“We’re surrounded by glass,” said a race organizer offshore as dozens of sailboats bobbed around Pacific waters near Coronado.
In contrast to a recent Sperry Top-Sider NOOD (National Offshore One Design) Regatta event in San Diego, when a storm included waterspouts and hail, Saturday’s races went off under overcast skies and almost no wind.
About 100 boats—including one from La Mesa—hit the water on Day 2 of the three-day event.
Breezes eventually picked up, ending a delay in the ocean races. San Diego Bay loops also were in the mix—with 1,000 sailors in crews featuring all men, all women and mixed.
Three local yacht clubs serve as host venues for the annual event—San Diego, Mission Bay and Coronado. Each location will have free viewing areas for spectators between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Sunday.
La Mesa owner/skipper Matts Brown-Hurlimann entered Firebolt in the J80 class.
Sailors competed in a series of races, accumulating points based on placement in each individual race. The boat finishing with the fewest total points will be declared the winner of its class.
Race officials will determine the regatta’s overall winner, based on the strongest finish in its most competitive class.
The overall winner in San Diego—the second of seven races—will be invited to the Sperry Top-Sider NOOD Championship Regatta in the British Virgin Islands at the end of the season to compete aboard Sunsail 44i’s against the other overall winners in the 2013 series.
Following San Diego, the Sperry Top-Sider NOOD Regatta series head to Annapolis, MD, on May 4-6. Additional venues for 2013 include Seattle, Chicago and Marblehead, MA.
Created by Sailing World magazine in 1988, the NOOD series—pronounced nude to the amusement of some—attracts more than 1,000 boats and more than 20,000 competitors and spectators annually.
Each event in the series features multiple days of sailboat racing for one-design models from 20 to 70 feet in length. In addition to local sailors, sailing’s top stars—including America’s Cup and Olympic champions—are represented at the NOODs.
