Thirteen teams of prep sailors will compete Saturday when Richmond Hill High School Sailing and the Savannah Sailing Center host their annual fall regatta in Sunbury.

The first race gets under way at 9:45 a.m. and continues all day. Among the local schools competing are RHHS, Benedictine and Islands High. Two schools from Brunswick, two from Beaufort and six from Charleston are also in the regatta – which is "simply a series of races where sailboats compete against each other," according to RHHS coach Carrie Rohde. "So the Olympics and the Americas Cup are the ultimate regattas for a sailor."

Rohde is founder of Richmond Hill sailing and has been coach for all 10 years of the program’s existence.

Here, in Q&A format, are what she had to say about the sport, the program and much more.

Q: How did you get involved in sailing and how did sailing wind up at Richmond Hill High School?

A: I started sailing as a freshman in college — I was pulled into this sport by my now husband who was a recruited sailor for the US Merchant Marine Academy - Kings Point. I just fell in love with the sport and spent the four years of college traveling all around the U.S. participating in intercollegiate sailing. Our own children got involved at around 7 years of age and I saw the wonderful things it taught them. When we moved to Savannah when our oldest was entering 7th grade it was hard to find a really good sailing program but we stumbled upon the Savannah Sailing Center. The Sailing Center was then run by Mr. John McIntosh, who took our oldest under his wing — as her desire to sail grew, Mr. Mac introduced me to high school sailing, which was done around the entire United States. I decided to see if we could get something going in Richmond Hill. I thought it would be a great fit as we are surrounded by water and did not have anything water related for our local kids. I put a proposal together and worked with the local school board and within 5 months we were up and running.

See full story in Oct. 31 issue of Bryan County News.