BVI Spring Regatta under challenging conditions !

BVI Spring Regatta

Solid Teamwork & Consistency Pay Off Under Challenging Conditions!

Wrapping up day 3 of the 52^nd BVI Spring Regatta, following several days of relentless high winds, competitors will importantly remember the final day of racing: a picture-perfect Caribbean racing day with temperatures in the mid 80s and warm trades blowing 15-18 knots, and a great party in the Regatta Village to end a fantastic week of racing. Solid teamwork and consistency paid off on day 3 for the winning teams, most of whom maintained a leading position throughout the Regatta. It was gratifying to see old teams return and new teams have a fantastic experience: the BVI Spring Regatta and Sailing Festival delivers!

CSA 1
Warthog, the Reichel 37 owned and skippered by Jim Vos (Sag Harbor, Long Island, USA) raced BVI Spring Regatta for the first time in only its second-ever Caribbean regatta with a mostly Antiguan youth team. Two more bullets on the last day sealed the deal for an overall win in class for the team who finished with 10 points.

Jules Mitchell, boat captain, coach, and main trimmer on Warthog, added: “We’re super grateful to have an owner like Jim Voss who is just as enthusiastic about race boats as we are and this team is so fortunate to have been introduced to him because these programmes are so few and far between. Having something like this in the Caribbean to motivate the next generation of sailors is amazing.”

The Swan 58 WaveWalker owned/skippered by Woody Cullen took two second places to finish second overall with thirteen points, while JAX, the custom Brooklin Boat Yard 43’er owned/skippered by Oivind Lorentzen, took two third places to finish third overall with fifteen points.

CSA 2
Tony Mack and his long-time crew on Team McFly racing the J122 El Ocaso won by a huge margin finishing first overall with seven points. The Elan 450 Emily of Cowes, skippered by David Hall, took second with eighteen points, just ahead of the J105 Kairos skippered by Antolin Velasco, who finished third with twenty points.

Sport Multihull
Ting A Ling, the Corsair F27 skippered by Graham Harney (BVI) and an all-BVI crew, including his cousin Nathan Haycraft, finished with ten points and a three-point lead over second place Barney Crook(BVI) on his Corsair 31-1D, Airgasm. Lucky 7, the Corsair Spring 750 co-helmed by Eddie Brockbank BVI) and his 18-year-old daughter Ashley, finished third with twenty-two points.

Performance Multihull
Finishing in first with nine points, renowned offshore sailor Brian Thompson, racing on Layla, the Gunboat 72, commented: “This is our second ever regatta and only our sixth day of racing the boat. Conditions were great, a little more wind than we had in St Maarten and we learned to sail the boat better and better. It’s a really comfortable cruising boat with a flybridge so it’s astonishing how well it does, particularly upwind it flies. Downwind we are struggling a little to keep up, especially today with the smaller boats we give time to; Spike and Triple Jack beat us on the downwinds today, they are both very well sailed and excellent competition. This is a wonderful venue with great race organisers, race committee and just the welcome here in Tortola has been brilliant, it’s a great sailing community, we’ll be back!”

After breaking a rudder earlier in the week, the (brand-new) Rapido 40 Spike skippered by Sam Talbot was thrilled to take second in class with nineteen points, just one point ahead of the Kelsall 47 Triple Jack skippered by Richard Wooldridge.

Performance Cruising A
Kinship supported by Bitter End Yacht Club, a Baltic 52 skippered by Ryan Walsh (USA) took first in class finishing with twelve points. The Salona 45 Panacea X (CAN) finished second with fifteen points, and Altivo (PUR), the Grand Soleil 44 Perf owned/skippered by Jorge Rodriquez finished third with nineteen points.

Performance Cruising B
It was a family affair on the IC24 Big Island skippered by Chris Stanton, sailing with his brothers Peter and Scott, and nephew Grayson, taking another two bullets today to beat fellow IC24 owner/driver Mike Feierabend and finishing with ten points.

Jib & Main
Walter Keenan owner/skipper of the Beneteau First 40 Libertas took first overall finishing with eight points, three points ahead of Cricket, a Beneteau First 35. In third was First Love, also a Beneteau First 40, owned/skippered by Quino Sanchez with nineteen points.

Bareboat 1
Alice Martin (USA), skippering Team Painkiller and her crew racing on a Sunsail 46 finished with eleven points prevailing in tight contest with Dutch Team Orange Breeze (NED), also on a Sunsail 46 who finished with twelve points. In third was Pure Vida, an Oceanis 46 skippered by Dan McGanty (USA) with nineteen points.

Bareboat 2
Charlie Gerrard (USA), skipper of the Sunsail 42 Mi Piba and sailing with Team Merlin, his long-time crew and sailing partners, finished first with nine points and enjoyed tight racing against 94-year-old Dr. Robin Tattersall (BVI) and his team on racing on a Horizon Yacht Charter Bavaria 37 who finished second with 11.5 points. Racing on a Dufour 41, Team Cape Fear skippered by Bob Cowen (USA) finished third with 27 points.

Cruising Multihull
George Coutu (DOM), racing his Leopard 50 La Novia, has won in class at BVI Spring Regatta more times than he can remember and took first overall once again with six bullets over six races. The Perry Antrim 52 Little Wing, owned/skippered by Ron Boehm (USA) took second with sixteen points, winning a tiebreaker with the Dutch team No Escape sailing on a Moorings 4500 who also finished with sixteen points.

VX One
It was awesome to have this exciting class race in both the USVI and the BVI this past week. Sandy Askew sailing on Flying Jenny with her well-seasoned crew Rob Greenhalgh and Drew Barnes took first overall finishing with eighteen points and prevailing against her husband David helming Wizard with crew Charlie Enright and Patrick Farrell who finished with twenty points. Tim Pitts, fleet organiser and skipper of Another Bad Princess took third finishing with forty points. The winner of the VX One Caribbean Championship, a two-part series culminating with the BVI Spring Regatta and sponsored by Evolution Sails, was awarded to the best Corinthian team Another Bad Princess.

Sandy Askew had enough points going into day 3 that she didn’t have to sail the last race of the regatta today which worked for her; she was beat!

Sailing with Askew this week were crew Drew Barnes and Rob Greenhalgh, both whom like Askew have raced BVI Spring Regatta previously. The highlight of the week for Barnes was a perfect jibe drop on Saturday at a leeward mark rounding and catching a 20-kilo barracuda.

Distinguished awards were presented to Graham Harney and his crew on Ting A Ling, a Corsair F 31, who took two bullets and four second places over six races to win the Sport Multihull class and the Best BVI Boat award. Every year the Regatta presents the Guy Eldridge Spirit of Enthusiasm Award to an individual or individuals who shine in the spirit of the sport and who has stepped out and gone beyond. This year the award was presented to Jim Vos, owner/skipper of the Reichel Pugh 37 Warthog, for his commitment to the development of youth sailing.