RUTLAND – He did it because he could. One day this fall, Craig F. Fitzgerald, an unassuming 45-year-old computer mapping specialist for the state, envisioned a nobler use for the giant pumpkin that won him a fourth-place prize at the Spencer Fair last month. Yesterday, he realized his dream by paddling the 397-pound behemoth – dubbed Pegasus – across Long Pond in Rutland State Park. And back. “I was able to do it,” Mr. Fitzgerald said. “I decided if I can grow it, I can row it”.
  For the record, it took 15 minutes to complete the eighth-of-a-mile crossing and return trip.Meteorological conditions were ideal for the deep orange gourd’s maiden voyage.

  Mr. Fitzgerald embarked at noon under clear skies.  Helped by family members and friends from “Team Pegasus” including his 4-year-old daughter, Marnie, he put in his makeshift watercraft at noon, with about two dozen spectators on hand to cheer him.With his sister, Michele Almstrom, paddling alongside in a safety kayak, the wet-suited mariner encountered calm waters and no stiff breezes, which he had worried could overturn the pumpkin.Heeding state boating regulations, he carried a police whistle and a baler, a small plastic pumpkin.  He forgot to put on a life vest, though. “I was pleased with how seaworthy it was,” Mr. Fitzgerald said.  “It was very buoyant.  It was a bit tippy, but it would not capsize. The nautical adventure started out as an exercise in extreme gardening. A co-worker at the state Department of Conservation and Recreation gave Mr. Fitzgerald a 1 ½ -inch Atlantic Giant seed.

Mission Statement:

The goal of the Massachusetts Pumpkin Paddle Committee is to promote the hobby of Giant Pumpkin growing and to bring the residents of Central Massachusetts together on an October afternoon for a day of family fun.

He planted it June 6.

As could be expected with this giant pumpkin variety, the plant took off.  It grew at a meteoric pace, spawning a 25-foot vine and assuming control over most of his side yard. “It took up 500 square feet of my lawn,” Mr. Fitzgerald said. “Some days it grew 20 to 25 pounds a day.”
Nourishing such a colossus took plenty of fuel, of course.  Mr. Fitzgerald and Marnie watered it every day, in liberal enough quantities to produce a marked spike in the family’s water bill over the arid summer.  Weekly applications of organic fish fertilizer also helped.

“It just grew,” said Mr. Fitzgerald, an avid vegetable gardener. Then about a month ago, Mr. Fitzgerald discovered on the Internet the story of a pumpkin regatta in Nova Scotia, complete with photos of a spray-painted 671-pound pumpkin being rowed by its pilot.
He was inspired.

After mapping out a course on the pond, Mr. Fitzgerald, with his daughter and his wife, Jane, got to work Saturday hollowing out the gourd to create a seating compartment.  With a large plastic scooper, they spent three hours removing about 200 pounds of pumpkin flesh, leaving walls about two inches thick – the amount an engineer at work had told him was needed to create enough water displacement. “I knew it would float,” Mr. Fitzgerald said.

After its successful voyage, the pumpkin is resting comfortable on the Fitzgerald family’s front lawn, waiting to be carved today into a mega-Jack-o’-lantern for Halloween.

Beyond promoting the growing of giant pumpkins, Mr. Fitzgerald’s goal is to bring a proper pumpkin boating event to Rutland next summer.  And he plans to help it happen by distributing seeds from Pegasus to anyone who wants one.

“Hopefully, next year we’ll have a giant pumpkin regatta on Long Pond,” he said.

Article written by Shaun Sutner, Telegram & Gazette Staff
Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Monday, October 31, 2005