(Port Louis Marina, Grenada)- More fun in the sun! SAILING’s
Contributing Photographer Bobbie Grieser was on assignment,
along with Contributing Editor Betsy Crowfoot, capturing the action at
Grenada Sailing Festival this week. The event is a colorful four-day
regatta drawing entrants from the Caribbean, Europe and North America to
race in the area’s strong breeze by day and gather to enjoy delicious
Spice Island fare and festive Caribbean music at night.In 1994 when organizers named the island’s first international yachting event the ‘Grenada Sailing Festival’, it was for a very good reason: to highlight its unique blend of great sailing and great Grenadian hospitality. The 19th Festival lived up to all of its promises to keep up this tradition with some of the most challenging racing in the southern Caribbean plus some of the best parties.
For
the newly styled Grenada Sailing Festival Camper & Nicholson's
Racing Series 2012, organizers had planned four days of yacht racing
over different set courses, all based at the company’s world class Port
Louis Marina. However, it was not just about tactics, wind conditions
and bragging rights. Once racing was over, all yachtsmen & women -
this year coming from the UK, USA, Canada, France, Austria and Italy,
as well as Caribbean neighbors, Trinidad and Antigua - enjoyed the
Festival fun and action on land in the laid-back atmosphere that has
made the event so popular.
While
the sailing is fabulous, the entertainment is simply off-the-charts.
Working closely with hosts Camper & Nicholson's and The Victory Bar
& Restaurant, the event kicked-off on Friday with a "Welcome to
Grenada Party" with steel pan, drummers and dancers giving a great first
flavor of traditional island entertainment. Then, top of the list of
‘Must be There’ Parties is always the famous Mount Gay Rum Red Cap Party
held on Saturday night. Monday night was another great experience,
when the party moved to old festival favorite Dodgy Dock at True Blue
Bay Resort for a Reggae Night that was not to be missed. The Festival
finished back at the Victory Bar on Tuesday with a grand Prize
Presentation and Farewell with DJ and live band to send all home with
great memories until next year. If you can survive all that, you can
just about survive anything.
Ensuring
their bid to be overall Caribbean Offshore Circuit Champion again was
Jim Dobb's famous J/122 LOST HORIZON. Racing in CSA division Racing,
Jim and crew simply smoked their competitors, sailing to a 2-4-1-1-1-2-1
for 12 points to win by 6 pts over some fast company, like an RP 37,
Henderson 35, First Class 10m and Hobie 33. Just off the pace behind
them was Peter Lewis racing the J/105 WHISTLER finishing in 6th place.Having a ball in CSA Cruising 2 Division was Robbie Yearwood and crew sailing their shiny blue-black, groovy-lookin' J/24 called DIE HARD-- an appropriate name for this crew and their decades-old J/24! Good looking crew and one that may have had dibs on winning the party after the four day event! On the water, they certainly deserved to be crowned champions with a scoreline of six 1sts and one 2nd to win by over ten points! For more Grenada Sailing Festival sailing information
