Atlantic Yacht Sales Chester Race Week returns to the waters of Mahone Bay, N.S., this Wednesday. Over the course of four days, the area will welcome sailors, spectators and visitors for world-class racing and shoreside festivities. The event’s on-water chair says it has a “little bit of everything for everybody.” “We’re incredibly fortunate, it’s a beautiful body of water,” Dan Conrod told Your Morning Atlantic’s Crystal Garrett. “We offer highly competitive racing for the World Cup athletes, the Olympians, but we also offer sailing for newcomers to the sport and we’ve got a really, really vibrant registration this year.” The regatta will feature 137 boats on five different racecourses. “We’ve got one group that sails inside Chester Harbour and then the rest kind of just go between Tancook and Quaker and Meisers Island, so we separate them out,” Conrod explained. “Some boats are identical to each other and so those would be called one design boats, they would race against each other and then other boats would have a handicap very similar to golf, which allows us to basically let them sail their race and when they all come back in, they have a corrected time.” The events aren’t just held on the water. Several will be on land, including an outdoor “Mom Market” in Chester Parade Square. “We also have live music starting at 2:30 p.m. every single day at the Yacht Club and then in the evening we go to a bracelet event,” said Conrod. “Basically, we have a live band every single evening starting at 9 p.m., so we’ve got something basically at the Yacht Club all day long and lots of great community events as well.” Conrod adds the week is a unique opportunity to bring the community together. “We do have a division for non-competitive racers, so if you own a boat and you want to come down for the first time, we’d love to have you,” he said. “I’ll see many familiar faces that I just haven’t seen yet this year and that’s really what race week is all about.” For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
