Princess Cup crowns Upper St. Clair resident as two-time champ
Harry Funk / The Almanac
Erin Shehab starts to receive applause for her Princess Cup victory.
Harry Funk / The Almanac
Erin Shehab, right, cheers her boat on as it sails along the waterway.
Harry Funk / The Almanac
Augusta Bottonari waits for her time to be announced.
Harry Funk / The Almanac
A Y-Princess gets ready to race.
Harry Funk / The Almanac
The fan will start blowing soon.
For the second straight year, it was smooth sailing for Erin Shehab.
The fifth-grader at Upper St. Clair’s Boyce Middle School cruised past competitors to score another victory in the Princess Cup Championship.
She was among the more than 200 girls in the Y-Princesses father-daughter program at Spencer Family YMCA in Bethel Park who gathered March 24 to race electric-fan-propelled sailboats. We’ll let the two-time winner describe how the boats are made:
By Harry Funk
Staff writer
hfunk@thealmanac.net
By Harry Funk/Staff writer/hfunk@thealmanac.net
Augusta Bottonari, right, watches her boat venture toward the finish line.
“You have a block of wood and parts for a sail. That includes the mast and the parts that hold the sail up,” Erin explained. “You have to either cut the boat out or just leave the block as is. It would be better to cut the boat and then sand it.”
Her dad, Scott, took the lead in doing so last year, while Erin concentrated on fashioning the sail.
“Since I already won first, my dad told me I had to switch places this year,” she said. “So I made the entire boat. I did the cutting, the sanding, the painting, the designing. But since I made the boat, I wasn’t very confident.”
Shortly after 4 p.m., culminating a full day of competitions, she watched with unbridled anticipation as race officials compared times, and then smiled as they declared her champion.
Harry Funk / The Almanac
Harry Funk / The Almanac
Race day can be exciting!
Also smiling was the runner-up, Augusta Bottonari, also from Upper St. Clair and a fellow member with Erin of the Y-Princesses’ Umpqua tribe.
“It was really cool because when we were racing, I was just happy that the Umpqua was going to get another one,” she said with regard to Erin’s 2017 victory.
An Eisenhower Elementary School third-grader, Augusta was somewhat surprised at her success.
“I actually didn’t expect to do really well, because last year, my boat completely sank,” she explained. “Last year’s boat was a little too wide, and so we made it a little bit more pointy this year.”
It also made the minimum weight of 2.5 ounces, as per Princess Cup rules.
Harry Funk / The Almanac
Harry Funk / The Almanac
Erin Shehab awaits word of the time of her boat’s finish in the final race.
“We wanted to do it exactly, to be as light as possible,” Augusta said. “And we put some weight on the back so that the front tip wouldn’t dip under.”
The Princess Cup setup features a pair of lanes filled with water, with a fan at the starting line. The boats race once, and then the girls switch lanes for a second heat.
If it’s 1-1 after that, then both girls sail their boats individually in heats timed by Y-Princesses. The one with the faster time wins the race.
About 30 tribes took part in the March 24 event, which started at 9 a.m. and featured intertribe competitions to determine representatives who would advance to the championship. Girls who were attending their first Princess Cup could participate in a Rookies Tournament.
Along with learning about friendly competition, the youngsters also had the opportunity to help others by conducting a food drive on behalf of South Hills Interfaith Ministries’ “Sack Hunger, Pack Hope” effort.
“We collected thousands of pounds of food for some of the less-fortunate families in the South Hills community,” Y-Princesses participant Russ Cready of Bethel Park reported.
Harry Funk / The Almanac
Harry Funk / The Almanac
Emilie Angel of Peters Township shows off her boat and trophy.