The 3rd Annual Bitter End Yacht Club Bucket Regatta, held January 7-9, featured big breezes, bright sun, blustery squalls. And a healthy dose of shoreside fun.
This year’s Bitter End Yacht Club Bucket Regatta included an integral “smallboat racing” segment. Owner/skipper Arthur “Kitt” Watson of the Ocean 80 Too Elusive and his crew flexed their muscle aboard the Bitter End’s IC 24s, posting consistent finishes, before retiring after a port-starboard mishap. But their victories were enough to win the smallboat portion, besting Team Fat Cat.
The next day dawned bright, sunny, and breezy. Ratings and start times were assigned and the fleet went on their way, pursuit-style. Despite a wide range between boat types, after a 24-mile race, all yachts finished within five minutes of each other, and all finished under three hours.
Aboard Fat Cat, a Morelli 80 cat, the feeling was that had they not blown out their #1 jib, they may have made it closer than 4:39 behind Too Elusive and Lifesong II. Fat Cat sailed part of the beat back from the Dogs bald-headed.
The next day, racers awakened to gray skies, torrential downpours, and blustery squalls. And that was all before the assigned start times of the 26-mile Around Virgin Gorda Race. Lifesong II got off at her assigned time, but minutes later a sustained squall with 40-50 knot gusts came through, causing the race committee to postpone start times by 30 minutes.
In these conditions, Too Elusive really showed her mettle, catching, passing, and extending on the fleet, en-route to posting a six-plus minute victory over the Farr 80 sloop Y-Knot.
At the post racing awards celebration, regatta Chairman Jason Meeuwig summed it up best when he said that, “everyone displayed a high level of enthusiasm, sportsmanship, and sailing ability in the face of less than ideal circumstances.”
Results (top four)
1. Too Elusive, Arthur “Kitt” Watson
2. Lifesong II, Richard Caswell
3. Y-Knot, Jackson McHorney
4. Fat Cat, John Winter
