Helly Hansen Chester Race Week ends on high note
The fourth and final day of the recent Helly Hansen Chester Race Week was headlined with “champagne” sailing conditions under sunny skies and a 10- to 15-knot breeze, which picked up to gusts of 20 knots.
Pat Nelder, on-water chair of Chester Race Week, said, “It's wonderful to conclude the event with optimal conditions for our sailors.”
Two-time Olympian Lisa Ross was victorious in the highly competitive Bluenose fleet, winning on Hot Sauce.
Hosted by the Chester Yacht Club in the picturesque Southshore Nova Scotia village of Chester in mid-august each year, Helly Hansen Chester Race Week is Canada's largest keelboat regatta, which includes four days of sailing and plays host to more than 120 boats from across North America.
Named one of Sailing World magazine's 14 greatest sailing events in North America, 1,200-plus sailors descend on
Nova Scotia's scenic Mahone Bay each August to compete in one of 15 fleets racing simultaneously on five different racecourses. The fleets accommodate everyone from offshore big boats and one-designs to classic wooden boats, club racers and no-spinnaker cruising boats.
Chester's sailing regattas were first documented in 1856, and since then, tourists and locals alike have taken in the natural beauty of the area by both land and sea.
A community-based, volunteer-driven event, Helly Hansen Chester Race Week boasts a full schedule of publicfriendly events with live music, great food and yacht races, plus racing seminars from internationally-renowned sailors, tacticians, boat builders and sailmakers.
For more information, visit www.chesterraceweek.com and follow along on Instagram (@Chesterraceweek) and Facebook (/Chesterraceweek).