J's Crush St. Maarten Heineken Regatta

J/122 OTRA VEZ and J/30 BLUE PETER Dominate
(Simpson Bay, St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles- March 6th)- It was a challenging year for the 31st St. Maarten Heineken Regatta.  The conditions were hardly the postcard, chamber of commerce conditions often associated with the event.  Instead, it took a dash of luck and skillful sailing to avoid the massive holes, navigate the shifty winds and not get buried under a flood of rain from the squalls that floated across the islands.

Despite the difficult conditions, the J/122s led their fleet home to finish 1st and 5th.  Racing in the CSA 5 Division, first was the J/122 OTRA VEZ sailed by Bill Coates with a tally of 1-1-2-9 for 13 pts.  They were winning the regatta quite handily until a not so good last race, but hung in there to win!  Finishing fifth was the J/122 LOST HORIZON sailed by local favorite Jim Dobbs with a record of 2-5.5-8-13 for 28.5 pts.  Unfortunately, LOST HORIZON were easily in  second place until their 13th place on the last windless, goofy day.  Having a lot of fun and hanging in for ninth overall was Rick Wesslund's well-traveled J/120 EL OCASO, a previous Key West Race Week Overall PHRF Boat of the Week.  Finally, the team of Bultena and Hins on the J/105 NO RUBBER NO GLORY followed the pack around the course taking into account all the ambiance and fun one could have partying while sailing.

Another celebration was in store for the veteran local campaigner, the J/30 BLUE PETER sailed by Tanner Jones.  Their 1-2-1 record for 4 points dominated their CSA 8 class, winning triumphantly on their last day!  Just off the pace was the J/95 SHAMROCK IV sailed by Tom Mullen with a 4-4-12 tally for 20 points for sixth place-- they took a DNF in the last race, which was too bad since they were 3rd overall going into the last day!  A good show for a shoal-draft performance day-sailer, cruising boat.

Also participating in this year's Heineken Regatta in CSA 2 Division was a the J/125 AUNT JESSE sailed by Jordan Mindich to fourth place with a 5-3-3-9 scoreline for 20 pts-- like their sisterships, they too were in third overall until a bummer of a last race.  Always having a lot of fun in CSA 6 Division was the J/40 NEPENTHE sailed by Bob Read.  This year Bob was without either of his famous sons aboard, Ken Read or Brad Read.  They got a 6-9-16-16 score, seemingly starting out strong but after the reggae party night slowed down quite a bit…who can blame them, it was a FUN regatta.

For the first day of racing, it was clear the weather for this year's Heineken Regatta was going to be unusual in that the generous trade-winds were going to be squashed by a goofy weather pattern.  At the mid-morning start it was an east-southeasterly breeze of 6-8 knots.  The race committee sent the fleet on a short windward leg before everyone eased sheets for a downwind run to a mark off Basse Terre at the island’s westernmost point.  As the fleet sailed into the Anguilla Channel they were met by a squall, then the breeze faltered and then, for some of the trailing boats, died altogether. Off Marigot Bay, as a second squall sucked the wind out of the skies, right up to the next mark on the course, off Grand Case, the scene was reminiscent of painted boats upon a painted sea.  In CSA 5, it was a very good day for the J's— that is, a pair of J/122’s, William Coates’s OTRA VEZz and Jim Dobbs’s LOST HORIZON, which earned a first and second in the 15-boat class, respectively.  Other winners on the opening day of racing were Tanner Jones' J/30 BLUE PETER in CSA 8.

The second day is known by the Racing sailors as "Moving Day", the midpoint in a regatta when the time has come to make a move, either to solidify your place in the standings or, for boats that have not yet sailed to their potential, to elevate your position in the fleet. And on Day 2 in the 31st running of the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta, with a pair of contests conducted for the CSA racing classes 1-6, the opportunity to move up—or down—was at hand.  For CSA Classes 1-6, the second day of action brought two very different races, a morning windward/leeward affair around the buoys off the south coast of St. Maarten, and the traditional Saturday afternoon point-to-point destination race from a starting line off the Dutch harbor of Simpson Bay to a finish off Marigot on the Caribbean isle’s French side.  As on Day 1 of the proceedings, a light easterly breeze of 8-10 knots—with a brief rise in air pressure to around 15 knots in the morning racing—fueled the competition. But it was another challenging day for both the sailors and the race committees.

In the afternoon racing, under crystal-clear blue skies, colorful spinnakers dotted the horizon as the racers flew downwind to a mark off Bass Terre and then into the Anguilla Channel.   In CSA 5, as the old Led Zeppelin song goes, “the song remained the same.” Bill Coates racing the J/122 OTRA VEZ retained their grasp atop the leader board with a first and second to go along with their victory on Day 1 of the regatta.  Just behind them in third was the J/122 LOST HORIZON skippered by Jim Dobbs.  The CSA 8 classes sailed a single race and when it was finished Tanner Jones’s J/30, BLUE PETER, from Antigua continued as class leader

The final day of racing was a strange, squally day where it rained early and often— and in many divisions, both skill and luck, sometimes in heavy doses, played a major role in the final results. The last race was an extremely taxing point-to-point race from Marigot to Simpson Bay. Every edition of the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta takes on its own personality, and Number 31 in the annual series will be remembered as a largely light-air affair. Ironically, it’s been a very windy winter on the idyllic Caribbean isle, but for the most part this weekend, the usually reliable trade winds were fitful and elusive, and racing was conducted in breeze of ten knots or less. In nearly every class, those sailors adept at eking out every last tenth of a knot of boat speed; sniffing out every last zephyr, no matter how gentle or transitory; and capitalizing on the constantly shifting breeze, particularly in the wake of passing squalls, were the ones who topped the podium in their respective divisions.  Yes, there was a bit of everything: gusts, lulls, showers, shifts.  From a spectator’s point of view, it was also highly entertaining and at times almost unbelievable. For instance, it’s not every day you see an Air France Boeing 747 airliner alter course while approaching a runway— like one did in the afternoon— to avoid a 77-foot Swan (in this instance, Fred Smithers’ La Forza Del Destino) coursing through the water under spinnaker in front of the runway along the beach!

Due to the unstable conditions, it was remarkable that the race committee managed to get action started precisely on schedule the last morning at 10:30 a.m.  All classes got rolling, but were not moving terribly fast down the course.  In the wake of a grey squall with east-southeast winds registering a mere 4 or 5 knots, the fleet moved slowly on.  Then the breeze died altogether-- and not for the first time.  When the breeze swung into the east-northeast approximately a half-hour later in the 5-7 knot range action again resumed in the CSA racing classes. Once again, there were many opportunities to gain and lose places.  Then came the second squall. At the front of the pack, as the leaders closed in on a turning mark off Basse Terre, the fleet ran completely out of wind. Meanwhile, the fresh breeze filling in from the northeast, though not particularly strongly, allowed the trailing boats to close in on the front-runners as they wallowed in a windless hole. It was like pushing a reset button-- the classic "fleet compression puff"! Off Basse Terre, a new race began giving some tail-enders a new lease on life and forever frustrating the original race leaders.  As the boats rolled down the south coast of St. Maarten, they did so in exceedingly unbalanced breeze. Some boats managed to fly kites for a time while others resorted to jibs and genoas. A third squall at the second-to-last mark before the finish brought fresh breeze and it seemed as if the entire fleet converged together at the same time. Meanwhile, the boats that avoided problems close reached to the final turning mark and then hoisted spinnakers one last time before crossing the finish line off Simpson Bay. It had been one memorable race.

Once the results were finalized, a full slate of worthy victors were revealed.  The J/122 OTRA VEZ had enough in the bank (two firsts and a second) to triumph in CSA 5, but her sistership LOST HORIZON sailed by Antiguan Jim Dobbs got the short end of the lucky stick in the last two squalls to drop to fifth.  In CSA 8, Antiguan Tanner Jones’s BLUE PETER sailed his venerable J/30 to a well-deserved win in the 11-boat fleet.   Sailing photos by Tim Wright- Photoaction.com   For more Heineken Regatta Sailing results.