course and the success it can become.

When its founding members officially established the Marco Island Model Yacht Club (MIMYC) by incorporating the organization with the State of Florida as a nonprofit, no one could have known that 20 years later they would be hosting the 19th Annual Marco Island Mid-Winter RC Laser Regatta.

This event has grown to be the longest running RC Laser Regatta in the country and a great deal of the credit goes to hard work put into it by the hosting team who runs a fun event for participants as well as spectators.

Helping the club prosper has been a team effort, but special praise goes to Rocky and Mary Lee Cale, who have helped to grow and improve the annual event. As such the area which hosts the event at Mackle Park has been officially declared the Cale Model Yacht Sailing Center by the city.

This year the club hosted 10 separate club entries, which would total 26 actual racers. Those 26 racers would be broken up into two separate fields according to their times and a GOLD Fleet and a SILVER Fleet was established.

The Club entries included The Tampa Bay RC Laser Fleet, The Triangle MYC from North Carolina, The Mid-Atlantic MYC from New Jersey, The Bow Lake Sailing Club from New Hampshire, The Naples MYC, The South Jersey MYC, The Sabal Pines MYC from Coconut Creek, Florida, the Raritan, New Jersey MYC, The Marco Island MYC, and the Bahamas Marsh Harbor MYC from the Bahamas. 

On Friday, March 3 the participants practiced races during the afternoon and those that were available joined together at Joey D’s for dinner. Saturday and Sunday racing began and participants received detailed instructions at the Mackle Park racing location. At the end of racing on Saturday teams enjoyed dinner at Bistro Soleil at the Historic Old Marco Inn.

Sunday the racers once again gathered to enjoy a full day of continued racing along a newly designed course which further challenged their skills as winds played a part in testing their talents and abilities on the course.

At the end of the day the numbers determined the top performers and Barr Batzer of the Sabal Pines, MYC from Coconut Creek, Florida won the GOLD FLEET. Jim Kaighn of the Bahamas would come in second place and Bill Bentz of Sabal Pines in third place. Another Sabal Pines Club member, Henry DeWolf came in first place in the SILVER FLEET, with Myles Loesel of Sabal Pines following him and Bob Tallman of Sabal Pines helping to take a clean sweep of the top three positions.

“The facilities and the organization of how this is run here is just wonderful,” said first place GOLD FLEET winner Barr Batzer. “It’s wonderful how this is set up, the course, the ability for spectators to come out and watch the event as well as the friendliness of everyone is what makes this special.”

It’s now on to the 20th Regatta and the special people on the Marco team of volunteers are already planning for the next year and how to make it better.