International flavor added to Marblehead NOOD Regatta

MARBLEHEAD – There will be more of an international flavor at the Sperry Top-Sider National Offshore One-Design (NOOD) regatta this week in Marblehead, as boats from Italy, Australia, China and Canada will join many local area sailors. More than 160 boats will hit the waters of Massachusetts Bay, just offshore of Marblehead Neck, on July 22-25, to contend for individual fleet trophies and the event’s top prize – a trip to the British Virgin Islands to compete in the Sperry Top-Sider NOOD Championship regatta.”The NOODs have garnered respect from top sailors throughout the globe and we welcome many of them to our event this week,” said George Brengle, executive director of the NOOD Regattas and Director of Marketing of Sailing World magazine. “We look forward to working with Boston Yacht Club to host such a talented and diverse field of sailors during this week’s Sperry Top-Sider Marblehead NOOD regatta.”Hosted by the Boston Yacht Club, the Sperry Top-Sider Marblehead NOOD regatta will start each race day at noon and run as many races as practical with a total of 12 races for the series.Boats within each of the 11 fleets will accumulate points based on final placement in each race throughout the series. The boat finishing with the fewest total points will be declared the winner of its respective class.Race officials will determine an overall winner, based on the strongest finish in the most competitive fleet.The overall winner in Marblehead will be invited to participate in the Sperry Top-Sider NOOD Championship regatta in the British Virgin Islands in November to compete aboard Sunsail 39s against the overall winners from each of the eight other stops in the Sperry Top-Sider NOOD regatta series.Marblehead’s own Sam Altreuter and his Resonance team are the reigning champions of Sperry Top-Sider Marblehead NOOD regatta and will be on hand to defend their title this week.Marblehead is the eighth of nine stops in the 2010 season, and has been part of the Sperry Top-Sider NOOD regatta series since 1998.Following Marblehead, the Sperry Top-Sider NOOD regatta series will sail on to its final stop, Larchmont, N.Y., on Sept. 11-12. Additional venues for 2010 include St. Petersburg, Fla., San Diego, Calif., Annapolis, Md., Seattle, Wash., Detroit, Mich., Chicago, Ill. and San Francisco, Calif.For more information on the Sperry Top-Sider NOOD regatta series, please visit www.sailingworld.com.