TheRace to the Coast is the oldest running point-to-point distance sailingregatta and the second oldest regatta in theWestern Hemisphere. The first race was held on July 4, 1850, with a course that started onLake Pontchartrain inNew Orleans, Louisiana and finished inPass Christian, Mississippi. Today the regatta runs from New Orleans toGulfport, Mississippi and finishes at theGulfport Yacht Club, where it acts as a feeder regatta for the 100nm Gulport to Pensacola Race and both regattas form the Sawgrass Series.[1] The course has not changed since the inception of the regatta.[2][3]
TheSouthern Yacht Club, the second oldest yacht club in the United States, is the organizing body for the Race to the Coast.[4]
The regatta originated with the annual migration of prominent New Orleans residents who sailed with their families to the Mississippi Coast to escape the heat and chronic yellow fever epidemics that would strike the city in the summer months. Maintaining residences along the coast and with sail the primary method of transportation, over time “The Race to the Coast” gained structure until it became an ‘official’ regatta with the formation of Southern YC in 1849.
On July 4, 1850, thirteen boats and crews took their start at Dan Hickock's Lake Hotel at New Orleans’West End on Lake Pontchartrain and transited theRigolets Pass through the marsh leading intoLake Borgne before finishing at a pier near the Montgomery Hotel along theMississippi Sound.[5] The sloop, theRoger Stewart, sailed the 55-mile run in almost exactly nine hours and won on corrected time.[6]
The first all female skipper and crew to compete in the regatta was in 1928 on board the yawl schoonerDoris and helmed by Doris Zemurray.[7]
Southern YC's regatta now runs on a set course from New Orleans to Gulfport on the Mississippi Coast and has the added dimensions of navigating several railroad, highway and interstate bridges transecting the marshes.[8]
![]() ![]() | This article related to sports in Louisiana is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it. |
![]() | ThisNew Orleans,Louisiana–related article is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it. |