The South Atlantic Yacht Racing Association, the regional organization for yacht clubs and sailors in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, held its annual convention in Hilton Head, South Carolina on January 28 and 29. To wrap up the annual meeting, Harbor 20 Fleet 3 and South Carolina Yacht Club invited nine member clubs of SAYRA to compete in an Inter-Club Challenge regatta in Harbor 20s on Sunday, January 29. Members of South Carolina Yacht Club loaned their boats for the event and an owner representative sailed on each boat with a skipper and crew from the entering club.
The SCYC Race Committee, with Kevin Keogh as principal race officer, ran three races, each about 45 minutes long, in a northerly breeze with oscillating shifts that kept the competitors and the race committee on their toes and produced three different race winners. Despite the shifty breeze, it was a beautiful January day for racing on Calibogue Sound. In the end, consistency won the day. The winning team’s record was a third and two seconds in a fleet of nine boats.
Handsome wood carving boards were the prizes presented after racing to Atlanta Yacht Club skipper Brice Dryden in first place, South Carolina Yacht Club Gary Gleason in second place and Charleston Ocean Racing Association skipper Rob Bowden in third place. The other competitors in order of final placing were Columbia Sailing Club, Beaufort Yacht & Sailing Club, Savannah Yacht Club, Keowee Sailing Club, Carolina Yacht Club of North Carolina and Charleston Yacht Club.