MARBLEHEAD — Race Week, the annual four-day regatta that alternates among the town’s three yacht clubs, will be a little late to get started this year.
The race, officially known as the National Offshore One-Design Regatta at Marblehead Race Week since 1998, was to be held July 23-26 out of the Corinthian Yacht Club. But because of continuing concerns about the COVID-19 virus, it’s now scheduled for two weeks later, and will be run over three days, from Aug. 7-9 — still at the Corinthian.
“As a result of regulations and restrictions in place due to COVID-19, and after conferring with our host club and Marblehead Racing Association, we are all in agreement that for the health and safety of everyone involved, Sailing World will postpone the NOOD with the intent to hold it on Aug. 7-9,” spokeswoman Jennifer Davies said in a statement this week. “We look forward to racing in August.”
Race director Mark Toso of the Marblehead Racing Association said, however, that the two week extension on the start of the regatta was arrived at to give the Corinthian, Sailing World and the tournament committee extra time to plan once the particulars of Phase 3 of Gov. Charlie Baker’s step-by-step plan to bring the state back to normal activity are released. He also said that it’s possible the race could be canceled altogether if those regulations seem to stringent or too difficult to implement.
“We have to see what happens once Phase 3 is announced,” he said. “If it’s a case where we’re not able to enforce all the rules, then I don’t want to have the race.”
The national one-design circuit was put together by Sailing World Magazine in 1998 in Newport, R.I. to help foster what it felt was a growing interest in the sailing world in racing one-design keelboats. Marblehead is one of five national sites. Other races have either been canceled or have had their dates changed due to the COVID situation. St. Petersburg’s (Florida) race went off before restrictions went in place. Chicago’s was canceled altogether. Two others — Anapolis, Md., and San Diego, Calif., have been pushed back to Aug. 28-30 and Sept. 4-6 respectively.
A fifth regatta is run in the British Virgin Islands Oct. 27-Nov. 1.
Race Week in Marblehead was established in 1889 and takes place during the last full week of July. In conjunction with Junior Race Week — run out of the Pleon Yacht Club — the tournament typically attracts upwards of 200 boats.
In a one-design regatta, all events are organized by boat classes. J70s race together, Rhodes, Town Class, Vipers, Etchells and others stay among themselves. NOOD regattas are easier to run because boats do not have to be handicapped in a Performance Handicap Racing Fleet (PHRF) system, which makes scoring relatively simple.
If all classes of boats are racing together, they have to be handicapped, much like golfers of differing abilities, based on several criteria.