Windsor Pumpkin Regatta

The race features brightly coloured giant pumpkins as the sole means of flotation.

Leo Swinimer of New Ross, Nova Scotia has dominated the competition, winning six out of the first ten races, including one at the age of 73.

While her pastel-coloured pumpkin did appear in the race, Ms Stewart could not participate as permission to enter Canada was delayed after her release from incarceration in the ImClone affair; when permission was finally granted, weather prevented her from reaching Nova Scotia on time.

Windsor was not the first to feature a giant pumpkin as a water-borne craft.

That distinction falls to Wayne Hackney of Winchester, New Hampshire who paddled in a pumpkin he grew in 1996.