Giant pumpkin regatta to go ahead in Shelburne despite poor growing season

Don't fret pumpkin paddlers and spectators: the Municipality of Shelburne will be holding its second annual giant pumpkin regatta next weekend, despite a rainy growing season yielding smaller fruit.

The annual event that transforms giant gourds into personal watercrafts to be raced in the Shelburne harbour is scheduled for Saturday afternoon, during the county's Giant Pumpkin Festival.

"It's a great opportunity, I think, for the community to come together and to celebrate, especially after what Shelburne County's been through with the wildfires," said Robin Smith, a community development co-ordinator who's helping organize the event.

Smith said the municipality has secured seven giant pumpkins that will be used in the regatta. 

At least five of those pumpkins will be coming from Danny Dill at the Dill Family Farm in Windsor, N.S.

Dill said the giant pumpkins — which should be between 180 to 225 kilograms for a person to be able to sit inside it and paddle — are about half that size.

He blames May's dry weather, and then the constant rain of June, July and August. 

"It's just been so wet that a lot of our crops didn't make it, or we didn't even get some planted, and some of them just didn't turn out good, especially the giant pumpkins," Dill said.

He said some growers even lost their giant pumpkins in recent weeks — gourds that would've been used in the regatta.

"What happens is that a lot of times they will split, and once they split from growing too fast or what have you, then they're no good," he said.

"They're not going to float. They're just going to be like the Titanic, basically."

Still, Dill said the show must go on in Shelburne.

"At the end of the day it'll happen," he said. "We always persevere here in good old