Skip to main content

Better a Sailboat Race Than the Rat Race

April 13, 2015 by JR
Better a Sailboat Race Than the Rat Race

A few weeks ago, we featured the Marion-Bermuda Race, a 640-mile cruising-boat event that is, mileage-wise, one of the longest ways to celebrate Summer Solstice. If that’s a bit more of a marathon than you’re comfortable with, fear not – there are a plethora of shorter racing events around the country that are likely within driving – if not sailing – distance. Here are a few of them. 

Cleveland Race Week (June 12-21) – 2015 marks the 35th running of Cleveland Race Week, which is hosted by the Edgewater Yacht Club. Three classes will hold their Lake Erie Championship Series over the course of the week: Tartan Tens, J/24s and Ensigns. There are also scheduled starts for Highlanders, Jet 14s, Dragons, J/70s, J/22s, J/105s, Stars, Interlakes and the new VX class. Through the week, there will also be events for PHRF, JAM, Offshore One Designs, Doublehanded, a new Corinthian Cruising Class, a Ladies Challenge Regatta and even a radio-controlled model regatta. We have it on good authority that the post-race parties on Friday and Saturday night are lengendary. The event starts with two evening races with the lights of Cleveland as a backdrop. For more information, please visit Cleveland Race Week here.

Fleet Racing action at Cleveland Race Week.

Spirit of Admiralty Race (starts June 20) – Turns out there’s more to Alaska than mooses and lumberjacks. Who knew? In fact, SouthEast Alaska Sailing (SEAS), sponsors the longest inland sailboat race on the West Coast of North America! The 2015 Spirit of Admiralty Race is the 56th edition. (The first one was held in 1959 when Alaska became the 49th state.) The course is a bit over 200 miles and circumnavigates Admiralty Island, the seventh largest island in North America. The start is off Juneau’s Auke Bay. The first leg is 122 miles south and west to Warm Springs Bay on Baranof Island, about 5 miles due west of the southern tip of Admiralty. Sailors take mandatory layover here for up to two days and nights – which shouldn’t be too tough, since the place is the site of one of the most splendiferous natural warm springs on earth. Assuming they can tear themselves away to get back on boats, the second leg starts off Warm Springs and takes the fleet 94 miles up the picturesque west coast of Admiralty Island to the finish back at Auke Bay. This is one of the few regattas in the world where you will likely see orcas, bald eagles, the jagged peaks of the Pacific Coast Range – and yes, possibly even a moose or two. For more information, see the Spirit of Admiratly event posted here.

Sailing in Alaska is spectacular by any measure.

One More Time Regatta (June 20) - This is the 39th running of Del Rey’s Yacht Club’s OMT Regatta, a race for wooden sailboats. Held in cooperation with the Pacific Mariner YC and Wooden Hull YC, this is the day the classic ketches, yawls, cutters and schooners strut their stuff off trendy Venice Beach and the Santa Monica Pier. The WHYC, founded in 1972, is one of dozens of organizations around the nation and the world whose members endeavor to preserve and enjoy the beautiful craft built before anyone imagined glass could even  be woven into fiber – much less that you could build boats out of the stuff. For more information, go to 'WHYC One More Time Regatta'.

The 1961 K-40 Antares is a regular participant in the One More Time Regatta. They sometimes bring friends.

Creek Fleet Summer Solstice Regatta (June 20) – Downtown Detroit might not be everyone’s ideal of urban utopia, but most of Michigan is nothing short of spectacular. There are more than 11,000 lakes in the state, and that doesn’t count the four Great Lakes it borders. Creekfleet Sailing Club is located on Michigan’s Stony Creek Lake, a 500-acre body of water located about 25 miles – and a world away – from downtown Detroit. Set among lush woodlands and tallgrass prairie, it is a vacation getaway catering to family-oriented activities such as bicycling, hiking, fishing, golf, skiing, snowboarding – and sailing! Creekfleet’s laid back style for their Summer Solstice Regatta is to BYOB and if you want to race, they’ll fit you in. For more, go to the Creek Fleet Regatta.

It’s all smiles aboard this boat at the Creek Fleet Regatta.

Scotch Bonnet Light Race (June 19) – 2015 will mark the 44th running of this rite of passage for Lake sailors. Hosted by the Genesee Yacht Club of Rochester, New Yorik, the course takes participants from the mouth of the Genesee River, across Lake Ontario to the Port of Rochester, where they round the event’s only mark – Scotch Bonnet Island – then sprint back to the finish at Genesee. Total distance, depending on conditions and strategy, is a bit over 80 miles. The event is open to all offshore capable boats, which will compete in at least six divisions, including several spinnaker or genoa-only classes, and doublehanded. This is one of those events that’s as fun for the peanut gallery as the racers. Family members and others staying ashore after the racers depart will enjoy a Sailstice Celebration potluck and, weather permitting, rides out to watch the start and take photos. For more information or to register see the Scotch Bonnet posted here.

 Is it just us, or does Scotch Bonnet Island look a lot more like a sunken ship than a Scotch bonnet?

Article Type