Breadth of sailing in St. Petersburg

The 2023 Sailing World Regatta Series gets underway on February 17-19 in St Petersburg, FL. The three-day sailing competition will feature nearly 275 teams and 14 different classes of boats, and will be hosted by the venerable St. Petersburg Yacht Club, which will conduct races on four different courses set on Tampa Bay.

The 33rd edition of what was formerly known as the NOOD will showcase the breadth of competitive sailing today, from the smaller high-performance multihulls that will launch from and return to St. Petersburg’s North Shore Park each day to the larger keelboats berthed at the yacht club marina.

While the multihulls will be racing further out on the bay, closer to the St. Pete Pier will be several of the regatta’s mid-sized and small-boat classes that showcase the sport’s past and present. Newer sailboat designs will be sharing the same racecourses with several historic designs campaigned by veterans and professionals alike.

Further south, the racecourses will showcase the regatta’s keelboats, which make up the bulk of the fleet. These courses will be packed with several premier classes of boats, including the 50-boat J/70 class. St. Petersburg Yacht Club will host the 2023 J/70 World Championship in November, drawing the attention of many international teams in attendance for experience at the venue.

The southernmost racecourse will feature the regatta’s largest keelboats, which vary in lengths and types and race under an elapsed time handicapping system. The majority of these boats are raced by local teams hailing from area yacht and sailing clubs including Davis Island Yacht Club, Tampa Sailing Squadron, SPSA and Gulf Harbor Yacht Club.

A new feature to the regatta for 2023 is the addition of two days of distance-racing courses that will send as many as 40 teams on a course to predetermined navigational markers located around Tampa Bay.

St. Petersburg YC and its Sailing Center will serve as regatta headquarters where competitors will gather each morning for weather briefings and evenings for post-race socials, a highlight of which will be the Friday evening appearance of Terry Hutchinson, skipper of the New York Yacht Club’s American Magic team, which will challenge for the legendary America’s Cup in Barcelona in 2024.

Event information – Race details – Entry list

2023 Schedule
St. Petersburg, February 17-19
San Diego, March 17-19
Annapolis, May 5-7
Chicago, June 9-11
Marblehead, July 27-30
Caribbean, October 21-28

Source: BonnierCorp.com