Very nice day of sailing with very good wind and nothing but sun and very nice turquoise waters..
Our results..
http://www.heinekenregatta.com/Regatta/Results/Results2013.aspx under CSA 4
Pricegiving.. on the podium with the team..
pfff
Through the bridge back to Lagoonies with champagne..
We won our class... CSA4
Gunboats.. full carbon everything, and made to race.. we are doing 7.8 knots here and they came flying bey wit 15.. or 20????
something broke on the boom, we could sail on..
Expensive helicopter Cees explained us.. 5 or 6 mljn
Creation of breakfast and crew arrival...
| St. Maarten Heineken Regatta | Press Release
03-MAR-2013 |
| On A Classic Day of Caribbean Sailing, Winners Crowned in 19 Classes to Wrap Up 33rd St. Maarten Heineken Regatta |
Simpson Bay, St.
Maarten- The 33rd running of the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta concluded
today in fitting style, with staunch and steady south-southeast trade
winds of 15-20 knots, seas flecked with white caps, and superb Caribbean
sailing. It was one of those yachting days made for superlatives, and
official scorer and "regatta guru" Paul Miller unleashed a torrent of
them. "The sparkling turquoise waters made for champagne sailing," he
said. And he was right.
Pictures by outsideimages.com
On
Day 3, the wind blew. And blew. First hard. And then harder. For the
crews of the 202 yachts who'd descended on St. Maarten to race
sailboats, it was what they'd come looking for, and it was definitely
worth the wait.
After Saturday's race to Marigot, the fleet
reassembled on the western, French side of St. Maarten today to put the
finishing touches on what had evolved into yet another memorable edition
of "The Heineken." With solid breeze gusting to over 20-knots, the race
committees for both the A and B fleets took full advantage of the sweet
conditions and sent the racers on challenging courses that took them
into and across the Anguilla Channel before a long upwind leg along the
island's southern shore to a finish line off Simpson Bay.
The
B fleets that included all five Bareboat classes, Multihull divisions
3-5, and the Lottery Class sailed a 15 nautical-mile course starting in
Marigot Bay.
The
Multihull 1-2 classes, and CSA 1, all competed on a 29.5 nautical mile
course that took them to a turning mark off Tintamarre before turning
downwind into the Anguilla Channel; the other CSA 2-8 classes sailed a
slightly abbreviated 22.5 nautical mile race. The timing was such that
the entire fleet converged on Blowing Rocks off the western point of
Anguilla en masse, and the sight of dozens of race boats shredding
across the clear waters was sensational.
The
B fleet spun around a turning mark just inside the reef. But the CSA
and Multihull racing classes in the A fleet came ripping down the
Anguilla Channel under spinnakers and rounded Blowing Rocks before
dousing their kites and trimming sails for the final leg to Simpson Bay.
Those who witnessed the spectacle will no doubt remember it for some
time.
While
several crews in some of the classes came into Sunday's racing with
comfortable leads, there was plenty at stake for many of the competitors
in several other divisions. In the CSA 1 battle between heavyweights,
Jeremy Pilkington's Baltic 78,
Lupa of London, and Jan Rupert's Tripp 75,
Blackbird,came
into Sunday's racing with identical scores of three points apiece. From
the outset of the race, the two giants were locked head to head,
effectively beginning what turned into a long, closely contested,
point-to-point match race. In the end, it was
Lupa's day to
shine, and with a Sunday victory the sleek 78-footer reigned supreme in
the big-boat class of this year's St. Maarten Heineken Regatta.
CSA
3 was another class that was up for grabs on Sunday, and it was stacked
with talent, including last year's recipient of the Most Worthy
Performance Overall Award, Richard Wesslund's
El Ocaso. But
El Ocaso's uncharacteristic 14
th
in Day 1 ultimately proved to be too high an obstacle to overcome, and
in a major surprise, the boat was denied a podium finish.
So on Sunday, in CSA 3 it came down to Sergio Sagramoso's J/122,
Lazy Dog-a perennial Heineken Regatta contender-and a newcomer to the fleet, Greg Slyngstad's J/125,
Hamachi. The
latter sailed a tremendous race, and was the first of all CSA boats to
round Blowing Rocks after flying down the Anguilla Channel under a huge,
white asymmetric spinnaker. When the spray settled,
Hamachi was second on Sunday, and
Lazy Dog won the final CSA 3 race on corrected time. Remarkably, however, both boats were tied with identical scores of 15.5. But
Lazy Dog's last day victory proved to be the difference, and the crew from Puerto Rico earned the title of CSA 3 champ.
There
was less drama in CSA 4 and CSA 8, but a pair of dominant showings well
worth celebrating. In the latter, In the highly competitive sport boat
class, Mark Plaxton's Melges 32,
Team INTAC, won all four races
in the regatta to win the division in runaway style. Plaxton's stacked
crew included this year's Budget Marine Match Racing Cup winner, Taylor
Canfield, and four-time Canadian Olympic sailor Richard Clarke.
And in
CSA 4, Han de Bruyn Kops's well-sailed Hanse 47e, Team Han, also swept all four of their races to easily win their class.
In other CSA action, Richard Blakemore's Swan 53,
Music,
put the finishing touches on a fine series on Sunday, winning their
third straight race in a row to capture CSA 2. Raphael Magras's X-Yachts
34,
Maelia, also took the final three of four to handily win CSA 7.
In CSA 5, St. Maarten skipper Alain Riouallec's
Bachi-Bouzouk,
a Sigma 41, capped a consistent series with a fourth on Sunday that was
enough to wrap up their 11-boat class. And with great scores throughout
the weekend-including a first in Sunday's race-Remco van Dortmondt's
Sunbelt Realty DASH, was the undisputed victor of CSA 6. Finally, in separate scoring for the six Melges 24s in the field, Andrea Scarabelli and
Team Budget Marine/Gill topped the tight one-design fleet.
Among the catamaran and trimaran fleets, the Gunboat
Elvis-and
there was a sighting of "The King" dancing on the foredeck moments
after the start-was another boat that sailed a perfect regatta, notching
their third consecutive first-place finish to win Multihull 1. Petr
Kochnev's Lagoon 500,
Belisima, also won their class, Multihull 3, in three straight sets.
It was a far different story in Multihull 2, where Nils Erickson's Formula 40,
Soma, and Richard Wooldridge's fast tri,
Triple Jack,
came into Sunday's racing tied for first. Both boats nailed their
starts and, with hulls flying, tore up the coast of St. Maarten nearly
locked together. But
Soma eventually pulled away and won both the final race and the class, while
Triple Jack's fourth on Sunday relegated them to second in Multihull 2.
Maas Hanen's Outremere,
Teora, won Sunday's race in Multihull 4-their second win in three races-to earn top honors in Multihull 4. The MyCat 26,
Carib Cat, was the winner in Multihull 5.
In the charter boat fleets, the winners were as follows:
Famed 3 (Bareboat 1),
Team Ukraine (Bareboat 2),
Team Yacht Club Wamel Mohne (Bareboat 3),
J-World Annapolis (Bareboat 4), and
KHS&S (Bareboat 5). The top boat in the Lottery Class was Marc Perron's Jeanneau Sunfast 43,
Grosloup.
For
over three decades, the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta has showcased the
top boats and sailing in the Caribbean, and has become equally famous
for its world-class slate of parties and musical entertainment. Now
recognized by sailors around the planet as one of the sailing world's
best regattas, each year the event lives up to its worthy motto: Serious
Fun.
Creation of breakfast and crew arrival...
