Alaska Sailing Club

Racing

The Alaska Sailing Club has an active and vibrant racing program, including four weekend regattas, a Wet Wednesday series, the Pirate Race, and the Northern Lights Race. You can see dates for all of our races on the Events page.

We have two racing fleets: a Portsmouth-rated “Open Fleet” for sailors of all levels and a Buccaneer 18 one-design fleet (the “Bucc Fleet”) oriented towards more competitive racing.

Weekend Regattas

The ASC hosts the following regattas on an annual basis:

  • The Icebreaker Regatta on Memorial Day weekend
  • The Firecracker Regatta in early July
  • The Fireweed Ladies’ Race in mid-August
  • The Governor’s Cup on Labor Day weekend

Regatta format

Each regatta has its traditions, but there are a few things that all of our weekend races share in common:

  • On Saturday, we’ll have a skippers meeting that starts at 1:00 p.m. to discuss race plans, course layout, starts, etc. Racing will begin after the meeting, but the exact timing of the races will depend substantially on the wind and weather.
  • On Sunday, we’ll hold the skippers meeting at 11:00 a.m., and racing will start when conditions allow.
  • We’ll try to get in at least five races over two days, with a target of seven races if the weather and wind are favorable.
  • We have a group potluck after the first day of racing on any given regatta. Timing is variable. In practice, potlucks can happen any time during the day, depending on wind and weather conditions.

Wet Wednesdays

Our Wet Wednesday events are an informal midweek evening series of ’round the buoys races. Sailors start arriving at 6:00 p.m. to rig boats, and racing begins at 7:00 p.m. We usually set simple windward / leeward courses and use a rabbit start format. We try to keep the courses short to get in several races each evening. New sailors are always welcome, and we try to find everybody a spot on a boat.

Wet Wednesdays are a popular event at the ASC for several reasons. First off, who doesn’t like to take a mid-week sailing break? Plus, we have endless summer sunshine at this latitude, and the daily wind pattern at Big Lake usually provides us with a 5 to 10 knots of breeze in the evening. And did we mention the fantastic sunsets with a clear view of Denali?

The Wet Wednesday high-point series

You can find sailors racing every Wednesday evening when the weather forecast looks favorable. However, six designated Wednesdays comprise a summer-long high-point race series. You can find these dates on our Events page.

The Pirate Race

The Pirate Race is the biggest, craziest, on-water scavenger hunt and water fight in Alaska. Or maybe anywhere. And people dress up as pirates. No, really … they do. Some of the costumes are spectacular, but dressing up is not required. The rules are rarely the regular rules of sailing, and creative cheating and skullduggery are strongly encouraged.

The Northern Lights Race

The Northern Lights Regatta is our final racing event of the season. It’s a one-day-only series held the Saturday before the fall work party and is decidedly low-key. We started this race as a homage to the highly informal “old-school” racing of the ASC’s past. The race committee usually sets a single mark to serve as one end of the starting line and uses the end of the “B” dock as the other end. Instead of using marks, we set a course using various islands on Big Lake.

This event has gained popularity in recent years due to the reliable September winds and the exciting challenge of using the landforms on the lake to the best possible advantage. Also, the shorter days improve the odds of viewing the Northern Lights while hanging by the campfire after the races!

Racing Fleets

We try to provide something for sailors at all skill levels. This includes beginners, long-time causal racers, competitive one-design racers, kids, and small keelboat sailors. Our goal is to make sure that everybody can find a comfortable place to race at the ASC, and each of our fleets is described in more detail below:

The Open Fleet

The Open Fleet is fun, relaxed, and accessible to sailors at any level of experience. Our Open Fleet program places a particular emphasis on people new to the sport of sailboat racing and is closely linked with our education program. We actively encourage graduates of our dinghy class to participate in this fleet to continue building their sailing skills. The Open Fleet is open to any type of boat and uses the Portsmouth Yardstick for handicapping.

The Buccaneer 18 one-design fleet

The Buccaneer 18 one-design fleet (or simply the “Bucc Fleet”) is fleet is focused on highly competitive racing. Bucc Fleet racers always have a lot of fun, but starts and mark roundings can get noisy and occasionally involve “colorful” nautical language. Sailors in the Bucc Fleet typically have many years of racing experience, solid boat-handling skills, and a firm grasp of the Racing Rules of Sailing. Our Bucc Fleet is active and growing and is currently the largest one-design Buccaneer 18s fleet in the US.

Ad hoc one-design fleets

Any three boats of the same type can form a separately scored one-design fleet in any ASC regatta. To do this, sailors must notify the race committee members during the skipper’s meeting. Ad hoc one-design fleets will typically start at the same time as the Open Fleet.