Antigua, Jolly Harbour Yacht Club
The Budget Marine Valentines Regatta over the weekend of February 14 and 15 will provide Racer and Racer/Cruiser Classes each the opportunity to win USD $1000 prizes that can be used for the purchase of Interlux paint at Budget Marine Antigua, the club reports. The Jolly Harbor Yacht Club has been holding the Valentines Regatta for 17 years. Last year, a number of larger boats participated and raised the standard of the “short and sweet” weekend regatta, one of two major events the club holds—the other is the JHR Caribbean Annual Regatta scheduled for the last week in November 2009.
Royal British Virgin Islands Yacht Club
The weekend of November 22-23 saw 13 Optimist sailors and six Laser sailors take part in the BVI Sailing Team trials to determine who will gain a coveted place on the BVI Sailing Team. Weather conditions provided some testing sailing for the BVI sailors, joined by two from the USVI—fast finishes with lots of capsizes in the strong gusts. The BVI Youth Sailing Team will be travelling this year to major events such as the Volvo Youth Worlds in Brazil and the Optimist North Americans in Dominican Republic, and will be hosting the first annual 2009 International Laser and Optimist Clinic in March at Nanny Cay. The team will be managed by the Royal BVI Yacht Club and coached by Team BVI coach Chris Watters.
The final results (top three) with one discard over 16 races were:
In Optimists: 1st Mollee Donovan, 2nd Jason Putley, and 3rdJohnathon Woods. In Lasers: 1st Alec Anderson, 2nd Will Bailey, 3rd Max Nickbarg
St. Lucia Yacht Club
The 3rd annual ARC Flotilla sailed off from Castries Harbour on Sunday Nov. 23rd, for the newly reconstructed IGY Rodney Bay Marina, with a blast from a conch shell, and an escort from the Marine and Ports Police patrol boats. The Flotilla is held on the start day of the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) in Las Palmas, and is designed to raise the profile of the event locally. A total of 49 power and sail boats registered in advance. This was not lost on sponsors, who came aboard for the first time. Heineken, Digicel, Columbian Emeralds, and Travel Concepts, opted to brand several boats, including crew. The boats were led through the cut into IGY Rodney Bay Marina by the mother yacht Breeze-a-Way, Bernard Johnson’s Morgan 50, which was the first St. Lucian yacht to participate in the actual rally, in 1995. The Minister of Tourism, Honorable Allen Chastanet, along with his Permanent Secretary, Darrel Montrope, St. Lucia Yacht Club’s Commodore Charles Devaux and Keats Compton enjoyed the view from Breeze –a-Way. Participants proceeded to Scuttlebutts, to be treated to drinks, compliments Heineken, and lunch, provided by St. Lucia Tourist Board. Certificates of participation were presented by Hayle Harvey of the SLTB, Martin Lucas of IGY, Keats Compton of the Marine Industries Association St Lucia.
The Flotilla is organized by the Marine Industries Association St Lucia and the St. Lucia Yacht Club, with generous assistance from the St. Lucia Tourist Board and IGY.
St. Maarten Yacht Club
Club members celebrated the holidays with a 21st December Christmas party, with one Alden Skull rowing boat to be raffled off and two more to be auctioned to benefit the club’s Junior Sailing program. MC for the evening was Gary “Gaz” Brown. The final race day of the St Maartens Day Series took place on December 13 with six LSR boats, three Lasers, and three Optimists. Rhone Findlay dominated the Opti class and will be competing in the Florida Orange Bowl. Winner in Laser class was Jolyon Ferron, and in LSR class Robbie Ferron. The club planned a Christmas break before resuming with the Hoedemaker Series January 10.
Trinidad & Tobago Sailing Association
On Saturday December 13, the T&T Youth Sailing School organized a bake and t-shirt sale to raise funds for the development of youth sailing in Trinidad & Tobago. All the nations top youth sailors were present including the sailors from the Vessigny Vikings Optimist Training Centre, to compete in the Budget Marine National Dinghy Sailing Ranking on the waters of Carenage Bay. Categories were Optimist Green fleet, Optimist, Laser 4.7, Laser Radial, Laser Standard and Club 420.
