The annual St. Mary’s College of Maryland Governor’s Cup Yacht Race sets sail from Annapolis on Friday, July 31, at 6 p.m.  The Governor’s Cup Yacht Race is the oldest and longest continuously run overnight race on the Chesapeake Bay.  This year marks the 37th anniversary of the running of the race from Maryland’s current capital city to its first capital in St. Mary’s City. As boats begin to arrive at the college Saturday morning, sailors and the public are invited to a post-race party beginning at 10 a.m. with food and live entertainment.  Racers can register online at www.smcm.edu/govcup.
 
This year, the post-race party will return to the St. Mary’s waterfront. After two years of construction on the new Boat House and the James P. Muldoon River Center, a shady expanse of lawn is open along the shoreline for party-goers to relax and mingle. The Nautical Wheelers play from noon to 4 p.m. and Key West Race Week performers Joe Bachman and the Crew perform 7 to 11 p.m. Entrance to the party is free.
 
The Governor’s Cup was conceived and founded in 1973 by three SMCM students and has been sailed every summer since. The first race, held in 1974, attracted only 47 boats. The start gun was a sawed-off shotgun, and the start shapes were handmade out of cardboard boxes covered in plastic and beach towels. The race is the oldest and longest continually run yacht race on the Bay.
 
At 4:30 on Saturday after the race, an awards ceremony will be held under the tent on the waterfront for winning yachts. Photographers from last year’s photography competition will also be awarded during this time. A skipper’s dinner will begin at 6 p.m. under the tent in front of St. Mary’s Hall.
 
St. Mary’s College of Maryland, designated the state’s honors college in 1992, is ranked one of the best liberal arts schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report and Kiplinger’s. The Princeton Review named it a “best value college” in its 2009 edition. Founded in 1840 as Maryland’s “monument school” commemorating the state’s first capital, SMCM is the state’s only public honors college, offering “an Ivy-level College with a public-school price tag” (Newsweek).
 
Some 2,000 students attend the college, which has the highest graduation rate for all Maryland public colleges and universities, and an SAT average for student admissions of 1252. The school’s waterfront campus along the St. Mary’s River in Southern Maryland is home to the 2009 National Intercollegiate Sailing Association Co-ed champions.