Charleston Race Week To Make Major Announcement About New Partnership
Mount Pleasant, North Carolina: On Thursday, January 11 at 11:00 a.m., Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum and organizers of Charleston Race Week invite media members aboard the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown for a powerful announcement regarding the future of the race. Details will be made available related to a partnership that will transform Charleston Race Week into one of the most unique regattas in the world.
Widely considered the pinnacle of annual sailboat racing events in the country, Charleston Race Week will host its 28th regatta April 18-21. Race headquarters will be anchored in a central location on Charleston Harbor in Mount Pleasant, and will feature more than 200,000 square feet of race viewing, event, and sponsor exhibition space.
"For years, we've watched Charleston Race Week as fans of the event," said Allison Hunt, Executive Director, Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum, "Now, we're proud to step up and strengthen our ties with this reenergized Lowcountry tradition."
Press Conference Details:
Date: Thursday, January 11
Time: 11:00 am
Location: Landside, USS Yorktown, Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum
"Charleston Race Week is a regatta like no other, and its rich legacy is poised to continue and evolve in 2024," said Randy Draftz, Event Director, Charleston Race Week, "We're excited to open this event to the community more than ever before, and hope to see even more local businesses get onboard and support our mission."
At the press conference, members of the media will hear from Will Haynie, Mayor of Mount Pleasant, along with key organizers and partners who will announce exciting 2024 updates.
Members of the media are invited to RSVP to [email protected].
Charleston Race Week Concludes with Full Complement of Racing Across All 15 Classes!
At the end of the day, a regatta is all about the breeze and when the wind generously gave its all for the last race of Charleston Race Week 2023, it brought smiles to many faces and success across all fifteen fleets racing. Weather guru Shea Gibson, assisting Quantum with weather forecasting this week, commented, "The wind cooperated a couple of knots better than most modeled data. I had a good feeling about the small surge to get us towards the 10-knot mark as winds veered, so I was glad that verified. The current also cooperated by slowing down a bit over half a knot as well. All-in-all a pretty good finish for a great event."
PRO Taran Teague commented, "We had some weather challenges, we were lucky to get four races in on day 1, we had an incredible front come in on day 2 which was beautiful to watch and we managed to get two races off, then on the final day we started an hour early so all classes got their full complement of racing in. It's been another great Charleston Race Week!"
One of the larger fleets racing this year was the VX:One: with twenty-nine boats, after ten races sailed first place went to John Porter (Savannah, GA). Porter has sailed his whole life in the low country, starting out ins and his local knowledge shone through this week with a whopping twenty-five-point lead over second place. He said, "We've been working on the boat hard this past year to get it ready and it was great to go racing, the competition was great as always, and Charleston never fails to disappoint! It's been fantastic getting my old buddies back in the boat with me including Dave Himmell who I sailed with last at the 1992 trials in the Finn."
Vakaros 2 Race Sense on Trial at Charleston Race Week 2023
Skipper Nilah Miller is racing this week with crew Mason Baird and Sam Heighway on a RS21. It's their first time racing the boat and at the end of day two, the team from Clemson University were tied for first with a solid ten-point lead over the third place. During the regatta, the RS21 fleet has been testing the Vakaros Atlas 2 / RaceSense device, a start line tool that is quickly gaining the respect of the sailing community.
"We've been trying different things and trying to learn the boat this week and the Vakaros software has been cool," Miller said. "We like how you can ping the lines remotely and don't have to press the five-minute button anymore!"
Vakaros is a wireless instrumentation company working in the sailing world and at Charleston Race Week they have been running their new OCS Detection and Race Management Platform called RaceSense.