MARBLEHEAD — Cool breezes and sunny skies are ideal for the buzz of activity around Marblehead Harbor this week for the 55th annual Junior Race Week.
The event, sponsored by Pleon Yacht Club in conjunction with Boston, Corinthian and Eastern Yacht Clubs, kicked off yesterday morning and will continue through tomorrow. More than 340 young sailors ranging in age from 9 to 21 from over 30 different yacht clubs across New England and the East Coast are participating.
"Everybody is involved in one way or another to make sure this is a big success again this year," said Grace Quigley, Commodore at Pleon YC.
"Over the years this event has grown — with our biggest ever last summer, when it was a qualifier for the top Junior Nationals. We had around 370 young racers here, and even though it's not a qualifier this time, we have almost as many entered again."
There are many different race classes in this popular event, which is open to people under the age of 22. They include 4.1 Club 420, 420 Green Fleet, Laser, Laser Radial, Laser 4.7, Optimist (Red, White, Blue, and Green fleets), and O'Pen Bic.
The youngest competitors race in the Opti Green Fleet. The 420 Green Fleet will use spinnakers (weather permitting) and a low-point system is used for scoring.
The festivities began yesterday morning with registration, followed by a skipper's meeting and harbor start at noon. Today following breakfast, the boats were ready to race from the harbor at 10 a.m., and tonight following dinner there will be a DJ from American Entertainment in Everett.
Racing begins tomorrow at 10 a.m. and concludes with race results and awards presented at 4 p.m.
This is always a very popular event for young sailing enthusiasts, and registration always fills up fast. As always, a big group of adult and youth volunteers is needed to ensure everything goes off smoothly.
"We couldn't do it without the help we get from adults and kids to make sure everything goes smoothly," said Quigley. "The other yacht clubs in town help us by supplying committee boats and staffers. Boston gives us the yacht boat and manages the Opti Green; Corinthian handles the Champion Opti Class, and Eastern sees about the 420's and Lasers."
Alison Becker and Bill Graves are co-chairmen of the event for the first time. They have been working diligently for the past two months organizing every detail along with 10 chairs of various committees including registration, housing, food, communications, on-land safety, on-water safety, scoring, safety boats, clean regattas, spectator boats and racing.
Pleon program director Brad Carpenter and the instructors from the club are all very involved along with 75 Pleon parents, who volunteered to assist in all phases of the event. There are also three race lines and race volunteers from the other yacht clubs.
"This year we introduced the Pleon Clean Team to insure our grounds are clean and our recycling policies are in place," said Becker.
"Both Bill and I have been active on different committees. I have been mainly on the water working with Corinthian and Eastern race committees, and Bill has helped with scoring and supervising our harbor starts. Both of us have children that participated in the past. My youngest is now racing in the double-handed 420."
An invaluable help comes from 30 host families, who are housing 60 out-of-town sailors and coaches.
