SARATOGA SPRINGS - It was one of the most challenging days ever to be on Fish Creek for the annual Head of the Fish Regatta as a heavy downpour drenched the competitors, fans, organizers and vendors all day Saturday on the shores of Fish Creek.

SRA had no problems adapting to the conditions on their home course, taking 14 titles on the day including a four-way sweep of the women's junior eights category, three girls fours races and the boys captured the junior/modified and junior freshman eight races.

"It was so miserable of a day, you have to do what you have to do to get the job done," Saratoga Rowing Association regatta director Chris Chase said. "It was raining on everyone. It came down to who does a better job dealing with it.

"The lightning a freak occurrence," Chase said. 'The lightning took everyone took everyone by surprise, when was the last time we had lightning on Oct. 24. Once they made the adjustments we started to get in the groove and back on track, from then on out, we had seven docks, got on the water, rowed down, raced back and got off.

Fall head races cover the 2-mile course on Fish Creek, racing against the clock, released at timed intervals from the start above Stafford's Bridge racing down to the Route 9P bridge.

With lightening overhead, forcing the removal of numerous teams to be removed from the water, warmed, released and re-started, there were extended wait times for the event's competitors and spectators.

It turned out to be a boon for the regatta vendors underneath the merchandising tent at the Saratoga Boat Launch and for the regatta itself.

With the biting cold weather outside the tent, Black Diamond Caterers once again had a steady line of customers who were quick to purchase hot cocoa, coffee, tea along with New England Clam Chowder, chili, homemade mac and cheese along with a delicious apple crisp for the fall event.

"Things have been very brisk while we're up to our shins in water," Black Diamond Caterer owner/chef Heidi Hoyt said. "We're standing on pallets right now."

Like the race organizers, Hoyt kept one eye on the weather and another on her assortment of burners, preparing for the weekend.

"On Wednesday and Thursday I looked on the internet to see what it would be like," Hoyt said. "With the cold weather forecast we added the pulled pork sandwich which has been a hot seller.

"Today, it's been our signature dish, a killer vegetable black bean chili," Hoyt said. "It has no meat, no fat and is gives you super high energy."

Hoyt created 16 gallons of the hot nutritious weather tamer, taking more than five hours to complete the task and again expects to sell out.

Just as the rowers arrived on site Friday afternoon and evening unpacking their rowing trailers and rig their boats, Black Diamond Caterer was also on site, preparing for the races too.

"We had to wait for the tent to be fully up and then we went to work," Hoyt said. "We were back at 4:30 a.m. this morning and it was pouring," Hoyt said. "The most fun for us is to watch the sun come up over the hill and then see this place go from a ghost town to 1,000s of people in hours."

Another busy station under the vendor tent was the Head of the Fish T-shirt sales table, offering two different versions of the commemorative T-shirt in long and short sleeves offered by the Saratoga Springs Rowing Club, the founders of the regatta.

"Just look at the weather, everyone wants a T-shirt," Tracy Barlok said. "The long sleeves are selling fast because of the weather."

This year's unique T-shirt was again designed by SSRC member and one of the founders of the Head of the Fish Regatta, local architect Tom Frost.

"It's really ugly, almost sinister," Barlok said of the single rower pictured with an enormous fish head atop his body design. "But it's appropriate for an event and a day like this."

The goal for the day is to compete, row well and hopefully go home with sports most unique trophy, a Fish Head plaque.

The Shenendehowa girls modified octuple, a rowing eight with sixteen oars versus the standard eight, earned a fish head.

"I've rowed in it before," sixth grader Gabrielle LeBlanc said. "It feels good, but it's a heavy boat though."

The octuple is a racing shell often used to gradually bring novice rowers together into a boat before advancing to the standard eights.

"I like the oct for our group," seventh-grader Kat Dvorscak said. "We work better as an oct. It's a better system for our group."

The octuple was on the water when the lightning flashed overhead and the boats were pulled off the water.

"When we got up to the start it really started raining hard and then the lightning struck near by," eighth-grader Katie Ballantyne said. "We got off the water and into the Skidmore boathouse where they took us in.

"It was hard trying to warm up," Ballantyne said. "We were all cold. When we got back in the boat I told them that we'll be able to change faster if we down the course faster."