OPPORTUNITY: Using the sport to grow the sport

While nearly 300 entrants gear up to compete in Sperry Top-Sider Charleston Race Week on April 19-21 in Charleston, SC, there is another event that is gearing up to use the spectacle to hopefully grow the sport. Sail Charleston is a free, one-day exhibition of sailing for people unfamiliar with the sport, and it plans to use the regatta to showcase what sailing is all about.

“We are really excited about this whole program, because there’s so many great opportunities to sail here in Charleston,” Greg Fisher, director of College of Charleston sailing, explained to the Moultrie News. “We think it’s just being able to get them (the public) out in front of people (sailing representatives) to take advantage of it.”

Representatives from local yacht clubs, sailing associations and sailing-oriented businesses will be on hand to talk about opportunities to get involved in sailing. Visitors will also have the opportunity to check out a wide range of boats, from single-person dinghies to world-cruising yachts. Giveaways, including hats and bags, will take place throughout the event.

Visitors may also pay $10 to take a brief tour of the Charleston Harbor via the Charleston Explorer and view Race Week – the largest regatta of its kind in the Western Hemisphere – up close. Fisher will be leading that boat tour, narrating the race and pointing out points of sailing interest in the harbor.

Fisher added that “if this goes as well as we’re hoping it will go, the inaugural event could be held more often than just annually in conjunction with Race Week. “A lot of people want to see the sport grow here in Charleston,” he said.

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