What is Nantucket Race Week?

Nantucket Island boasts some of the most varied, challenging and reliable sailboat racing venues in the world. The protected waters of Nantucket's 6-mile-long harbor are a stern test of sailors' local knowledge with tricky currents and ever-shifting sandbars. The Nantucket Sound offers blue-water challenges compounded by nature's forces that are unique to this legendary body of water.

Nantucket Race Week is the island community's way of sharing these bounties with visiting sailors. The week provides a full range of competition in boats ranging from the petite Optimist dinghy, 420s and kites, to the majestic 12-Metres, to the stately schooners of yore.

Racing for the local fleets begins with the youth events on August 7^th and 8^th, followed by two days of competition for the local one-design fleets. The premiere Race Week events kick off on Wednesday, August 13^th, with an array of regattas-within-a-regatta culminating with the fabled Opera House Cup, one of the oldest wooden-boat races in the world.

Nantucket Race Week is proud to have run a clean regatta since since its inception. We encourage our participants to help us protect Nantucket's pristine and unique environment. Below are a few of the guidelines we ask sailors to follow:

No discharge in the harbor
Use environmentally-friendly bottom paint
Utilize our conveniently placed refill stations to top up reusable water bottles.
Use green cleaning products
Recycle glass, plastic, metal and paper
Use bicycles and public transportation

Nantucket Race Week is hosted by the Nantucket Yacht Club and the Great Harbor Yacht Club to benefit Nantucket Community Sailing (NCS), a non-profit, educational organization that provides affordable access to sailing and water sports to the public. NCS offers free sailing and water sports through community outreach programs to the community, including the Nantucket High School Sailing Team, scholarships to year-round island youth, adaptive sailing for children of all abilities, and therapeutic sails for senior citizens.