San Diego to start NOOD 2021

For nearly three decades, the Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta national series kicked off February in Florida, but a shift in the 2021 calendar will put Southern California sailing front and center with the Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta San Diego on March 19 to 21.

While the usual after-racing social events will not be held, co-host yacht clubs San Diego and Coronado will manage racing venues inside and outside San Diego Bay, with the annual event seeking to draw local and visiting teams keen to ramp up from the long offseason of 2020.

The San Diego event will also introduce the new North Sails Doublehanded Distance Race on March 20. This daytime challenge will start together boats between 24 and 48 feet on one random leg course between 10 and 30 nm.

“I’m really glad they’ve added this race to the regatta,” said Rudolph Hasl, 78, who entered his J/145. “Doing the typical windward/leeward buoy races all day can be tough on the crew—and the sails—so I like this format, as it offers plenty of excitement for me.”

Their biggest challenge, he says, may be keeping the boat’s massive spinnaker sail from ever touching the water. “We’ve sailed with it and I have a sense of what’s involved in the process and think we can control the beast,” Hasl says. “The key with doublehanded racing is just doing things deliberately.”

Another change for San Diego is the Rally Race, an inverted start random leg race inside San Diego Bay, which in the past was open to monohulls but in 2021 is exclusively for larger performance multihulls.

The scratch sheet of one-design classes has the Beneteau 36.7 and 40.7 as well as Etchells, J/105s, and J/24s outside on the Pacific Ocean while theFormula 18 catamarans, International 14s, Viper 640s, and 29ers will sail their races inside San Diego Bay.

Series information – San Diego details – Facebook

Considered North America’s largest sailing regatta series, the 2021 National Offshore One Design (NOOD) schedule will host five national events and one international championship in the Caribbean.

2021 Schedule
February 12-14 – St. Petersburg, FL (Revised: April 2-4)
March 19-21 – San Diego, CA
April 30-May 2 – Annapolis, MD
June 11-13 – Chicago, IL
July 22-25 – Marblehead, MA
TBD – Caribbean

Source: NOOD, Scuttlebutt