Heineken regatta.. Very quick in thw around SXM race..

The fastest elapsed time in the monohull fleet was recorded by the Volvo 70 Monster Project, skippered by U.K. sailor Andrew Budgen, with a time of 2h, 57m,13s. Monster Project's blistering time was just 7 minutes behind the course record for monos set by another Volvo 70, ABN AMRO ONE, in the 2007 St. Maarten Heineken Regatta. The New Zealand boat, skippered by Mike Sanderson, was on a victory tour after winning the 2005-2006 Volvo Ocean Race..... 

Budgen's largely British crew might have bested the Kiwi's mark had they not missed a turning mark off Tintamarre that forced them to tack back and re-round it. "We didn't spot it until we were past it so we had to quickly go back," said Budgen. "So that was a bit of an error."

Otherwise, Monster Project sailed a mostly flawless race, much of it in close quarters with Irvine Laidlaw's Reichel-Pugh design, Highland Fling XII. Upwind, however, Monster Project had a decided speed edge. Was Budgen surprised about his advantage? "No," he laughed. "It's called a canting keel."

Monster Project was conceived for long-distance racing, and Budgen conceded that he sailed conservatively at the start. "We wanted to keep it simple, basically," he said. After a one-tack beat to the short windward mark, Monster's crew hoisted their big A-4 asymmetric kite for the run down to a turning buoy off the southwest corner of St. Maarten. At one point, a surfing Highland Fling surged into the lead, but when they were forced to execute one more jibe before rounding the mark, Monster Project regained first place and never looked back.

Creaming down the island's east coast on a close reach before rounding Point Blanche and making for the finish line in Great Bay, Monster Project was hauling the mail, topping 20 knots of boat speed in bursts in the building afternoon breeze. "That was very good," said Budgen, in a moment of understatement.

Still, once the handicap allowances were factored in, Monster Project finished fourth in CSA1, with Highland Fling XII atop the leader board, followed by William Coates's Ker 43, Otra Vez, and John Wilson's R/P 78, Idea of London.

Highland Fling was one of several boats that fared well in Thursday's tune-up event, the Gill Commodore's Cup, but several competitors who scored highly in that pre-regatta series proved that their earlier performance was no fluke, and they did indeed represent the cream rising to the top.

HR 2014 Round The Island video of Monster Project :)

 

 The 34^th annual running of the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta got off to a magnificent start this morning as a solid fleet of 211 dedicated racing boats and bareboat charter yachts commenced competition with the traditional opening-day round-the-island race. In sweet easterly tradewinds hovering in the 14-18 knot range, with gusts in the low 20s, the race committees on two racing circles sent the majority of the fleet on a clockwise spin around St. Maarten.

 
In CSA3, where Jim Madden's J/125, Stark Raving Mad IV was Friday's winner, and also in CSA4 and CSA5, won by Richard Wesslund's J/122, El Ocaso, and Andrea Scarabelli's Melges 24, Budget Marine/Gill, respectively. In CSA2, Youri Loof's Nautor Swan 82FD, Alpina, topped the 6-boat class.

In CSA7, local legend Sir Bobby Velasquez aboard the Beneteau 45, L'Esperance, returned to his usual winning ways; his feat was matched in CSA8 by Jean Michel Mariziou's Dufour 45 Classic,Triskell.

There was plenty of hair-raising excitement in the multihull divisions, as well, including Multihull 1, a.k.a. the "Gunboat class." Five ballistic Gunboats hit the line almost in unison for the start of the round-the-island race.. Gunboat 62, Tribe won the start by inches, but Gunboat 62, Elvis controlled the fleet heading into Pelican Bay and came out on top at the turning mark. But the lead was short lived. Elvis' spinnaker failed to deploy properly and Coco de Mer took full advantage, passed Elvis to leeward. Elvis fought back and just got inside Coco de Mer at the Long Bay mark and into clear air. Shortly rounding Tintamarre, Elvis unfurled their screecher and took off like a scolded cat, hitting 27.7 knots of boat speed. Elvis finished the 32-mile race in 2h, 44m, 22s to take line honors. The two Gunboat 66s, Slim and Coco de Mer had a photo finish for second place. Coco de Mer took the line just three seconds ahead of Slim.

Nils Erickson's Formula 40, Soma, won Multihull 2; Petr Kochnev's Lagoon 500, Belisima, was top boat in Multihull 3; and Ermolenko Viacheslav's Lagoon 400, Ruby, was the winner of Multihull 4. In the Lottery Classes, the victorious boats on Friday were Unwind (Lottery 1) and Amideau (Lottery 2).

For over three decades, the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta has showcased the top boats and sailing-and has become equally famous for its world-class slate of parties and musical entertainment-in the Caribbean. 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.

For full information on the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta, including results, photos, videos, party and band information, and much, much more, visit www.heinekenregatta.com.

The text in this report is the text of the official  St.Maarten Heineken Regatta press Release of 07 March 2014

HR 2014 Round the island 1 video

Fastest Spinnaker Round the Island    Results......... click..
Place	Yacht		Class	Total Elapsed
1st	Monster Project	Andrew Budgen / Fred Schwyn	CSA 1	2:57:13
2nd	Highland Fling XII	Irvine Laidlaw	CSA 1	2:59:00
3rd	Varsovie	Tomek Ulatowski	CSA 2	3:06:35
4th	Idea of London	Mr John Wilson	CSA 1	3:06:49
5th	Alpina	Youri Loof	CSA 2	3:08:52
6th	Stark Raving Mad IV	Jim Madden	CSA 3	3:20:38
7th	Highland Breeze	Highland Albert	CSA 2	3:23:19
8th	Otra Vez	William Coates	CSA 1	3:25:40
9th	Nix	Nico Cortlever	CSA 6	3:26:58
10th	Renegade	Tom Slade	CSA 6	3:29:02
11th	Affinity	Jack Desmond	CSA 6	3:33:00
12th	Zen	John Bainbridge	CSA 6	3:35:05
13th	El Ocaso	Richard Wesslund	CSA 4	3:35:15
14th	Clare	Decade Six Ltd	CSA 2	3:36:17
15th	Cuba Libre	Cuba Libre	CSA 1	3:36:47
16th	Essex Girl	Jan Olesen	CSA 3	3:37:16
17th	Kick 'em Jenny 2	Ian Hope Ross	CSA 3	3:38:30
18th	Yachts and Yachting Poland Powered by Quokka 8	Przemysław Tarnacki	CSA 4	3:38:33
19th	Kismet	David Southwell	CSA 8	3:42:06
20th	EH01	Global Yacht Racing	CSA 6	3:42:10
21st	Scarlet Logic	Sailing Logic	CSA 6	3:42:16
22nd	Adventure Sports Sailing	Ian Martin	CSA 6	3:42:44
23rd	Incisor	Derek Saunders	CSA 3	3:44:13
24th	Team Boston	Lancelot Yacht Charters	CSA 4	3:44:34
25th	Southern Child	Performance Yacht Charter	CSA 4	3:45:03
26th	PARMA	Vitalii Tarakanov	CSA 7	3:45:24
27th	J-aguar-www.caribbeanraces.com	Lawrence Eikel	CSA 4	3:46:17
28th	High Tension	Bernie Evan-Wong	CSA 3	3:50:54
29th	Marina Bas-du-Fort Guadeloupe	TBA	CSA 4	3:53:02
30th	Persevere	Colin Rath	CSA 6	3:53:05
31st	Panic Attack	Jan vanden Eynde	CSA 3	3:53:38
32nd	Les Ptits Filous LIPTON	Philippe Charret	CSA 4	3:54:11
33rd	Sodimat PMS	Valery Homo	CSA 3	3:54:26
34th	Northern Child - Performance Yacht Charter	Performance Yacht Charters	CSA 6	3:54:41
35th	Bad Girl	Robert Armstrong	CSA 4	3:56:50
36th	Budget Marine/Gill	Andrea Scarabelli	CSA 5 - Melges 24	3:57:18
37th	Angela	Sentucq-Rigal	CSA 3	3:58:00
38th	Team Island Water World	Frits Bus	CSA 5 - Melges 24	3:58:56
39th	AMCON Sailing Team	AMCON International LTD	CSA 5 - Melges 24	3:59:52
40th	Beluga	Sevenstar	CSA 8	4:00:12
41st	Khaleesi	Mikkel Hagelund	CSA 6	4:00:18
42nd	Axonite	Marc van Barneveld	CSA 2	4:00:26
43rd	Whistler	Peter S. Lewis	CSA 4	4:03:03
44th	Wild T'ing	Lawrence Aqui	CSA 7	4:03:30
45th	Albacor V	Jean Louis Pezin	CSA 4	4:03:54
46th	Solstice	Jordan Mindich	CSA 4	4:04:11
47th	Wild Devil - www.caribbeanraces.com	Ben Jelic	CSA 3	4:04:33
48th	French Connection	Rouault Didier	CSA 5 - Melges 24	4:04:41
49th	Pocket Rocket	David Cullen	CSA 4	4:04:46
50th	Triskell	Jean Michel Marziou	CSA 8	4:05:19
51st	Caipirinha	Patrick Holloran	CSA 4	4:06:02
52nd	Boost'n Sail	Mowgli Fox	CSA 5 - Melges 24	4:06:29
53rd	Great Escape of Southampton	Great Escapes Yachting	CSA 8	4:06:39
54th	Frilaens III	Aage kristensen	CSA 7	4:06:42
55th	Albacor IV	Sophie Olivaud	CSA 4	4:06:45
56th	Hip Hop	Brendan Hall	CSA 4	4:08:23
57th	Spirit of Venus	John Shulze	CSA 4	4:09:36
58th	Intuition	Yuri Samoilov	CSA 4	4:09:40
59th	Maelia	Raphaël Magras	CSA 7	4:11:48
60th	Augustine	Miramar Sailing	CSA 8	4:13:35
61st	Speedy Nemo	Speedy Nemo	CSA 7	4:19:11
62nd	Moonlight	Kunz François	CSA 6	4:20:45
63rd	Voilactus	Richard Kern	CSA 8	4:26:30
64th	La Divina	Mike Evans	CSA 8	4:30:13
65th	Zenara	Susan Robins	CSA 8	4:31:59
66th	Achilles' Keel	Andrew Pike	CSA 7	4:34:30
67th	Fleur	Glenn Fines	CSA 9	4:34:56
68th	Blue Peter	Tanner Jones	CSA 9	4:37:36
69th	Avocet	John Slingerland	CSA 8	4:37:49
70th	Onyx Team Mouflette	Michael Roussel-Dupre	CSA 7	4:39:20
71st	The Crickets	Buddy Holly	CSA 9	4:44:05
72nd	Painkiller	Steve Ellsworth	CSA 9	5:03:16
73rd	Troitibou	Priou Guillaume	CSA 9	5:29:59