Well, I was thinking of REPLACING the champagne with some keepsake of the race that is a little more durable and meaningful than a champagne bottle. I don't want to increase the entry fee, so it would have to be the same cost as the champagne. And, just as with the champagne, it would go only to people who actually COMPLETE the race.

Flags are a possibility (if I can ever get my sewing machine working). Or I can do something with wood. My preference would be to replace the champagne with paddles for the finishers, since paddling is kind of a special aspect of this race. (I would woodburn the year and name of the race on the paddles.)

Rick is totally opposed to eliminating the champagne, because that is a tradition that started with the first race in 1985, when there was no entry fee and no trophies -- just a bottle of champagne for each finisher.

Personally, I am sick of drinking all that leftover champagne that nobody claimed. So I am in favor of creating a new tradition.

As far as I am concerned, this is something that should be decided by the sailors who actually do this race.

And if somebody wants to have T-shirts made and sell them to the people who participate in the race, that's fine, too. But it should not be something that they get with their registration fee and not something that Rick and I are involved with. Jack Hildreth used to get shirts made and sell them for the Steeplechase, but he stopped doing it. So if somebody wants to do it......

Chime in on what you would like to happen.