Joseph, the Regatta committee co-chair with husband Dr. Dan Joseph, said the preparation the the event feels a lot like getting ready for a huge Christmas celebration with the family. The work starts early and there’s plenty to do, but it’s worth it to welcome everyone through the door.

Joseph and the Regatta committee welcomed more than 50 vintage raceboats and their owners and drivers to Wheeling’s Heritage Port this past weekend. Many of those guests were familiar faces who have been part of the Regatta for many years. For those people, the event is not just a showcase of vintage boats and the opportunity to send them tearing around the Ohio River at speeds that top 90 miles an hour.

It’s also a reunion, a gathering of a racing community that pushes the speed limits, but is always there to help their fellow racers put on the best show possible.

The importance of that reunion was punctuated after the previous two years when the Regatta couldn’t run, Joseph said. The 2020 edition was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 edition was ready to go, but Hurricane Ida had different plans. The storm blew through the Ohio Valley, sending the river to hazardous levels and putting enough debris in the water to make it too dangerous to race.

photo by: Photo by Derek Redd

Anne Glasgow, right, the co-owner and driver of "Chain Reaction" poses for a photo with Noah Woods of Morgantown during the Wheeling Vintage Raceboat Regatta.

“For the two years that we couldn’t do this, it was really hard for us, because we weren’t together with our family,” she said. “The COVID year was terrible. It was awful, because we couldn’t even get together.”

Last year’s hurricane cancellation felt no better, Anne Glasgow said. Glasgow, a Wheeling resident, drives the S-class hydroplane “Chain Reaction” and has been racing since she was 15. She eagerly waits every year for the Wheeling Regatta, and to go without it last year was heartbreaking.

“It was really bad,” she said. “I came down to (Heritage Port) and cried. I sat on the dock and took pictures of me sitting on the dock on what was supposed to be Regatta weekend. This is home.”

And the people whose boats populate Heritage Port are family. Wheeling attorney Chris Gardill races the F-class hydroplane “Roman Candle” with father Jim Gardill. He said that even though every driver wants their boat to be the fastest, they’re never so competitive that they aren’t willing to lend a helping hand.

Often during the Regatta weekend, members of different teams bounced from boat to boat, helping others get their boats into the water or back onto their trailers, or tightening up a bolt or two in someone else’s engine.

photo by: Photo by Derek Redd

Wheeling Vintage Raceboat Regatta committee member Betsy Bethel-McFarland plays "Amazing Grace" on the bagpipes as part of a memorial to late photographer Peirce Williams and J. Michael Myer, the late executive editor of The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register. Both were remembered Sunday morning for their integral work with the Regatta.

“In the pits, you know so-and-so will have a spare starter or so-and-so will have a specific tool,” Gardill said. “They’re generally good about letting you borrow it or coming over and helping directly when you have a question. It really is a nice group of people to hang out with.”

That is what the Vintage and Historic Division of the American Power Boat Association has evolved into, said the APBA V&H Chairman Jeff “Nemo” Buckley.

“When somebody breaks, everyone pitches into help each other,” Buckley said. “It’s that family concept. We’re here having fun together and there’s everything to be gained by assisting each other.”

The boat teams have become like a family, he said. They celebrate each other’s triumphs and mourns each other’s losses.

That was evident Sunday morning, when the Regatta held a special opening ceremony, remembering the lives of two integral members of the vintage racing community – late photographer Peirce Williams and J. Michael Myer, the late executive editor of The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register who loved powerboat racing and championed the Regatta. The two were memorialized Sunday with words from Joseph and the playing of “Amazing Grace” by bagpiper Betsy Bethel McFarland. The course was officially named this year the J. Michael Myer Memorial Race Course.

photo by: Photo by Derek Redd

"The Buckeye Kid," an F-class hydroplane owned by John Taggart of Orlando, Florida, is lowered into the Ohio River in preparation to race during the Wheeling Vintage Raceboat Regatta.

That was just another example of how tight-knit the vintage racing community has become, Joseph said, and it’s a major part of what makes the Wheeling Regatta the success that it has been.

“This group of people are so close and so tied to each other,” Joseph said. “It’s hard to explain to someone who doesn’t see it. We’ve got kids now that are best friends that wait to see each other at events. It’s really something, and that’s why it’s really easy to work on this event.”