Elite Sailors Up the Ante at Charleston Race Week 2024
Charlie Ogletree, collegiate All-American, four-time Olympian, and Olympic silver medalist in the Tornado class (2004 Athens, with partner John Lovell), is a first timer at Charleston Race Week, lending his skills aboard the Melges 24 Lucky Dog, owned, and skippered by three-time CRW winner Travis Weisleder. Ogletree joins many other top-level sailors also competing at CRW this year enjoying the camaraderie on water and festivities on shore.
Over the past year Ogletree has been competing on his long-time record-setting ride, the Mod 70 Argo, recently winning Multihull Line Honors in the RORC Caribbean 600. He's also been coaching with American Magic and its Youth and Women's America's Cup teams, and a lot of coaching with Lucky Dog on the M32 (formerly known as the Marstsrom 32).
"Travis and his crew have sailed three events in the M32 and in the last event they got third and won the first race, so they went from last in the first event to third in the third event, so that was a pretty steep curve. The goal is the World Championship in Lake Garda this summer on the M32."
Competitor Profile: John Porter Back to Defend VX One Title
After sweeping the VX One class in his boat Far Side in 2023 to finish with a massive 25-point lead over second place, John Porter is back in town ready to do it again. Porter (Savannah, GA) grew up sailing in the Charleston area with a bunch of buddies on Sunfish. "We were ten-year-old kids racing around with our moms freaking out! " Porter laughed.
Porter, who competed in three U.S. Olympic trials and is a two-time U.S. National, North American Champion and a four-time U.S. Sailing Team member heading into the 1996 Olympic Games, is still very much racing around, having enjoyed solid midwinter racing this past season on the VX One in Florida taking a lot of seconds.
Warrior Sailing Fields Two Teams at Charleston Race Week
A cool benefit to Charleston Race Week's new location aboard the USS Yorktown at Patriots Point is that the event now has plenty of space to expand its activities on board the ship including representation from community-based sailing organizations such as Charleston Community Sailing, Veterans on Deck, and the College of Charleston Sailing.
On the beautiful Charleston Harbor, community sailing is also having its day in the sun during Charleston Race Week. The organization Warrior Sailing has two boats competing in the Pursuit class fielding a team in Pursuit Non-Spinnaker racing on a Jeanneau 43, and in Pursuit Spinnaker B a second team competing on a J95, for a total of twelve veterans from around the country sailing on the two boats.
Warrior Sailing is a nationwide program that teaches wounded, ill, or injured veterans how to sail; people with any sort of disability from cancer survivors to spinal cord injuries who have served in the US military can attend.
Racing begins Friday in the 28th edition of Charleston Race Week at Patriots Point
Growth across one design fleets draws top level sailors
Charleston, SC - April 15, 2024 - Sailors, boats, families, and friends are rolling into town for their first major regatta of 2024: Charleston Race Week at Patriots Point. In some one-design classes where competitors have lined up against each other during winter racing, CRW is often a time for retribution and to set the wheels in motion for the 2024 racing season.
Trevor Parekh, on the VX One Bro Safari has been chasing John Porter on Far Side, in the Florida winter series after losing to Porter at CRW last year. Parekh, who races with his best friend Marc Farmer, said, "We went back and forth with John all winter, and after taking second last year, we are totally prepared to apply what we learned and take it to the limit. There's only one option for us, and that's to win! I absolutely love Charleston Race Week; I love the city, I love the complexity of the racecourse, I love all my friends, and I love the Goslings after-race party – it's an all-in-one for me."
With twenty-eight boats signed up, Porter knows it's going to be tough to defend his title. Last year, he raced with his Olympian training partner David Himmel (Finn, 1992), and this year he'll be racing with his son Collin, 24.
Vakaros RaceSense Technology Returns to Charleston Race Week at Patriots Point
The VX One Class continues to push the envelope in race management and at Charleston Race Week at Patriots Point 2024, it will once again implement Vakaros RaceSense technology. For sailors in other classes looking to catch a glimpse of this technology, the Charleston Race Week Pro-Am event on Saturday evening of the regatta will also use RaceSense to run races from the deck of the USS Yorktown.
Event director Randy Draftz, said, "One of Charleston Race Week's goals is to have sailors leave better than they arrived. Using Vakaros' technology and data to improve one's performance is a great step in that direction." Vakaros' revolutionary RaceSense technology has been used at over one hundred events worldwide over the past year, from the recent Etchells World Championship to Kiel Week in Germany and local club racing around the world. Last year's Charleston Race Week was one of the first events to implement this technology, equipping the RS21 fleet and PRO Chip Till with what was then a brand-new innovation in sailing.