Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta making San Diego stop

2019 Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta © Paul Todd / Outside Images

The Helly Hansen National Offshore One Design Regatta series returns to San Diego March 15 to 17. San Diego Yacht Club and Coronado Yacht Club will host the 21st edition of the NOOD regatta. More than 100 racing teams will compete on courses on South San Diego Bay and offshore of Point Loma and Coronado.

The editors of Sailing World magazine launched the regatta series in 1988 to grow interest in one-design keelboat racing. The regattas have grown to be North America's largest and only sailing regatta series consisting of five events including St. Petersburg, Chicago, Annapolis, and Marblehead, Mass. The series concludes with an overall championship in the British Virgin Islands.

The popular West Coast stop of the national regatta series will showcase a wide variety of raceboats, from two-person high-performance catamarans and dinghies to larger keelboats crewed by the region's top amateur and professional sailors. Included among them will be skipper Mike Pentacost, of Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., who was selected as the San Diego NOOD's overall winner in 2018. This year, Pentacost and his teammates will use the NOOD to prepare for the Viper 640 World Championships in August, in Alamitos Bay.

"Every regatta is a step to the world championship," Pentacost says, "so it's important for us to sail in all types of conditions. In San Diego, the water is a lot flatter than where we sail in Alamitos. There's more current in the San Diego Bay and the winds are trickier."

The NOOD will also be an opportunity for Pentacost and his crewmates, Garrett Brown and Chuck Tripp, to assess their competition in their first major regatta of the 2019 racing season. "Because of the Worlds being in Alamitos, there will be really good sailors this year, as well as a lot of new teams, so the NOOD gives us an opportunity to see where they're at and what changes they've made since last year."

Spectators can view the offshore races from Coronado on Saturday and Sunday and from bay vantage points or private vessels, Friday through Sunday. Evening parties at Coronado YC and San Diego YC will bring sailors together, and on Saturday, March 16, Tucker Thompson, an award-winning commentator, producer and official host of the 35th America's Cup, will provide an exclusive inside look at the New York Yacht Club's American Magic challenge and their efforts to win the Cup in Auckland in 2021.

For race results each day, visit yachtscoring.com. For more information on the NOOD events, visit sailingworld.com/nood-regattas