Charleston Race Week

[Robert Bernard]

I am trying to plan ahead for next year and have never attended this event before. I have been to the race website and there is very little detail for next years festivities other than the dates. There is a link to the Charleston Harbor Resort for booking rooms. I am just wondering if this is the best place to stay? I can't tell from the website or Google maps where I would launch the viper from.

Any experienced CRW sailors have an opinion on where the best place to stay is? Where do we launch from? Any help would be appreciated.

Rob

[Dave Nickerson]

Lots of hotels near the resort.  Do a search and find one in your budget.
Public aunching ramp is about 10 minutes away under the bridge and up the river.  Big, wide ramp.  Some boats got stuck launching at low tide this year.  You might plan accordingly.  Most hauled from the same ramp on Sunday.  It was a bit of a zoo with all the weekend local traffic there...

[Whitney Choate]

You could also rent a house/condo nearby.  I've been with crews that have done that in the past.

If you need crew, hit me up... I love crewing on the Vipers at CRW!

[Jay Harrell]

Any experienced CRW sailors have an opinion on where the best place to stay is? Where do we launch from? Any help would be appreciated.

The public ramp is located here -> (Google Maps Link).  You'll have to launch and have one person drive you car back while the others sail the boat down the river.  It's a good ramp, but a bit shallow at low tide, and on Sunday for take-out it's horribly over-crowded.  But it gets the job done.

The boats stay in the water at the resort marina ->(Google Maps), and all of the regatta activities are there as well.  

If you want to be in walking distance, the resort is the place to stay.  If you want cheap, several of us stayed at the Red Roof Inn last year, and it was fine, and there are other chain hotels around the area, as well as houses back in the neighborhood.

[Olaf Bleck]

Any experienced CRW sailors have an opinion on where the best place to stay is? Where do we launch from? Any help would be appreciated.

To add to Jay's post, there's about 3-4 typical 2-3 star franchise hotels clustered on the main road about a mile from the resort (~5min drive).  Priceline's "Name your price" is a good way to get those cheap if you're familiar with the tricks, but you should be able to land those for about $60-$70/night.

There's also a 1-star in there too, under $45/night I'd say...

The resort's rates are in the $175/night range I think, but it's 4-star and for certain in the midst of the party.  I reserved one this year, figured I'd splurge on this one.

There is also a hoist at a yacht club in Charleston.  It's across the bridge and on the other side of Charleston historic district, so not close at all but nevertheless an option, especially if you need to get the keel in/out for the haul.

As I recall, one can also pay for a slip which is close to the marina's entrance, as opposed to way on the far side (it's a huge marina, really, prob. like a 1/4+ mile walk on the docks).  I think 3-4 Vipers might have shared some of those, but everyone else got free parking on the far side.  Trailers stayed at a lot near the boat ramp.