Overview Charleston Race Week is a spring keelboat regatta on Charleston Harbor, run from the USS Yorktown at Patriots Point in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Sailors register, debrief and party aboard the aircraft carrier, and race on up to seven inshore and offshore courses over three days. Members of the Charleston Ocean Racing Association started it by merging two regional regattas, and it grew into what the organizers call the largest keelboat regatta in the Western Hemisphere. Four local yacht clubs, Carolina, Charleston, James Island and Hobcaw, supply boats and more than 300 volunteers. On site The week starts on Thursday with registration, practice starts, a local-knowledge talk and an opening party. From Friday to Sunday the fleet races, then comes ashore to the Race Village in the Yorktown's hangar bays for debriefs, daily awards and the regatta party, with the final awards on Sunday. On Saturday a Pro-Am race puts nine top professionals on the water with guests. Sponsors exhibit in the hangar bays, the races are streamed live with commentary to the website and to screens aboard the ship, and a VIP spectator boat follows the racing when the weather allows. Audience The sailors average 49 years old and about two-thirds are men. Organizers put their average household income at $550,000 and net worth at $3 million; 96% are college graduates who own 3.6 boats on average. About 28% come from South Carolina, the rest from the Northeast, Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and Southeast, with some from Canada, Europe and South America. Talent and Influencers The fleet puts America's Cup winners, Olympians and world champions on the same start lines as novice crews. Greg Fisher, a US Sailing Hall of Fame inductee and loft manager at The Sailing Inc., races the regatta and sponsors it. Willy Schwenzfeier has sailed every edition aboard his J/35 Arrow. Classes have brought their major titles here: the Melges 24 Worlds, the Sunfish Worlds, North American and national championships for the J/24, Hobie 33 and Melges 20, and the ORC Sportboat North American Championship. Track record The first scratch sheet listed 29 boats. A move from summer to spring caught boats heading north after the Caribbean season, and the regatta now averages 236 boats, with a peak of 285 in 18 classes. It has won US Sailing's One Design Award for Regatta Excellence, holds Gold Level Clean Regatta status from Sailors for the Sea, and puts more than $4 million into the local economy. Brand presence Mount Gay Rum pours at the parties and hands out its red hats. Volare Boats runs the media fleet on electric catamarans, and sailing brands such as B&G, Dimension-Polyant, The Sailing Inc. and Team One Newport exhibit and sell on site. Sperry has held the title. Levels run from title to friend, with exhibit space, Race Village banners, gift-bag inserts, VIP tickets, speaking slots, and party-night and Pro-Am sponsorships.