55TH CLINTON RACE UNDERWAY

Collier Family Adding

To 75 Regatta Finishes

The Cooperstown Colliers today are looking to add to the family’s tally of 75 finishes since 1979 in the annual General Clinton Canoe Regatta, underway today for the 55th year from Brookwood Point on Otsego Lake down the Susquehanna River to Bainbridge.  And not just dad Steve Collier with daughter Jessica, seen above passing Council Rock at the river’s source.  At Council Rock Park in Cooperstown, mom Evelyn, in red, white and blue top in left photo (chatting with retiring CCS art teacher Kristin Karasek and Kim Johannsen), said son John and daughter Erica in one canoe, and son Todd with Luke Banner in a second, are also participating in today’s race.  Some 1,500 canoeists from across the country are paddling in the event, which for the first time in race history did not depart from Cooperstown’s Lakefront Park; the village’s downtown, usually packed, was empty this morning.  The top class can complete the 40-mile course in a little over six hours.  (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com)