‘Like Mardi Gras’: Parties are ‘75% back to normal’ in Harbour Town during Heritage 2021
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RBC Heritage 2021
With limited spectators for the 2021 event, RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing is Hilton Head’s first big, in-person event since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The Island Packet is your guide for updates and information throughout the tournament.
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Helen Hudson doesn’t know if she crashed someone’s party late Saturday near The Crazy Crab restaurant in Harbour Town.
The 56-year-old Charleston area resident said there was some live music, so she and others “just got in and danced a bit.”
It seemed more like pre-pandemic times, said Hudson, who was in town for the 53rd annual RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing.
She wasn’t alone in enjoying a night out. Boaters and golf fans in Harbour Town early Sunday said that the Heritage party scene was “75% back to normal” in 2021.
With a limited number of spectators allowed into Harbour Town Golf Links this year, the adjacent boat parties were in full swing, some people said.
Others disagreed and said the festivities weren’t as wild as those in years past.
Yet everyone noted that, in comparison to 2020 when no golf spectators were permitted on the course, the Harbour Town Yacht Basin was more lively in 2021.
The tournament allowed 20% of the usual 135,000 fans this year as a COVID-19 safety precaution.
‘It’s night and day’
Chuck Haddon, 68, has typically been out of the area during the Heritage.
He and Leigh Denton, 62, who own a slip in the marina, usually take their Nordic Tug yacht, the Almost Home, down to Florida throughout the spring.
They stayed this year, though, and plan to visit the Sunshine State sometime soon.
The Heritage party scene, Haddon said, was a fun experience.
“It’s like Mardi Gras,” he said early Sunday.
Strangers have meandered up to say hello, he said. Haddon made some new friends. Denton got a few hugs.
They went to bed around 11:30 p.m. Saturday, but people on other boats were still celebrating after that.
The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette interviewed Haddon and Denton in 2020 during the pandemic-delayed Heritage, which was held in June.
Looking back to last year, the yacht basin “is like night and day” now, said Haddon, who’s fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
“It’s been a party,” he said.
Bottles of hard liquor and Coca-Cola were seen on boats Sunday morning. Some people said the partying continued until 1:30 a.m. or 2 a.m.
One Hilton Head Island resident, cleaning off a boat Sunday morning, had a trove of Captain Morgan nips and other miniature alcohol bottles crammed into a set of cup holders.
He declined to be named but invited a reporter to come back around 4 p.m.
The party would be back on by then, he said.
It was a quieter Heritage than normal, he added. But people were still having fun.
Hudson, meanwhile, who stayed in a rental next to the marina for several days with a friend, said she’s been coming to Heritage for about five years. The friends hung a “HAPPY HERITAGE!” banner over their deck.
The tournament wasn’t entirely back to what it once was, she said. But it was getting closer.
‘Just a different vibe’
While some people said the parties were as crazy as ever, others felt like the events were few and far between this year.
Steve Lunceford, 59, of the Charleston area, who’s been coming to Heritage since the early 2000s, said there was a significant decline in people out and about around Harbour Town this year. It was more quiet, he said.
At one point, Lunceford said, there was just one boat partying at his corner of the marina Saturday night.
Lunceford, on his Carolina Craig Blackwell yacht, said it was “just a different vibe.”
This story was originally published April 18, 2021 at 1:51 PM.
