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.
Dark N'Stormy Start to Day 2 Charleston Race Week
A day that started with dark skies and thunderstorms finally cleared well before noon but not without challenging times for both race committee and racers alike. The 186-strong Charleston Race Week fleet faced big forecast challenges today as early storms killed the winds. The south-south-west sea breeze stayed pinned to the coast and offshore, making for lighter westerlies farther inside the harbor. The breeze finally filled in later in the day and most fleets sailed two races.
Two-hour postponements were called on all courses; racing started in 7-10 knots on the outer harbor course and built steadily throughout the afternoon finishing in 12-14 knots. "It turned out to be a very good day in the end and I think most people were pleased," Bruce Bingham, principal race officer for the offshore courses, commented. "There were lots of smiles as boats crossed the finish lines."