Sheboygan to host world’s top sailors - City hopes to tie festival with Nations Cup races

The International Sailing Federation is bringing its Nations Cup Grand Final match racing competition to the shores of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, USA next September, and city officials would like to make a big event out of it.

Mayor Bob Ryan is envisioning a “typical Sheboygan-style” festival in the South Pier District area during the week of Sept. 13-18 to tie in with the Nations Cup, one of the world’s top match racing sailing events, with music, food and other entertainment to show off the city to visitors coming in for the competition.

“We have one of the four national sailing centers here. I think we should capitalize on this event and put Sheboygan in its best light, so it can give us some good exposure. It’ll be our time to shine, so to speak,” Ryan said.

Sheboygan won the bid for the Nations Cup over several cities, including Chicago, which will bring about 40 top match racing sailors to the city. They will be competing in Lake Michigan off the South Pier area, and officials said the event may get national cable television coverage.

“What we are going to bring here are the world’s best sailors,” said Tom Atkins, president of Sail Sheboygan, which put in the bid to host the Nations Cup. “These are professional sailors. These are many times the people who sail in the America’s Cup.”

Details for any festivals are sketchy. Ryan recently met with Sail Sheboygan and tourism officials at the Sheboygan County Chamber of Commerce to discuss possible events that could promote the city and the Nations Cup, but nothing firm has been set.

“We’re looking right now to see how we can coordinate with the Nations Cup and what we can do best,” said Amy Gutierrez, the chamber’s tourism director.

Chad Pelishek, the city’s economic development manager, said it would probably take some corporate sponsorships to make any kind of event work for the city, but he’s optimistic something can happen to help promote both racing and the city.

The last Nations Cup was held in 2009 in Porto Alegre, Brazil, a city of about 1.3 million on the southern tip of that country. The last time the Nations Cup was held in the United States was in San Francisco in 1995.

The Nations Cup is the final competition after a series of several regionals held around the world from March to July in 2011. The North American regional will be held in Fort Worth, Texas, in May.

Sail Sheboygan hosted the Buddy Melges Challenge, which featured many top-ranked women’s match racing sailors, last September, and has held several other top competitions over the past several years.

“What we do at Sail Sheboygan is put on excellent sailboat racing events,” Atkins said. “Sheboygan is one of the country’s best places to sail. It’s simply excellent sailing here.”

(Written by Bob Petrie - Sheboygan Press)
Reach Bob Petrie at bpetrie@sheboyganpress.com