The first race was held on July 4, 1850, with a course that started on Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans, Louisiana and finished in Pass Christian, Mississippi.
[4] The regatta originated with the annual migration of prominent New Orleans residents who sailed with their families to the Mississippi Coast to escape the heat and chronic yellow fever epidemics that would strike the city in the summer months.
[5] The sloop, the Roger Stewart, sailed the 55-mile run in almost exactly nine hours and won on corrected time.
[7] Southern YC's regatta now runs on a set course from New Orleans to Gulfport on the Mississippi Coast and has the added dimensions of navigating several railroad, highway and interstate bridges transecting the marshes.
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