Wallace Reyes works on putting the wrapper on a section of his 100 foot long cigar at Tampa's Cigar Heritage Festival Saturday in Centennial Park in Ybor City.

Jason Behnken/The Tampa Tribune

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Smoking!: Historic Ybor City, once known as the cigar capital of the world, wrested the record for the world's longest cigar away from Cuba.

Reyes, center, direct his team as they roll sections of the world's longest cigar at the Tampa's Cigar Heritage Festival in Ybor City.

Ybor City Smokes Old Cigar Record

TAMPA - Historic Ybor City, once known as the cigar capital of the world, wrested the record for the world's longest cigar away from Cuba late Saturday afternoon.

The 101-foot cigar was finished in front of hundreds of people at the Cigar Heritage Festival in Ybor City's Centennial Park. They watched as Wallace and Margarita Reyes, co-owners of Gonzalez Habano Cigar Co., went for the final assembly. "Put your hand on the cigar," Vienna LoCicero, co-founder of Cigar City Magazine, told cigarmakers there. "You are touching history."

The cigar rolled Saturday bested the world record of 66 feet, and 11 inches set last year in Havana by Jose Castelar.

The 85th anniversary of the fourth-generation cigar company served as the impetus to break the record. "I wanted to do something special," Wallace Reyes said. "I wanted to do something big." The stogie - rolled over several weeks - weighed 53 pounds and 8 ounces. The cigar cost $5,100, including labor and material, Reyes said. The local cigarmaker spent 75 hours making it.

The accomplishment will be recognized by Guinness World Records, according to Arturo Fuentes Jr., president of Tampa Sweethearts Cigar Co. If no one beats that record before July, the feat should be recorded in the 2008 edition of Guinness World Records.

Fuentes served as a witness and judge by default after the Guinness representative had a family emergency and could not make the trip.

The Guinness judge left instructions on how to document the event. Fuentes, Ybor City Chamber of Commerce President Tom Keating and a police officer served as judges and witnesses.

"It's an honor for Tampa, the cigar city," Fuentes said. "This is a compliment to Wally's [Reyes] vision, passion and his devotion. Ybor gets its recognition back."

Tampa and Cuba are forever linked in history. From the Cuban revolution to the migration of Cubans who came here and built cigar factories, Tampa has had a long-standing relationship with the island.

Years ago, Ybor City was abuzz with cigar factories and the workers who helped the neighborhood thrive.

No one knows it better than Reyes, a Puerto Rican native whose knowledge of the cigar industry, Tampa and Cuba has made him a historian of sorts.

Reyes acted as a conductor as he pieced the mammoth cigar together.

"Roll, roll, hold, back," Reyes instructed volunteers helping him finish the cigar.

As Reyes and the volunteers labored, throngs of people milled about at the festival as cigar smoke swirled above the crowd.

Behind the Ybor City Museum, people played dominos as they enjoyed their stogies. It took Helen Vicari back to the days when Ybor City was at its best.

"We need this," the 71-year-old museum volunteer (Helen Vicari) said. "This is how it used to be. This has to happen more."