Team Warrior Wins SAIL Magazine’s Best Around the Buoys Contest, Free Entry to Sperry Top-Sider® Charleston Race Week

Charleston, South Carolina (March 28, 2012) — Sperry Top-Sider Charleston Race Week announced that Grant Dumas and his Florida-based team won SAIL Magazine’s Best Around the Buoys (BAB) contest. The award includes free entry to the regatta, housing and dockage, sailing gear from Gill North America, footwear from Sperry Top-Sider and the use of a brand-new Beneteau Oceanis 37, commissioned by OnDeck. The boat comes complete with new bottom paint from Pettit Paint, straight-out-of-the-box electronics from B&G and a new inventory from North Sails.
 
“Grant Dumas and his team represent exactly what we’re looking for in a BAB crew – top Performance Handicap Racing Fleet (PHRF) racing results, commitment as a team, and commitment to their local racing scene,” said Josh Adams, Publisher of SAIL. “Now they can test their skills at Sperry Top-Sider Charleston Race Week.”
 
Dumas and his five crew members, who race aboard his Tripp 38 on their home waters in Tampa Bay, won out over a field of nearly 50 teams from throughout the U.S. and the Caribbean. Though the competition was tight, the magazine acknowledged this team’s consistently competitive results in PHRF racing, including two big wins this winter – St. Petersburg NOOD Regatta and the Davis Island Yacht Club Egmont Key Regatta.
 
For Dumas, a software development executive and lifelong sailor, this will be his first time racing in Charleston at the country’s fastest growing regatta. “The crew from Warrior is very excited to come to Charleston and put this new Beneteau through her paces,” said Dumas. “She’s a beautiful yacht, and we truly appreciate the opportunity.” Dumas and his crew will compete in one of the six PHRF classes, which all race offshore.
 
Now in its second year, SAIL’s Best Around the Buoys contest is a grass-roots initiative designed to reward crews for superb performance in local PHRF competition by giving them a chance at top-flight events such as Sperry Top-Sider Charleston Race Week.
 
Sperry Top-Sider Charleston Race Week runs April 19 - April 22 and is open to all monohull sailboats 20 to 80 feet in length. The event is owned and managed by Charleston Ocean Racing Association and is supported by its title sponsor, Sperry Top-Sider, as well as the Charleston Harbor Resort and Marina, Vineyard Vines, and Gosling’s Rum. Additional sponsors include The Town of Mt. Pleasant, Gill, Coral Reef Sailing Apparel, North Sails, South Carolina State Ports Authority, Interlux/Awlgrip, and Charleston Community Sailing, along with West Marine, Pierside Boatworks, College of Charleston Community Sailing, Harken Yacht Equipment, B&G Simrad, Azalea Moving and Storage, and Lewmar Navtec.