Attention all sailors! Hoist the main sail and batten down the hatches for the Preemie Cup Regatta and Silent Auction April 16-18, presented by Kids’ Dentist Stu Bonnin, Joe and Susan Scarborough, and the Fish House, to benefit the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital.

The festivities will begin Thursday, April 16, with a silent auction, hors d’oeuvres, and a cash bar at the Fish House Outdoor Deck, 600 S. Barracks Street in downtown Pensacola, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.  The silent auction will feature jewelry, spa treatments, and more!

Registration for the regatta will take place on Friday, April 17, at the Pensacola Beach Yacht Club at 6 p.m., with the Skippers’ Meeting for the big boats to be held directly after registration at 7 p.m. The fun continues the next day, Saturday, April 18, starting off with dinghy and multihull registration at Quietwater Beach on Pensacola Beach at 9 a.m., followed by the Skippers’ Meeting for those classes at 10:30 a.m.

Racing for all classes (double-handed, spinnaker, non-spinnaker, Laser, Laser Radial, Opti and beach catamarans) begins at noon. The race will be followed by a great post-race meal and awards ceremony at 5 p.m.

Tickets for Thursday’s food and auction are $30 per person and $50 per couple. The registration fee for Saturday’s regatta is $50, which includes two tickets for the Thursday night silent auction and two regatta T-shirts.

In 2008, over $30,610 was raised by the Preemie Cup Regatta to benefit Children’s Hospital.

The Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital 55-bed Neonatal Intensive Care Nursery (NICU) is the area’s only Level III intensive care nursery and is staffed 24 hours a day by full-time neonatologists, neonatal nurses, developmental specialists, and respiratory therapists dedicated to the care of premature and critically newborns. Nearly 80 percent of NICU babies are there because of premature birth – born anywhere from 2 to 16 weeks early.

For more information on the race, visit www.pensacolabeach-yc.org.

For more information and tickets to the Thursday silent auction, call Sacred Heart Foundation at (850) 416-4660 or visit www.sacred-heart.org.

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