PANAMA CITY — The vision for St. Andrews Bay Yacht Club is people lined up along Beach Drive spending a relaxing spring afternoon watching the majestic sail boats float by. Or, another option is to have spectator boats to watch the race from the sidelines.
“It’s just another reason for people to come downtown,” Yacht club coach Naomi Van den Bergh said. “These boats are so cool. We can definitely gain interest.”
The club already is planning to host the class A catamaran championships. To pay for organizational fees, the club would charge sailers about $295 per boat. For the North American Championship, the club is expecting between 50 and 70 boats operated by one sailor each, just about the limit of what the smaller marina can handle. The event has yet to be scheduled by the United States A-Class Catamaran Association, but both coach Van den Bergh and organizer Christine Reiss are fairly confident Panama City will host the regatta.
The Panama City Commission on Tuesday offered their support and a tentative commitment to contribute $30,000 in bed tax funds to the Yacht Club. Reiss said that money will pay to promote the event, and promote Panama City as a premium sailing destination.
Van den Bergh expected the combination of usually calm and clear waters with very little chop and manageable weather when the Yacht Club would host the Class A championships in May. The club has previously hosted the two-person catamaran event and received rave reviews from sailors in the process.
“Everyone is always excited,” Van den Bergh said. “People love the place.”
Because of the calm waters, St. Andrew Bay is a good spot for leisure sailing as well as competitions.
Reiss brought up the idea of Panama City hosting Olympic trials. Regardless of the event, hundreds of boats would eclipse the capacity of the Yacht Club. Ideally, a completed marina would be the perfect site for such an event, Reiss said.
Mayor Greg Brudnicki has said boat races are the type of events that could differentiate Panama City from Panama City Beach and are worth spending bed tax money to promote. The other commissioners were on board on Tuesday, especially because a financial commitment was not yet required.
In the mean time, Van den Bergh is looking to bring another event to the city: a long distance race from St. Petersburg where the finish line is normally in Pensacola.