MAHONE BAY PIRATE FESTIVAL & REGATTA: Dress Like a Pirate…Act like a Pirate…Sail like a Pirate!

The Mahone Bay Area Chamber of Commerce is proud to present the 2011 Mahone Bay Pirate Festival and Regatta on July 29, 30 and 31. The festival builds on 22 successful years of the Mahone Bay Wooden Boat Festival and last year’s first ever Mahone Bay Regatta featuring Pirate Days. It’s all about a community’s celebration of the region’s historic relationship with the sea. Classic boats, pirate artefacts, marauding buccaneers, musicians and a competitive sailing regatta will entertain and engage the whole family. Piratical activity in Atlantic Canada has been well documented but rarely witnessed. Beginning on Friday, the Town of Mahone Bay will be transformed into Pirate Bay. There will be a Pirate Sail Past on Friday evening. The famous King’s Orange Rangers will protect nervous merchants as menacing pirates begin to congregate on the town’s street corners and back alleys. At mid-day on Saturday, the boisterous Pirates invade from the sea and at dusk the King’s Orange Rangers will capture Captain Frederick Johnson and burn his privateer ship the Young Teazer. There will be exhibits and presentations on the history of local piracy and the friends of Oak Island , which may have been a famous Pirate Lair, will be providing tours of Oak Island

Good food and music are synonymous with Mahone Bay festivals. Live music will be happening daily on the Westerly and Easterly Stages, and in the evening on the Old Maderʼs Wharf stage. Musical Buskers will be joining the Pirates throughout the town where visitors can enjoy a drink, try some local mussels and take in the beauty of Mahone Bay. Attend the beer garden at the fire hall and then the community breakfast the following morning. There is no doubt you will bump into someone famous and rub shoulders with a pirate or two.

The Sailing Regatta is organized and run in the spirit of fun, camaraderie, competition, sportsmanship, and festiveness. A wide variety of mono- and multi-hulls, centerboard and keelboats, racers and cruisers are welcome to participate. There will be two courses: the Islands Course of keelboats and centreboard boats for Class ‘A’ and ‘B’ around the islands and waters of Mahone Bay; and the inshore course for dinghies and small boats in ‘Class ‘C’ within the Mahone Harbour. Class ‘A’ is racing class, open to boats with a valid NSYA PHRF rating, Class ‘B’ is cruising class for all other boats and Class ‘C’ is boats under 20’ If entry numbers warrant, similar boats will be “grouped”, and there will be multiple starts within each class. Sufficient entries for a one design fleet will be assigned their own start. Prizes are awarded daily and there are overall trophies for each class. Regatta sponsors include the Lunenburg Boat Locker and East River Marina.

Less formal regatta activity is planned just for fun, with the famous cardboard boat building contest where contestants build then sail their creations, and a chance to try Dory racing.
Parking areas, including designated handicapped parking, are located throughout the Town of Mahone Bay and this year some overnight parking is available for those with RVs. If you come by boat, take advantage of the marina facilities that are available, including hot showers and late night tender service. Visit our the Sunday summer flea market, the Friday farmers’ market, shops and restaurants and experience the beauty and excitement of the 2011 Mahone Bay Pirate Festival and Regatta. Join us but remember… DRESS LIKE A PIRATE!

SIDE BARImportant web sitesTo get up to date information on the Mahone Bay Pirate Festival & Regatta visit http://www.mahonebayregatta.wordpress.comVisit the Friends of Oak island at http://www.friendsofoakisland.comFind out about the Mahone Bay Marina at http://www.mahonebaycivicmarina.ca/