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Local sailing sports scene racing into limelight
By Dennis Quick
Senior Staff Writer
Nearly 150 competitive sailing teams participated in this year’s Charleston Race Week, a regatta held April 6-9 in Charleston Harbor.
Organized by the South Carolina Maritime Heritage Foundation and the Charleston Ocean Racing Association, the three-course regatta consisted of keelboats ranging from 22 feet to 60 feet in length and attracted sailors from as far away as England and Canada.
Based in Mount Pleasant at Charleston Harbor Resort & Marina, one of the event’s 15 sponsors and the site of the event’s “Race Village,” Charleston Race Week has been touted as the nation’s fifth-largest regatta. Proceeds from the annual event go toward the Maritime Heritage Foundation’s efforts to complete the construction of the schooner Spirit of South Carolina and promote the state’s maritime history.
The regatta’s organizers had estimated an attendance of about 1,000, with roughly 70% of the racing enthusiasts being out-of-towners. With the attendees’ average household income exceeding $215,000 and average net worth hovering at $1.3 million, organizers considered the event potentially lucrative for the Lowcountry.
The economic impact, including everything from hotel accommodations, to dining, to boat services, was expected to be about $448,300, the Mount Pleasant Accommodations Tax Advisory Committee estimated.
Aside from bringing smiles to the local tourism and hospitality industry, Charleston Race Week brought a sunny outlook to Seabrook Island, the event’s lead sponsor for the second consecutive year. The resort island is about 45 minutes from downtown Charleston.
“The event helps strengthen the connection Seabrook Island has with the Charleston area,” said Joe Salvo, broker-in-charge of the island’s real estate office and executive director of the Seabrook Island Club. Because of the island’s ties to the ocean and the outdoors in general, as well as the event’s potential to draw possible homebuyers to the Charleston area, Salvo described Seabrook Island’s relationship with Charleston Race Week as a “natural fit.”
Racing resurgence
Since Charleston Race Week’s 1996 debut, participation has increased steadily, with the more dramatic jumps in race entries occurring recently. Ninety-four boats raced in the 2004 event; in 2005, 143 boats competed.
That rise in participation indicates the Lowcountry’s resurgence as a popular competitive sailing venue, said Tim Recks, business manager for Charleston Boatworks Inc., a Charleston Race Week sponsor.
“Racing in Charleston used to be a big, big deal years ago,” Recks explained. “But after a while, it lost its steam.”
The decline has a combination of reasons, Recks said. More people, particularly those lacking the means for sailboats, preferred the affordability of motor boating to the expensiveness of sailing. Others simply had no interest in water sports.
Recks attributes the area’s sailing resurgence to the Maritime Heritage Foundation’s promotional efforts and to the reputation Charleston sailors enjoy nationwide.
“Charleston is well represented by sailors who compete across the country,” Recks said. “People meet our people and want to come here.”
Aside from Charleston Race Week, other Lowcountry sailing competitions include the Rockville Regatta and races sponsored by the Hobcaw Yacht Club, the Charleston Yacht Club, the Carolina Yacht Club and the Charleston Ocean Racing Association, which sponsors qualifying races for sailors aiming to compete in larger competitions.
In 2004, Charleston hosted the nation’s first U.S. Youth Sailing Championship. Organized by U.S. Sailing and hosted by the College of Charleston and the Carolina Yacht Club, the event included 149 sailors under the age of 20. The winner represented the United States at the Youth World Championship in Poland.
Natural venue
Charleston’s rise as a tourist destination and the development of the area’s waterfront has helped contribute to the Lowcountry’s prominence in the competitive sailing scene, said Brad Van Liew, executive director of the Maritime Heritage Foundation.
Van Liew noted that the region’s growing popularity has attracted wealthy sailors from New England, who bring with them as many as two or three boats when they move to the Lowcountry.
“We’re becoming the Newport of the South,” said Van Liew, referring to Newport, R.I., famous for its yacht racing.
A native Californian, Van Liew moved temporarily to the Charleston area in 1998 to compete in the “Around the World Alone” yacht-racing competition. Van Liew won the 28,755-mile race in 2002, after relocating his family permanently to the Lowcountry.
Van Liew considers San Diego the nation’s top competitive sailing venue, followed by Newport, R.I., Annapolis, Md., and Key West, Fla. Although the Charleston area has become well established on the yacht-racing map, the area has yet to reach its potential.
“We’re still new,” he said. “The region has room to grow for competitive sailing.”
Dennis Quick is senior staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dquick@charlestonbusiness.com.
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