Solar Cup Regatta driven by family, fearlessness

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MOSES LAKE - Ana Cappelletti was wearing a smile on Saturday as she yelled over the hum of high-powered race boats battling it out off the Connelly Park beach.

"It's going really good," said Cappelletti, who rounded out her eighth year as chair of the Moses Lake Solar Cup Regatta over the weekend. "This town is unbelievable and the spectators seem to be growing in numbers every single year. You look down the shoreline and up above on the plateau - it's just unbelievable."

Hundreds of locals joined race crew members and supporters from all over the Northwest for the annual hydroplane race, which took place Saturday and Sunday on a one and a quarter mile oval course just off shore.

Cappelletti stood in the bright afternoon sun at the edge of the area where boat owners, crews and drivers were busy preparing their crafts for racing. She pointed out the majority of the people involved in the sport were raised into it, including her.

"I'm second generation myself - my dad used to race hydros," she said. "The support you get from your families and everybody here, we're all one big happy family."

It's a sentiment that comes up a lot when speaking to hydroplane racers - many of whom spend much of the warmer seasons traveling from race to race.

The Martin's, who hail from Maple Valley, will tote their RV and two boats to about 10 events around the country this summer. Doug Martin said his family got involved in the junior division of hydroplane racing when his 9-year-old son Jared built his own boat through a 100-hour program at the Hydroplane and Race Boat Museum in Kent.

"I just took it step by step, and now I can work on motors and everything," said Jared, now 15.

He's since applied his knowledge to building a boat for his 11-year-old sister, Maddy, to race. Maddy's boat can reach about 40 miles per hour, while Jared's tops out at about 55 mph.

At the other end of the pits, Chris Fanaris stood alongside a boat he co-owns and drives with his "Team Toothpick Racing" partner Dave Solway out of Olympia.

"We get to know each other and you build this bond with other teams," Fanaris said. "You need something, you don't hesitate to go ask somebody."

"It really is a family because it's no fun to have a toy and nobody to play with," Solway agrees. "I don't want to beat anybody on the beach. Whatever I've got in my toolbox they can have, I don't care. Pretty much everybody at all levels of (hydroplane racing) are that way."

Fanaris said this is the team's third season racing their current boat, with the help of his girlfriend and Solway's fiancé, and it's been a pretty good ride so far.

"Our first season we got second in the nation," Fanaris said. "It was quite a shock for all of us, because we'd raced other hydros before, but when you have the right package and you've got the knowledge together and you're kicking ideas off each other, it's a good partnership."

The two men met more than a decade ago while racing remote-controlled model boats. Six years ago, Solway says they found a sponsor and decided to leap into the life-sized version of racing.

"It's a bit of a transition but a lot of the technology - how to set the boat up - is the same, it truly is," he said. "But it is a different deal when you're strapped in the boat instead of standing on the shore."

Solway said he's raced one thing or another all his life - from model boats to motorcycles - but he's fallen in love with the fluidity of hydroplanes.

"I like to race motorcycles but I don't bounce like I used to and with this, I'm strapped in," he said. "At a good speed you're not really even touching the water."

Tia Belisle, 26, of Seattle, said she was "born into" hydro racing and has for the past couple years been driving along with her dad, Marty Porter, of Chelan, who has owned his own boat for the past 15 years.

While their hydroplane can reach about 120 miles per hour on the straightaway, both of them said it doesn't feel that fast when you're out on the water.

"When you're really rippin', you can have two fingers on the wheel when you're going around a corner," Porter said.

"You're literally flying when conditions are good," Belisle agreed; adding the only parts of the boat in the water at top speeds are the rudder, the propeller and the skid fin - a metal plate that adds stability.

When asked if she considers the sport dangerous, she points to the numerous safety measures of the boat itself, the fire-retardant suits and air masks worn by drivers and the highly trained rescue crews out on the water. She also revealed another element successful drivers must have - fearlessness.

"You've got to trust the boat and you have to trust the rescue crews - but really, if you fear it, why do it?" she said.

This year's race was made possible through the assistance of the Moses Lake Irrigation and Rehabilitation District, the Moses Lake Business Association, Lampson Crane, Papa's Casino, the Moses Lake Lions Club, the Solar Cup Committee and many local businesses, according to Cappelletti.