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This past weekend was the annual River Romp At The Beach regatta held in Fort Myers Beach. Hosted by Edison Sailing Center, the two-day event had participants from as close as Naples, to a few from Sandusky Ohio.

There were more than 270 boats entered and the competition was tight.

Many of the big names in sailing were present: not Screaming Jim or Lucky Lou, but Bobby and Suzy. The regatta is a dinghy event and the skippers are kids.

The races are part of the Junior Olympic schedule and the race instructions are as complete and technical as any I have seen produced for the adults.

The one-design classes were for Optimists, Lasers, 420s and Sunfish, which covers a wide spectrum of the popular dinghies today. The youngsters were from age 7 to 18, but there were a few older "kids" even in their 70s racing Sunfish in an adult class.

The weather was perfect and the beach was crowded as dawn lit up the waterside on Saturday. The area seemed to blossom as sail after sail sprang up on the shoreline. Before long, the little skippers headed out to the starting area offshore to loosen up and get ready to race.

Like a swarm of bees, they weaved in and out of each other, jockeying for position at the gun. Like the big boats, they were using a regular five-minute start sequence. Soon, they were off.

This happened over and over again for about four hours of racing. According to the sailing rules, as many races as time and weather would permit would be held.

Billy Harris / Eagle staff

Race official Steve Olive talks to the kids and parents at the skippers meeting for the River Romp at the Beach Regatta.

Along with the racers, committee boats, pin boats, spectator boats and coach boats brought the surface of the water alive with movement. From an untrained eye, it would look like organized chaos; to me it was like a ballet.

Onshore, a whole support network was formed with parents, race officials, vendors ready to supply whatever broke or was forgotten, and the staff of the Holiday Inn, where the regatta was based. A quick bag lunch would be provided in between races in the boats with such a tight schedule.

Onshore, I met the Miami Opti Moms, who support the youth sailing and sell jewelry, clothing and other items, with proceeds going toward youth sailing programs. The Tackle Shack was there with everything from a new boat to a piece of line — for the participants if needed. West Marine was there with giveaways and other prizes for the kids.

Around 3:30, the racing was winding up and the kids headed for the beach. After de-rigging their boats, many of them had a dip in the pool to cool off. With almost 300 kids together, oh, the fights and problems that come along with it can be aggravating.

This was one thing that struck me. I saw no problems and the Holiday Inn reported not a single incident. Anyone that says sailing does not build character has not been around it. By 7 p.m., the kids were all in bed and all was quiet. (Except for the adults.)

The next day, all the racers were up early and at it again. The committee had the results posted promptly and the awards ceremony was at 2 p.m. I saw one little racer saddened because he came in 59th out of 72. His father simply said "Well you weren't last," and with that, the little racer smiled, and jumped in the pool.

Monday morning, I had breakfast with Steve Olive, who was the main race official and organizer of the event. He also is the coordinator of the Edison Sailing Center, which governed the event. From his conversation, I got a lot of ideas and advice on how to boost our own MICKYS program here on the island.

There is another regatta right in Naples in November. I hope to have Marco represented in the green Opti fleet and we are also working on getting our kids that want to race mixing it up with other sailing centers in the future.

In talking with Steve, I learned that it will take a combined effort of all involved to make it happen. I think that we are ready to take the next step.

I think that the weekend was a great success, thanks to all of the participants, parents, race officials and staff of the Holiday Inn Fort Myers Beach. I would love to see something like that being held here on Marco in the future.