Sperry Charleston Race Week 2017 in review

by Charleston Race Week on 27 Apr 2017 The underlying goal for every race organizer – even those staging benefit regattas – is to provide safe, fair, competitive sailing. When you have your hands on the helm of a mega regatta such as Sperry Charleston Race Week, that doesn’t change. But it does become more complicated.

This year, the largest regatta of its kind in the Americas hosted over 200 boats and close to 2,000 racing sailors. Add to that the fact that racing here takes place on six separate racecourses in a harbor riddled with strong tides and an active commercial shipping scene and that’s clearly a lot to manage. Throw in the need to coordinate 225 on-the-water volunteers and 100 more on land and you’ll see that there’s no avoiding complexity in an undertaking of this magnitude.

Despite all of these elements, the organizers of Sperry Charleston Race Week aren’t daunted. In fact, staging this event is a challenge they relish. And on top of managing all of these moving pieces, each year they attempt to find new ways of augmenting the event to keep their participants engaged.

“This is first and foremost a sailing regatta,” explains Event Director Randy Draftz. “Our steering committee makes it a priority to run the competition as proficiently as possible, but each year we also tweak aspects of the event so that we can enrich the experience for our participants, both on and off the water.”

One of those innovations this year was the addition of a fourth inshore racecourse. This is a tall order when you consider that it involved coordinating with the U.S. Coast Guard and the Charleston Harbor Pilots Association to ensure that the racing not interfere with shipping traffic. But after three days of competition on the new course – with 10 races sailed and no horn blasts issued from the many ships that transited the area – Draftz deemed it a success.

“I was pleased to see our new fourth course work out so well. The race committee on that course – led by Wayne Bretsch – had to work around a busy commercial traffic schedule, but they still got in a lot of races. And every competitor that I spoke with who competed on that course came off the water happy. We had the J/24 and J/22 Classes on that circle and it’s good to know that there was still room for at least one more class out there. Because we had mostly south-southwest breezes during the event, the legs on that course measured between three quarters of a mile and a mile. But other wind directions could allow for longer legs. I think the upshot of this innovation is that our regatta can now accommodate up to 10 well-attended classes inshore. That’s three more than last year.”

An additional innovation this year was the adoption of the Offshore Racing Congress (ORC) rule as the primary handicapping system at Race Week. The organizers favored this because ORC is an objective and scientific system that factors in boat, spar and sail measurements to calculate a boat’s performance potential using a proprietary velocity prediction program. ORC also offers an advantage because race managers can score a given race according to the wind strengths recorded during that contest.

In order to ensure a smooth transition to the use of ORC, the organizers imported Dobbs Davis, the ORC representative in the U.S. Davis assisted with measuring boats in advance of the regatta and helped troubleshoot what minor scoring issues arose during the event. “Having Dobbs Davis here to help us make this transition to ORC was invaluable,” said Draftz at the final awards ceremony.

He pointed out that having a boat such as Tony Langley's speedy TP52 Gladiator on the same racecourse with very dissimilar boats such as an XP44 and a Beneteau 47.7 wouldn't be possible without ORC.

“Ultimately, I think we’ve been able to achieve more competitive racing with fewer of the rating issues than we’ve had in the past. And that means better value for everyone.”

A final innovation adopted for 2017 was a Pro-Am competition meant to entertain participants and simultaneously raise funds for one event partner – the College of Charleston Sailing Program. This turned out to be a tremendous success as hundreds of spectators lined the long pier adjacent Race Week’s Regatta Village to watch and cheer on the 10 pro-am teams while they maneuvered just 30 yards offshore.

The Pro-Am event lasted fewer than 40 minutes. The spectators were treated to some spectacular action as these top-tier racers battled it out in three separate contests aboard a fleet of J/22s. Performing consistently in 12-knot southerly breezes, Christophe Killian – a member of the College of Charleston’s varsity sailing team and the No. 1-ranked match racer in the U.S. – bested his rivals, which included America’s Cup winners, Olympic medalists and multi-time world, North American and national champions. Overall, the sailors efforts were well appreciated.

“Wow, that was one of the best things I’ve ever seen at Race Week,” said Sean Moran, who has traveled here from northern Virginia for several years to volunteer at the regatta. And Jack Gierhart, the Executive Director of US Sailing was also on hand. 'This Pro Am was a great addition to the event,' Gierhart said. 'I think it's a brilliant idea that needs to be continued next year.”

Josh Ryan, another Race Week volunteer, concurred. Ryan had actually driven all night from Indiana to be in Charleston and had paid $250 for the privilege of sailing with the pros. As a non-sailor he said, 'It was a great experience. I got to sail with Paris Henken, an Olympic sailor. I loved it. I'm going to keep doing it. I'm going to learn as much as I can about this sport. I can't wait to start taking lessons.'

And that enthusiasm was widely shared, not just regarding the Pro-Am, but about Sperry Charleston Race Week in general. According to John Mynster of Norfolk, Virginia, who was racing on board John Steadman’s B-25 Spirit with a crew made up entirely of military veterans, this event was a blast. “I loved every minute of Race Week,” said Mynster afterward. “Even though we finished fourth in our class, it was one of the best events I’ve ever done.”

And that, right there, is proof positive that innovation often leads to success.

Next year Sperry Charleston Race Week will take place April 12-15, 2018. In the meantime, you can find full scores, photo galleries and videos on the event website, as well as additional coverage on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.