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MS Harborfest Weekend
August 13 - 16, 2009
Thursday, August 13 - MS Benefit Auction, The Woodlands Club, Falmouth
Friday, August 14 - MS Regatta Skipper & Sponsor Meeting, Handyboat, Falmouth
Saturday, August 15 - MS Regatta, Portland
Saturday, August 15 - MS Poker Run, Portland
Sunday, August 16 - MS Tugboat Muster & Shoreside Festival,
Portland Ocean Terminal and Maine State Pier
Click here for the detailed MS Harborfest Schedule of Events (PDF)
It all started back in 1982…
In 1982, Merle Hallett of Handy Boat and Dan Wellehan, of Sebago, Inc., organized and launched the first MS Regatta. Twenty-eight years later, the Regatta has grown into a four-day festival of sailboats, powerboats, and tugboats—under the banner of the MS Harborfest—and all for the benefit of the Maine Chapter of the National MS Society.
Since its beginning, the MS Harborfest has attracted hundreds of skippers and volunteers who have raised nearly $2 million to help end the devastating effects of multiple sclerosis. The MS Harborfest includes the largest charity sailing event in New England. Weekend activities include sailboat, tugboat and powerboat parades, waterfront displays and exhibitions, a charity auction, a tugboat muster and competition, a shoreside festival, a sailboat regatta, a powerboat poker run, and post-event parties and award ceremonies. 2009 marks the 28th Anniversary of the MS Harborfest.
In 1987 the MS Regatta awards ceremony, originally held at various restaurants in the area weeks after the event, moved to Handy Boat Services in Falmouth, Maine. The awards and thank you barbeque now accommodates more than 500 skippers, crew and sponsors each year with food, fellowship, great race stories and live music after the race.
In 2001, the MS Tugboat Muster was formed, with the boats on display at the Maine State Pier, and tugboat races and pushing competitions in the outer harbor. The MS Harborfest has always created and fostered an air of family festival, maritime celebration and great fun. In the past,informal gatherings on the Portland’s Eastern Promenade to watch the Regatta included music, food, family events, and live announcements of the action on the water. The gathering and gaiety existed for years before the MS Shoreside Festival was formalized on the Maine State Pier in 2003, a side-by-side extravaganza with the MS Tugboat Muster. Rounding out the MS Harborfest weekend, the MS Powerboat Poker Run
debuted in 2003 with 49 participants based at DiMillo’s Marina in Portland.
About the Maine Chapter of the National MS Society
The Maine Chapter of the National MS Society, operating from offices in Falmouth and the Bangor area serves approximately 3,000 families living with MS in Maine. Nearly one in every 400 Maine residents has been diagnosed with MS, a prevalence rate substantially higher than the nation as a whole. The Chapter offers information and education, financial assistance, care management and peer and group support.
About Multiple Sclerosis
MS interrupts the flow of information between the brain and the body and stops people from moving. Symptoms range from numbness and tingling to blindness and paralysis. Most people with MS are diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50, with more than twice as many women as men being diagnosed with the disease.
For more information about the Chapter please call 1-800- FIGHT MS (1-800-344-4867) or visit our website http://www.msmaine.org/----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For questions about the MS Haborfest, contact Michelle Zichella (mzichella@msmaine.org) at the National MS Society. 
 MS Harborfest History
MS Benefit Auction
MS Sailboat Regatta
2006 Sailboat Sponsors
MS Powerboat Poker Run
MS Tugboat Muster
Looking for a place to stay while you're in Maine? Follow this link to the Maine Office of Tourism.
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