News Around the World
Just what happened next we are not sure, but this gent is certainly putting a happy face on it. Truth is everyone at Charleston Race Week was just happy to be afloat and racing again this year – and a little temporary discomfort could probably be overlooked. No one really seemed hugely bothered about the results either this time, which says a lot about the racing-starved attitude of the crews of the no fewer than 178 boats that turned up to take part. The show that Randy Draftz’s team puts on sets the gold standard in regatta management, offering something for everyone afloat and ashore. There’s a reason that this remains the USA’s biggest annual series
of the sport, where expectations are high but budgets are low. It’s here where many real heroes of the sport toil day and night seven days a week and often all year long to produce great events. Randy Draftz of Charleston Race Week is just such a hero. His
annual event held yearly in April has, even in a pandemic, just com- pleted its 25th edition with 178 entries competing in numerous one- design, PHRF and ORC classes. His goal of having a record 300 entries was on track last year too, before the Covid crisis struck and forced that edition to postpone to this year. Regardless, this could still be the most populated single sailing event in the US this year. While other annual destination regattas have struggled,
Charleston’s ongoing success of being ‘the fastest-growing regatta in the US’ was by having all the right elements come together: a great place in the calendar that bridges between winter racing in Florida and summer racing in the north; a readily accessible, culturally interesting and dynamic venue; easy logistics for most entries (most are trailerable keelboats and sportboats, but there is the occasional TP52 too); solid race management that usually delivers four races each day; marina venue large enough to accommodate most of the fleet, with short commutes to the course areas; challenging sailing in varied wind and current; and casual fun post-race parties in a beach resort setting, with video debriefs from pro-experts, daily class awards… and plenty of free food and entertainment. All this was not just here, on the lawn of a wealthy powerful yacht
club with a long tradition of hosting events. Race Week has to be built every year and is a commercial entity owned by Carolina Ocean Racing Association (CORA, who has no clubhouse) and managed by Draftz’s company, Charleston Yachting. The budget is lean and has to come from sponsors and entry fees, with an army of volunteers to allow it all to run smoothly. So what is it that attracts entries? It is all the inherent features
described above, but also innovations that Draftz regularly brings – often unknown at other US events. He has been one of the few US-based organisers to regularly attend the Yacht Racing Forum both as a speaker and a listener, and so bring back from Europe
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fresh ideas we rarely see develop organically here. This was particularly apparent this year. ‘For 2021 we tried really hard to deliver all we could while still
being within safety protocols, a limited budget and common sense. It was a lot of hard work. I call it the “Covid fog” because everything that we’re accustomed to doing had to be re-thought, there was no longer any intuitive sense of timing and execution, leaving you kind of lost in all the new details and suddenly making everything a chore.’ Nonetheless, he and his support sponsor at Quantum came up
with some clever solutions: for live commentary they used a patched- in Zoom network to air comments and videos from experts like Cameron Appleton on the race course. Coupled with the massive use of Trak Trak trackers on boats, committee vessels and mark bots (another innovation), the show attracted nearly 1,000 viewers. When on-site parties could not be held on the beach Draftz still
delivered on a promise of post-race refreshments: every entry was given chits to redeem for box dinners with a bottle of Goslings rum to enjoy at a venue of their choice. Protests were not heard on Zoom, but sensibly on-site. And when a huge dredge operation was located in the middle of one of the course areas Draftz managed to convince the operator to relocate just for his race days… Even trophies were innovative: Charleston’s College of the Building Arts, a collective of artistic blacksmiths and sculptors, provided awards that will draw more attention on a shelf than just another pewter bowl. ‘There was a lot of uncertainty and indecision in this cycle,’ said
Draftz, ‘but we feel lucky to have had great weather, fewer but hard- working help, and a turnout that we planned for 150 but had 15 per cent more than that, giving us some additional budget to spend on media. I think in the end all this hard work and worry became justified when a competitor from Seattle [3,000 miles away] said he would definitely be coming back.’ Next up for Draftz? Only two days later what was supposed to
be the Melges 24 Worlds, but downgraded to the Gold Cup… at the same venue. Yes, he is the hardest-working man in yachting. Dobbs Davis
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