NOOD 2020: Optimism for Annapolis

Six months earlier, in St. Petersburg, Florida, the five-event Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta series marked the beginning of the 32nd year for the regatta circuit, with three outstanding days of racing conditions on Tampa Bay.

However, COVID-19 was rapidly commanding the headlines, and soon enough the virus prompted the postponements and then cancellations of NOOD regattas in Chicago and Marblehead. For event organizers, there’s still hope to host a safe regatta in San Diego in late September, but in the meantime, they have their sights set on the Annapolis NOOD—originally scheduled for May—to be held over the last weekend of August.

One thing for sure, says Annapolis YC race official Kevin Reeds, this year’s regatta will be smaller and far more local in nature, but the club is looking forward to hosting a competitive one-design regatta for local sailors. On the water, the racing experience will be the same, but the on-land social portion of the regatta will be relatively non-existent as the club and organizers adhere to current guidelines.

Current COVID-19 case numbers remain stable in the smaller bubble of downtown Annapolis and across the river in Eastport where AYC’s new state-of-the-art facilities have a slight feeling of normality on campus, and Reeds says this has allowed the club and its nearby partners from Eastport YC and the Severn Sailing Association, to progressively ramp up the popular Wednesday night beer can series, and even host its first significant daylong regatta last weekend, the “Two-Bridge Fiasco.”

The Fiasco was a pursuit race with 133 registered boats, sailing single or doublehanded, and as a simple race aimed at family sailing and “quarantine teams,” the race appealed to Annapolis sailors keen to go racing—in any format possible. The fleet, says Reeds, was about 60 percent keelboat (J/105s, J/22s, etc.) and 40 percent dinghies—from 505s to high performance beach cats, Comets and random others—and was the single biggest sailing event they’ve run this year.

The next major regatta for Reeds, the dedicated race committee volunteers and the staffs of the three clubs is the Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta, which is expected to attract primarily regional teams, and will be a strict one-design affair. Volunteers have been preparing over the past six weeks while conducting the Wednesday night series and Reeds says everything is going well thanks to the safety plan the club put in place. Full report.

Series information – Annapolis details – Race information – Facebook

Operating since 1988, Sailing World’s National Offshore One Design Regattas, known as the “NOODs,” are the longest-running and most popular sailboat racing series in North America. Every NOOD regatta attracts regional, national, and international talent to compete against the local community on their home waters.

The 32nd edition of the National Offshore One Design (NOOD) Regatta Series returns to the same five venues across the USA in 2020 before it sets offshore again for the Caribbean NOOD Championship in the British Virgin Islands.

St. Petersburg, FL
February 14 – 16, 2020
St. Petersburg Yacht Club

San Diego, CA
March 20 – 22, 2020 (moved to Sept, 4-6, then Sept. 25-27)
San Diego Yacht Club
Coronado Yacht Club

Annapolis, MD
May 15 – 17, 2020 (moved to August 28-30, 2020)
Annapolis Yacht Club

Chicago, IL
June 12 – 14, 2020 (cancelled)
Chicago Yacht Club

Marblehead, MA
July 23 – 26, 2020 (moved to August 7-9, 2020 – cancelled)
Corinthian Yacht Club

Caribbean NOOD Championship
British Virgin Islands (cancelled)