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Forum Index: DISCUSSION: Dock Talk:
What is your 'must do' event? 		Team McLube

 
 


The Publisher
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Jun 19, 2009, 12:10 PM

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What is your 'must do' event? Log-In to Post/Reply
Each sailing region has its “must do” events.

What is yours, and what is it that elevates an event to this status?

I was reading about the Screwpile Lighthouse Challenge in Solomons, MD (July 19-21), where it said, “This is a season highlight for most southern Bay racers. This is where racing and party-ing skills are honed to the finest point. It is a Chesapeake Bay signature regatta! It is where legends are made! it is a racing and regatta experience every southern Bay racer (along with family and friends) will enjoy!"

Drawing a respectable 135 competitors in 2008, and with the event headquarters based in a Holiday Inn Select (which are nicer than a mere Holiday Inn), Scuttlebutt checked in with ‘Southern Bay Racing News You Can Use’ editor Lin McCarthy for some background:

“The main thing is that the event is a great three days of racing among boats and crew from the Northern Chesapeake Bay (Annapolis) and the Southern Chesapeake Bay (Hampton Roads, York River, Rappahannock River areas) and, of course, the southern Maryland area (Solomons, St Mary's etc.) And, among the southern Bay boats are usually some North Carolina boats that do plenty of racing on the southern Bay during the season. So, it is a Bay-wide showdown for significant braggin' rights.

"In addition, over the years Screwpile has developed into a racers reunion of sorts for all the 'big boat' racers on the Bay. The race organizers (Southern Maryland Sailing Association) led by event chairman L.G. Raley, do just a wonderful job of making the socializing racer-friendly and the competition top-notch.

"It's the flavor of the event that keeps everyone coming back and bringing others. It's big time racing that specializes in preserving a laid-back feeling off the course. The parties are wonderful, the surroundings, shore-side as well as on the water, are A+, and the focus is on the racers, at all the levels. For instance, this year LG has added the Chesapeake Farr 40 fleet and a sport boat class and a multihull class to the usual one-design classes and the PHRF spinnaker and PHRF Non-Spinnaker fleets. Tender Loving Care will be the feeling each of the groups will experience! It truly is a regatta that focuses on the racers.

"For a lot of southern Bay boats, especially those who are grassroots racers who race very competitively on weekends, it is their best chance each year to go up against 'outside' competition in 'foreign' waters, without having to bear the expense, both financially and time-wise, of hauling their boats and crew 120 miles up the Bay to Annapolis or even further. Screwpile is just a winner all around for folks who love racing."

SBRNYCU is an independent weekly publication of southern Chesapeake Bay racing happenings.


- Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt




The Publisher
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Jun 19, 2009, 12:18 PM

Post #2 of 16 (6115 views)
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Each sailing region has its “must do” events.

What is yours, and what is it that elevates an event to this status?


Click on the reply button (must Log-in) to post your "must do" event and qualify for a raffle to win a Scuttlebutt Sailing Club polo shirt.

- Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt




bobphillips
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Jun 22, 2009, 5:51 AM

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BVI Spring Regatta in the Caribbean is my must do winter event. Great organization, incredible place to sail, boats and people from all over the world gathered each evening on the beach at Nanny Cay Marina for a laid back sailors kind of party. Support by Mount Gay and Heineken helps, but the BVI is just such a magical place that you can't help but have a good time.

There is a class and type of racing for everyone, with three racing areas providing a mix of one design, windward / leewards and round island racing. Match it up with the likes of Titan and ABN Amro or go head to head with Olympians like Shirley Robertson in the bareboat class. Put together a team and charter a one design IC24 from Racing In Paradise or enter the inaugural Yacht Club Challenge in 2010, put together by Sunsail and the BVI Tourist Board, to be sailed in matched Sunsail boats.

BVI Spring Regatta and Sailing Festival; warm water, hot racing, the perfect cure for winter.


melges419
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Jun 22, 2009, 6:21 AM

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Locally and regionally, Charleston Race Week has been exceptional and still growing in these tough times.

But my favorite must do event has little to do with the competition and is Regatta Time in the Abacos. Starts on July 3rd with the Stranded Naiked Cheeseburger Party on a remote island followed by 9 parties and 5 races over 10 days. We race in the race fleet but the largest fleet by far is the "Mother Tubber Fleet" of cruising boats.

And if you don't mind me adding that one of my "must do" that I have yet to do and hope to take it off the bucket list in the next year or so is the Scuttlebutt Pro Am in BVI. Wan to race with some of the greats like Baird or Coutts.
Sail Often and have fun


jraxter
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Jun 22, 2009, 6:49 AM

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In Oriental, the sailing capitol of North Carolina, a lot of the major regattas have declined to dusty trophies left on the shelves and memories of the community. The JOWI and Michelob Cup to name a few. However, there remains the Oriental Cup, an annual event that draw as many tourist, non-racers and cruisers as the dedicated racers!

The event is billed as three days of parties, with a sailboat race in between. The Weekend start on Friday with registration, entertainment and getting together with old acquaintances. Saturday brings late registration, brunch and a skippers meeting. Post race events include silent auctions, one of the best event diner spreads you can imagine, and more entertainment. Sunday is reserved for Trophy award brunch.

The entire community shares in the event since it is a charity event to raise funds for a college scholarship for a Pamlico county resident. Land pases are available for the non-racer. This make the entire weekend enjoyable for anyone attending or visiting the area!

John


highlander709
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Jun 22, 2009, 8:41 AM

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From everything I hear, I have Charleston Race Week on my "Bucket List" of must do events. First I need to get an M24 (also on the "Bucket List") - probably still a couple years away.


murraymcleod
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Jun 22, 2009, 10:03 AM

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The High Sierra Regatta at Huntington Lake east of Fresno, Calif in July is on my list...Fantastic dinghy sailing with reliable winds, in a beautiful 7000' elevation mountain setting....


LintonLightning
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Jun 22, 2009, 11:20 AM

Post #8 of 16 (6001 views)
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Without a doubt: Southern Circuit

For nearly fifty years, a stampede of Lightnings head to Savannah for the Deep South Regatta. After two days on the Skidaway, they pack up and hit the highway to Miami. After two days on Biscayne Bay, they pick up and haul butt to St. Petersburg for three days of racing on Tampa Bay (an actual geographic item, for those who follow Scuttlebutt discussions).

The three events -- part traveling circus, part giant class reunion, and a whole lotta racing –– combine to make the International Lightning Southern Circuit. I've had the pleasure of competing a dozen times, and organizing it for a couple of years, so it's a little self-serving to say this is the one of the coolest events in the one-design calendar. Still.

It's a fact: great international competition, excellent liver-abuse opportunities, wonderful company, diverse (!) racing conditions, and a complete break from March daily routine.


Sailoranne79
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Jun 22, 2009, 5:43 PM

Post #9 of 16 (5981 views)
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Without a doubt High Sierra at Huntington Lake. Everyday at 10am the wind comes in like clock work and you get 10-12 kts. The lake is absoutely beautiful and as you are sailing you just look around and see all the snow capped mountain tops. The people there are so nice and welcoming and the camping is first rate. There are really cool condos there you can rent as well. But, what an awesome lake and every sailor I know I tell about it and I definitely would call it my favorite Lake to race on in the West coast!

Senta #567
http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/5940/img0651dg7.jpg



Alfred Poor
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Jun 23, 2009, 6:16 AM

Post #10 of 16 (5946 views)
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For me, it's still the Good Old Boat Regatta, held each October in Annapolis. This event for boats "of a certain maturity" is celebrating its 10th anniversary (with the emphasis, of course, on "celebrating" as always). It is non-racer friendly, and in the entire history of the event, there has not been a single protest lodged. Three boats or more of the same model get their own class start. I describe the racing as a fleet of beautiful boats orbiting a set of government marks in very loose formation. And Annapolis is absolutely jammed with people for this event; aside from enjoying the GOBR, they can also spend some time at the Boat Show if they want. A great time is had by all (including a live music jam at the Saturday post-race party) at this low-key and friendly event, which is why this is my only race each year.


Cout Ferrari
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Jun 23, 2009, 9:41 AM

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As the owner of a cruising boat that likes to race (Catalina 42, Jah Mon) I have entered the San Juan Island Yacht Club's Summer Shaw Island Classic for 4 years now. I have yet to finish. This year it is August 8.

The race always starts at noon and you have to be done by 6:00PM. The race is simple, just go around Shaw Island and return to Friday Harbor, some 20+ miles. One of the best tricks for this race is you get to choose which way you want to go around the island. The SJIYC also hosts the pre and post race parties in style too. It is a very well attended event with a lot of boats crowding into the one start, starting line.

For those who are unfortunate enough to never be in the San Juans in the summer, there is very little sustained wind and lots of current. This combo makes for lots of strange sights on the race course as boats are doing 360 turns involuntarily. Another fun bit is to see the fleet coming through from the other path as the two groups pass through each other with a spirited intensity.

The lighter full-on race boats can sometimes finish but our heavy cruiser carries marinaded halibut for the BBQ, salads, oven heated garlic bread, ice and libations for the race. We always have fun and isn't that the best way to be.

UP
Count Enrico Alfredo Ferrari

PS

I also race the Winter Shaw Island Classic put on by the Orcas Island YC and there are two youtube videos there for Jah Mon that are fun to watch. That race can be finished as that is when the wind blows, February!


CWeaver
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Jun 24, 2009, 9:06 AM

Post #12 of 16 (5851 views)
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Delta Ditch Run, no contest. An inland downwind race from Richmond, CA, on San Francisco Bay, to Stockton, CA, in the California Delta, the Ditch Run is 67 miles of jibing and sunstroke. As we go deeper into our golden state the sun heats up and the wind builds. We compete against more than 150 other crews and then party with them by the San Joaquin River at Stockton Sailing Club. A favorite with trailerable race boats, they come from as far away as Seattle, WA.


CKSailor
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Jun 24, 2009, 11:15 AM

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In Southeast Alaska, the "must do" race is the "Spirit of Adventure" race around Admiralty Island. It is comprised of two legs, with the end of the first leg (86 nm) and the restart of the second leg (104 nm) at Baranof Warm Springs Bay. The Perpetual Trophy is awarded based on a two-leg race and the lowest total PHRF corrected time for both legs. The race is also scored as a series, with awards for the fewest total PHRF points for the two legs. Circumnavigating Admiralty Island, one of the larger--and almost entirely--Wilderness areas in the nation during the week of the solstice is itself an adventure beyond compare. Broaching Humpback whales, curious bald eagles, and a sea lion rookery you can hear (and smell) even if you don't see it in the night, make this race as unique as you can imagine. Racing through the night (all of less than 6 hours between sunset and sunrise--and long, high latitude dusks and dawns reducing real darkness to just a few hours in good weather) in anything from 50+ knot southeasterlies to flat calm "doors" in Alaska's famous Inside Passage truly is unquestionably a "must do" race, and an adventure that will surely revive your spirit.


John Sherwood
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Jun 29, 2009, 2:00 PM

Post #14 of 16 (5629 views)
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This Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake regatta has it all. If I raced only one event a year, it would be "summer Oxford." Held the first weekend in August, it involves the following components:
* A race on Friday from Annapolis to Oxford for "big boats" (PHRF, Cruising One Design) that involves 20 miles of bay racing, 8 miles in the Choptank River and 2 miles in the Tred Avon River with a finish 100 yards off the Tred Avon Y. C. lawn -- where the band is usually playing.
* A big boat race around the buoys in the Choptank on Saturday.
* Races for one designs -- Optis/Lasers/Penquins/Comets/Snipes/Stars -- on Saturday and Sunday.
* Races in the Tred Avon River for the venerable and unique Chesapeake Bay Log Canoes on Saturday and Sunday -- trailed by dozens of highly partisan spectator boats.

This involves competition on five different courses. All from a clubhouse about the size of a small house on a prominent but limited piece of real estate, but where the whole town (of about 900 people) gets involved. Lots of food and drink available for this mixture of sailors generates great camaraderie. It's where you see the people you might not see any other time during the summer. It concludes on Sunday afternoon with a fully hosted trophy presentation party where dresses and jackets with ties are required. ... They don't make them like this any more. Thank you Tred Avon and Chesapeake Bay yacht clubs.

P.S.: The book "Regatta", by Ted Hanks I believe, was based on this event.


Jofotoz
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Jul 15, 2009, 8:01 PM

Post #15 of 16 (5460 views)
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I've been lucky enough to do many of the 'named' events around the world...
....and a few with not so well known names (Airlie beach fun race!!..darwin to Bali!)).

But...hands down...given the family ..the friends and those that helped make it happen....


..I nominate the "Lipton Cup"...as it 'was'......between 10-12 years ago.


The magic era of Schock 35 racing on the West coast....from San Diego to Seattle

Front runners..middle fleet...tail enders...

...one good move..

...and ya jumped into a whole new set of boats/names/rivals.

Then Lipton Cup came along...and Dick and Diane O'Brien stepped up..handed over THEIR pride and joy...


..Yup...Shillelagh...wait...WE NEED capitals for this Yacht!!

SHILLELAGH


I've done worlds...I've done A/cup...I've raced all around the world...

...and NEVER seen a better family/team/race ready bunch than this "LOT"


OK..so we won...we beat DC....that makes it EXTRA SPECIAL.

But just getting there...living Dick and Dianes (Mammas!!) dream...

..and doing THEM proud...

....that was MY must do event.

Win or lose...we took part in a REAL TEAM effort...and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.


Jo








The Publisher
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Aug 5, 2009, 6:23 PM

Post #16 of 16 (5182 views)
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In Reply To
In Reply To
Each sailing region has its “must do” events.

What is yours, and what is it that elevates an event to this status?


Click on the reply button (must Log-in) to post your "must do" event and qualify for a raffle to win a Scuttlebutt Sailing Club polo shirt.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner...

- Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt


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