Twenty-three small sailboats rocked gently on the smooth, emerald water hundreds of yards off the coast of Wrightsville Beach Saturday, May 30. For a tantalizing moment, a misty breeze ruffled the water’s surface and then the ocean was smooth again.
“A lot of sailboat racing is waiting,” regatta volunteer Arland Whitesides observed from the bow of a motorboat ready to transport any racers experiencing bouts of seasickness or other medical issues to shore.
It wasn’t until after 1 p.m. that competitors in the 2015 Lightning Southeastern District Championship, the first of a handful of lightning ocean races held throughout the summer, saw their identical white sails marked with a single black lightning bolt start to waft in the afternoon seabreeze.
A loud horn and a signal flag raised on the officiating boat alerted the competitors they had five minutes to line up for the start of the first race. Whitesides said the number of races in an event varies depending on the conditions.
“Sometimes you only get one race,” she said. “The wind dies and that’s it.”
As the breeze turned into a steady wind, the three-person crews guided their boats side by side into a line facing into the wind. About one-third of the crews were local, representing the Carolina Yacht Club, but the rest had traveled north from yacht clubs in Georgia and South Carolina.
Whitesides said sailors enjoy competing in ocean lightning regattas because the races are won by skill. Local knowledge doesn’t play a factor because there is very little current that far from shore and all equipment has to be built to certain specifications.
“It’s very fair,” she said. “You don’t have to know where the current is running to have a good chance of winning a trophy here. And all the boats are the same, so you can’t really buy your way to a trophy.”
Another horn warned sailors the race would commence in one minute. Crew members shouted to their adjacent competitors, fighting for more room to maneuver. Then, with a final blast from the horn, the line of sailboats massed forward, tacking diagonally through the rolling swells.
They raced toward a large yellow buoy, weaving back and forth. Whitesides said the sailors look at the surface of the water to guide them into the strongest wind gusts.
The boats bunched as they rounded the buoy, each skipper trying to take the shortest route possible. As the boats turned downwind, the lightest member of each crew perched at the bow and unfurled the colorful spinnaker sail, which ballooned outward and carried the boats in a direct path back to the starting line.
The sailors completed one more lap of the course before finishing where they started.
Six such races were held over the two-day regatta and the crews accumulated points for their placement in each contest. Skipper Jim Harris’ crew, representing the Carolina Yacht Club, took home first place overall.
Whitesides said while the competition in the water can be fierce, the regattas are often family events.
“You’ll have families in a boat, you know, fathers and children, moms,” she said. “And you’ll have granddaddies. It’s for all ages.”
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For more photos of the regatta go here.
