St. Lucia Yacht Club hosted the Third St Lucia BMW J 24 Invitational Championship November 6 to 8, 2009 in Rodney Bay. With teams from Barbados, Grenada, Trinidad and St Lucia, six teams sailed eighteen races over the weekend to decide the winner.
Hosted in The Landings private Marina, with teams staying in five star luxury apartments and with two beautiful BMWs on show, this regatta was very much a five star event. Friday night’s briefing and cocktail party, held at The Landings with the six Js tied alongside, made for a wonderful sight.
Racing started Saturday morning right outside the marina just off the beach with great viewing for those lazing on the sand or aboard the Endless Summer’s large cat on the water. Courses were short windward leewards with twenty minutes races giving close, exciting racing.
After the morning’s six races, it was very tight at the top with the two St. Lucian teams, Trinidad and Grenada split by just a few points. Short lunch break and off again for a final six afternoon races with clear blue skies and ten knots of breeze—you could not ask for better racing conditions. Again the sailing was extremely tight with many different teams up the front and positions changing minute to minute.
After a long day’s racing, the six teams headed back to the Marina and a few well earned beers to check how they ended up for the day. Again it was extremely close amongst the top five, with only three points separating Trinidad, Barbados, the two St. Lucian teams and Grenada.
Sunday dawned with more blue skies and perfect sailing breeze and a few headaches after a night in Rodney Bay! The Trinidad team came out fast with four bullets to basically seal the regatta while some of the other crews, suffering from the night before, took a little time to wake up and made some bad errors. Over the line problems for Edgar in St Lucia One, plus a mixture of penalties for other teams, let the Trinis slip away to an unassailable lead. But second to fourth was a close-fought battle right to the last race with again just a few points separating them all.
The top three were Edgar Roe, St. Lucia One in third, Robbie Yearwood from Grenada in second and Stephen Bushe with Andrew, Wesley and John from Trinidad taking the trophy.
Many thanks go to BMW Prestige Motors as the main sponsor along with The Landings, St. Lucia Distillers and Peter and company for prizes and the committee boat, II Restless. All monies raised go toward the youth sailing program held by the Yacht Club. www.stluciayachtclub.com
Submitted by Michael Green, St. Lucia Yacht Club
