2023 Azalea Bowl Regatta

The 2023 Azalea Bowl Regatta kicked off with great fanfare and sunny, warm, windy conditions on beautiful Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. With 15 college teams and a dozen high school programs in attendance, morning racing began after complementary and freshly prepared breakfast from Spoonfed Kitchen & Bake Shop and welcoming remarks from the event organizers. Spectators lined the waterfront and the teams did not disappoint with close and competitive racing all day. By 4:30pm, racing was called for the day with the ODU Monarchs in the lead followed closely by the Jacksonville Dolphins and the UCLA Bruins and NC State Wolfpack tied for the third position. After racing, teams enjoyed dinner from Island’s Fresh Mex Grill and participated in an interactive College Information Night. Each college program provided a brief overview of their program and school and interacted individually with high school sailors and parents at tables set up for the event.

Day Two of the 2023 Azalea Bowl Regatta started with sunshine, comfortable temperatures and a building breeze. Spoonfed Kitchen & Bake Shop again provided complimentary breakfast to sailors, coaches and race committee with racing starting shortly after 10AM. As the day progressed, the top of the leaderboard tightened up with Jacksonville making a move and NC State and UCLA continuing to trade positions throughout the day. Eventually, UCLA secured the final podium position on the very last race of the day. The Fins from Jacksonville were able to leapfrog the ODU Monarchs to earn the top spot at the Azalea Bowl Regatta. Racing was competitive and the Corinthian spirit was widespread as teams competed with good sportsmanship and camaraderie.

Special thanks to Pierce Barden for serving at the regatta’s PRO and to Glenn Walker, Kiki Barden and Amy Jones for serving on the Signal Boat. This team organized nearly 40 races between the high school and college fleets over the two days. Thank you to the Carolina Yacht Club and Waterfront Director Jack Gower for welcoming our sailors, coaches, families, and spectators for this inaugural event. A big congrats to event initiator, organizer (and HS division winner!) Tavia Smith for making the inaugural Azalea Bowl Regatta a great success. The entire team of volunteers who served on and off the water made this a welcoming, competitive and successful regatta

The event wrapped up with an awards ceremony where the winning teams received trophies, and winning skippers and crew from A and B division were also recognized with trophies. The Azalea Bowl Regatta perpetual trophy was presented to Jacksonville University for their win. The JU squad even took home the Rooster People's Choice Award from the College Night event. Special thanks to Rooster, Zim Sailing, and West Coast Sailing for providing prizes and swag for teams and the regatta winners, as well as Mayfaire Family Dentistry, PGH Architecture, Spoonfed Kitchen & Bake Shop, Islands Fresh Mex Grill, Silver Coast Insurance, Jason Bell & Associates Keller Williams Realty, Wilmington Fish Camp, and Wilmington Marine Center, as well as more than 20 individual patrons for helping make the inaugural Azalea Bowl Regatta a reality and a success! More information about the event including links to event photos from both days can be found online at: https://capefearcommunitysailing.org/.

The following chart shows the relative rank of the teams as of the race indicated. Note that the races are ordered by number, then division, which may not represent the order in which the races were actually sailed.

The first place team as of a given race will always be at the top of the chart. The spacing from one team to the next shows relative gains/losses made from one race to the next. You may hover over the data points to display the total score as of that race.