The four-year-old Mango Bowl Regatta is still in its infancy compared to many Caribbean sailing competitions. Yet this St. Lucia Yacht Club-hosted event, raced November 27th to 29th, is finding sweet success as the number of entries and classes continue to grow each year. “We ran the Mango Bowl with four classes last year and…
Strong winds, sunshine, 2000 lusty sailors and the largest racing fleet in the Caribbean, gave the organizers of the 35th St. Maarten Heineken Regatta the opportunity to lay on a tremendous spectacle – and they didn’t fail. In CSA1, Doug Baker’s Kernan 47, True won the last race to complete a clean sweep of bullets…
While a massive party for Puerto Rico’s patron saint was happening in the streets of Old San Juan, top sailors from Puerto Rico battled light and shifty winds at the San Sebastian Vela Cup to fire up the 2015 North Caribbean sailing season. Organized by the Club Nautico de San Juan Sailing Program and expertly…
The camaraderie that spanned decades for some and days for others proved that in spite of a new name, the St. Thomas International Regatta (STIR) has remained the ‘Crown Jewel’ of Caribbean yacht racing. Nowhere was this more apparent than on the third and final day of sailing when no one easily walked away with…
The BVI Spring Regatta and Sailing Festival started with light winds, but by the end of the weeklong event sailors found themselves talking about the wet and wild conditions that they faced while competing. The regatta had 82 boats racing on three different courses in the Sir Francis Drake Channel, including the one-design course with…
Well over 40 boats took part in the third annual six-event Gosling’s Regatta Series in the British Virgin Islands. At the conclusion of the Dark n Stormy ‘Fungatta’ Regatta raced March 7-10, the final event of the 2013/2014 Series, only six points separated the two top boats. Interestingly, it was Henry Leonnig on his Melges…
St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. Courses changed but the winds remained the blustery-same as the 69-boat fleet set sail on the second day of racing at the St. Thomas International Regatta (STIR). Shorter round-the-buoy and round-the-island races off the island’s east end combined with 20-plus knots of breeze enabled the race committee to fire off…
One-design classes appear to be on the increase at Caribbean regattas. Just look at the growing entries of J24s, IC24s and Melges 24s in the last decade, plus the availably of one-design fleets for charter like the Jeanneau 20s in St Maarten and SR 21s in Trinidad. More recently, there’s been a swell of visiting…
San Juan, Puerto Rico. Gusts blowing 20-plus-knots and rolling seas created challenging yet exhilarating conditions for nearly 100 sailors from five islands that competed in the 13th Club Nautico de San Juan International Regatta (CNSJIR), held January 31-February 2, out of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The CNSJIR Race Committee reveled in the brisk conditions launching…
Forty yachts, everything from a Melges 32 to one-design Hunter 216 and IC-24 classes plus Hobie cats and native-built chalanas, competed in the Discover the Caribbean. This longest running regatta in Puerto Rico, hosted by the Ponce Yacht & Fishing Club, changed format and name this year. Instead of a series held over two weekends,…
The Puerto Rico Heineken International Regatta and Puerto Rico International Dinghy Regatta came back strong after a one year hiatus when a total of 55 boats set sail May 24 to 26 out of Palmas del Mar Yacht Club, in Humacao. Jaime Torres’ new Melges 32, Smile and Wave, won the highly-competitive CSA Spinnaker Racing…
Excitement about the Caribbean’s winter/spring sailing season revved up a notch with the introduction of the 2013 Melges 32 Virgin Islands Sailing Series. The Series, which consists of three sanctioned and one unsanctioned event in the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, will welcome nearly 20 of the top teams in the world. Global interest in…
Challenging conditions with winds swinging from four to nearly 20 knots out of the west, east and then north, created keen competition for the 21 boats taking part in the Trinidad and Tobago Sailing Association’s (TTSA) Trinidad Carnival Regatta, held out of Hart’s Cut, Chaguaramas, in February. This regatta, now in its second year, replaces…
The fleet of twenty-two Melges 32s enjoyed yet another busy day dominated by strong winds from the northeast. A big 18-20 knots greeted the fleet for the first race, and for the final two, diminished to a solid 12-15 knots.
What is an IC24? Comfortable yet competitive. This is one key attribute that has led to the fleet’s numbers more than tripling