Charleston Race Week sailors kept ashore

by Charleston Race Week on 17 Apr 2011 Charleston Race Week - While every sailor's first concern is having enough wind for exciting racing, today Mother Nature served up a helping of southerly breeze that for the majority of sailors was too hefty to handle. Certainly, the race committee saw it that way and canceled competition for all of the sailors in this 270-boat fleet.

'With forecasts of winds into the 30s by early afternoon, we made the tough decision to abandon racing this morning at 8:30 a.m.,' said Randy Draftz, Race Director for 2011 Sperry Top-Sider Charleston Race Week. While a few hardcore sailors grumbled at the loss of a day's racing, the vast majority appreciated the race committee's prudence.

'Most of the teams here don't get to race in this much wind with these strong currents, and trying to get around the course on a day like today could really ruin the week for a lot of sailors,' said San Francisco Olympic 49er hopeful Jonny Goldsberry, whose Brick House team leads the Melges 24 Class.

'We love these conditions, but most of our team sails hundreds of days a year in this stuff, and we're totally comfortable in these winds. But we're probably not representative of the majority.' Draftz, a long time racer himself, said that he 'knows how important it is to get races in after traveling a long way, but not at the expense of the safety of all of our friends out there.'

Goldsberry and a few other crews showed just what professional sailors can do in near-gale conditions., His team, along with six other Melges 24 sportboats (including the top three competitors in that class at the regatta), headed out around 11:00 for some makeshift racing. Fortunately for them, these are the kind of winds that are routine in Corpus Christi, TX, the location for next months Melges 24 World Championship.

Following the Melges in the blustery conditions, an eight boat cadre of photography, coach, and media boats had difficulty keeping up with the sailboats as they raced downwind from Fort Sumter to Mt. Pleasant. The boats' hulls crashed through the waves and left roostertails rising up out of the water as they flirted with speeds up to 21 knots of speed. 'I haven't seen anything this exciting in ages,' said renowned sailing photographer Billy Black. 'What a great way to spend a morning.'

Tomorrow's forecast calls for a much more manageable 5 to 10 knots of northerly wind. That's something that competitor Keith Magnussen of San Diego said he'll be happy to see. 'The heavier boats had a real upwind advantage on us yesterday, but our boat, Rented Mule (a Viper 830), just flies in the light air.'

Most of the teams were quick to re-plan their days after the racing was cancelled. 'I think a few dozen Detroit-based sailors were headed to a nearby sports bar to watch the Redwings NHL game,' said Thac Nguyen, of Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Others were off to enjoy go cart racing at a nearby amusement park, go shopping on Charleston's famed King Street, or try their hand at bowling. 'There's certainly no lack of things to do on a Saturday in Charleston,' said another Detroiter, Karl Kuspa.

The mood around the regatta headquarters at the Charleston Harbor Resort and Marina remained light and positive, especially among the two dozen sailors who braved the conditions for some white-knuckle practice rides. Multiple J/24 World Champion Anthony Kotoun of Newport, RI was one of them, and the Virgin Islands native who has sailed the past four Charleston Race Weeks, shared his thoughts on Charleston Race Week:

'I just love this regatta,' he said. When pressed on why, he mentioned the parallels with Caribbean regattas. 'I just came back from sailing in St. Thomas at the Rolex Regatta, the BVI at the Spring Regatta and St. Maarten for the Heineken event, and Sperry Top-Sider Charleston Race Week is the only event in the country that's got a flavor like those.' Kotoun cited 'great breezes, beautiful surroundings, and the regatta village here on the beach that's really something you don't see anywhere but the Caribbean.'

Koutoun also praised the variety of conditions that Charleston Harbor presents due to the changing tides and the harbor's singular geography. 'Yesterday, we had an ebb in the morning and all the guys in our fleet had to figure out that left was the way to go, but in the afternoon, we all needed to change our strategy and sail as close to the beach as we could. That just keeps it interesting from a tactical perspective.'

Racing will resume tomorrow, with inshore racing moved up to a 10:30 a.m. start to guarantee the maximum number of races run on the final day of Sperry Top-Sider Charleston Race Week 2011. Those sailors racing offshore will begin sailing at 10:00 a.m. as before.

For video highlights from practice and the first day of racing in HD, please go to Charleston Race Week's Youtube Channel. Results after two days of racing are available here.

www.charlestonraceweek.com" target="_blank">Charleston Race Week