Saturday on Charleston Harbor
Charleston Harbor was pretty much becalmed as sailors made their way to the docks on Saturday morning. Some of the professional tacticians encouraged event director Randy Draftz to post an onshore postponement in order to give the sea breeze time to fill in.
Draftz has been running Sperry Charleston Race Week for a long time and knows the conditions here better than anyone. He decided to send the 257-boat fleet out on time, but instructed principal race officers on all seven circles to error on the side of caution. “We’d rather have one good race than three bad ones,” Draftz said.
It turns out concerns about the wind velocity were unfounded. In typical Charleston fashion, the breeze built throughout the day and organizers got in four races again on Saturday - two light air starts in the morning followed by two medium breeze starts in the afternoon. Most importantly, all the racing was fair and fell into the category of quality.
“It was a very challenging day on the water,” said Pamela Rose, skipper of the J/70 Rosebud. “I give my crew a lot of credit for having the ability to tune the boat accurately for the changing conditions.”
Flying Tigers at SCRW
Dave Smith began with the goal of getting more people into sailing. So he started a sailing school in Ontario, Canada and purchased a fleet of 10 Flying Tiger 7.5 meter sport boats to serve as training platforms.
The National One-Design Sailing Academy was originally designed as an adult training program that could eventually service numerous regions around Canada. Smith noted it has gone through several evolutions since being founded with a major development coming after Bill Gladstone administered an on-water clinic that was sold out.
“It dawned on me that we could do an extension of that idea by combining with big regattas,” Smith said.
And that explains how the Flying Tiger 7.5 class came to be part of Sperry Charleston Race Week beginning in 2018. Smith’s One-Design Sailing Academy has brought its “Regatta Experience” program to Charleston and provided 50 participants an opportunity to compete in one of the world’s most prestigious regattas.
Day One on Charleston Harbor
CHARLESTON, S.C. – There is no more picturesque sight than Charleston Harbor during the annual regatta that has brought international recognition to this historic city.
A fleet of almost 260 sailboats in 18 different classes take over almost every inch of the Cooper River and it truly is a sight to behold. With seven different race courses set in various pockets of the harbor, a spectator viewing from land can see colorful billowing sails everywhere they look.
Sperry Charleston Race Week 2019 got off to a rip roaring start with south-southeasterly winds ranging from 10 to 20 knots allowing organizers to complete four races for most of the classes doing windward-leeward courses.
“It was an absolutely beautiful day on the water, a great day for racing,” said George Collins, who skippered Chessie Racing to victory in Spinnaker PHRF A class that completed a 17-nautical mile Pursuit Race. “You can’t beat the conditions, which were perfect for our boat. We have a great crew and they had the boat sailing very fast.”
Chessie Racing, a Tripp 62, is the highest-rated boat in Spinnaker PHRF A and therefore started last. Collins, a Miami resident, had two Wounded Warriors aboard along with his usual professional crew. Collins said Chessie completed the race in almost three hours even and wound up overtaking the J/120 Emocean on the leg back into the harbor for the finish.
Volunteer Spotlight: Becky Royal
Becky Royal, schoolteacher by profession and pretty much Superwoman whenever Sperry Charleston Race Week rolls around.
This is Royal’s third year coordinating all the on-water volunteers, as well as managing the large fleet of powerboats needed to run a regatta that attracts almost 260 boats in 18 classes.
Royal, a first grade teacher at Mount Pleasant Academy, was recruited to help manage a volunteer army of almost 200 folks by Sperry Charleston Race Week Director Randy Draftz. Royal and Draftz both crewed on the same sailboat for a while and he asked if she would like to get involved with the prestigious international regatta.
“Randy and I had talked over the years about different ways I could help and he eventually approached me and asked if I would coordinate the on-water volunteers,” Royal said. “The first year I did it with a group of four. It was a good chance to learn about the job from people who had done it before.”
Royal referred to Lynn Swann and Fran Trotman as “great mentors” and is happy the latter remained part of the team when there was a transition last year.
“It is a team effort, definitely not a one-person job,” Royal said.
Charleston Race Week Preview
When Marlene Plumley is spotted walking through the hotel lobby at 6 a.m. wearing a wetsuit, you know race week has arrived. Plumley is well known along the East Coast as a professional diver specializing in bottom cleaning racing sailboats for major regattas. The Annapolis resident was on site at first light on Thursday morning at the Charleston Harbor Marina and Resort.
That’s because a large contingent of the 259 boats entered in Sperry Charleston Race Week 2019 were heading out on the water to practice for the prestigious three-day regatta. There was a flurry of activity on the docks throughout the morning as crew members delivered sails and performed boat set-up.
“Charleston Race Week has really turned into a big-time event. I love coming here every year,” said Brian Keane, skipper of the J/70 Savasana. “I think Charleston is the most unique venue in the country because the combination of current and wind is very challenging. Every day, every race, is a little different.”
Action in the 24th edition of Sperry Charleston Race Week gets underway on Friday with seven separate race cours being set on the Cooper River and out in the Atlantic Ocean. A new racing area located just south of the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge has been created to accommodate the exciting M32 catamarans, which are making their debut at this iconic event.