Regattas

2014 Pacific Cup? There’s an App for That

This year’s Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race was a wild one from the very start—which was postponed 21 hours to allow Tropical Storm Bertha, a low-pressure system packing 50-knot gusts, to pass through before the fleet jumped off.

It’s been an exciting year for the Mount Gay Around Jamestown Record, with a number of different boats taking part and records for the Rhode Island classic falling right and left.

Maybe it means something that 20 percent of the 2014 Pacific Cup fleet is sailing doublehanded. Maybe it means something that the biggest annual race on San Francisco Bay is a goofy winter event for one- and two-person crews.

The gun sounds at 0700 and immediately dozens of crews, both single- and doublehanded, begin dragging their boats across the beach into the water. Welcome to the start of the annual Everglades Challenge, the only event I’ve sailed where the SI’s contain the following warning: If you are not an expert paddler and/or sailor, do not enter this race. Even if you are a well-prepared expert you may DIE—yes, you may DIE…

Shorthanded sailing legend Sir Robin Knox-Johnston recently announced he is coming out of solo-sailing retirement to compete in this fall’s Route Du Rhum challenge, from Saint Malo, France, to Guadeloupe aboard the Open 60 Grey Power—at the ripe old (young?) age of 75.

Affectionately known as the “Port Huron Mac,” the Bayview Yacht Club’s Bell’s Beer Bayview Mackinac Race will be celebrating 90 years of offshore history when the fleet hits the starting line on July 12.

While the powers that be are proving frustratingly slow at deciding on a regatta format or final boat design for the 35th America’s Cup, the sailors themselves have been plenty busy fanning out across the globe in search of additional multihull racing experience.

The hype surrounding the recent America’s Cup would have you believe that to go foiling in a catamaran requires a Herculean effort, but this is not the case. On the AC72s the monumental crew workout we all witnessed was required to maintain pressure in the hydraulics controlling the foils and the wing.

This past spring was an especially busy one on Charleston Harbor, with not one but three regattas taking place in quick succession in April: Sperry Top-Sider Charleston Race Week, the Moth North Americans and, new this year, the inaugural Fort 2 Battery Race, a high-speed 3.8 mile downwind sprint from Fort Sumter to the Charleston waterfront.