J/125 STARK RAVING MAD Tops CSA 3(Simpson Bay, St Maarten, Netherlands Antilles)- Under beautiful blue skies and with an ideal 15-18 knot ESE breeze coursing across the waters along the southern shore of St. Maarten, 50 spinnaker-division boats in five classes set sail today in the 2014 Gill Commodore’s Cup.
Sponsored by Gill North America, the manufacturer of top sailing gear and the regatta’s official technical gear provider, the Gill Commodore’s Cup serves as the tune-up series to the 34th St. Maarten Heineken Regatta.
With the solid wind pressure kicking up a bouncy seaway, racing conditions were decidedly sporty and there was a wide range of skill and prowess displayed across the racecourse. For some crews, especially those shaking off the rust after a season’s break from racing, spinnaker sets and douses were spectacular adventures.
In the first of the day’s two races – the race committee set up traditional windward-leeward courses south of Simpson Bay and Little Bay – one of the boats, the J/105 WHISTLER, went flying past the first downwind mark as their crews struggled to tame their kites. But they were just one of many competitors who were more than happy that the Gill Commodore’s Cup was also a warm-up and practice day for the three-day main event.
In
Gill 2, Jim Madden and his fellow Californians aboard the J/125 STARK
RAVING MAD IV (SRM IV), performed a pair of faultless starts, and in
both contests Madden’s mad-men led their 10-boat division around the
racecourse on elapsed time. But once the handicaps were applied, the
“mad-men” were in third.In Gill 3, another veteran of both the Gill Commodore’s Cup and the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta – Rick Wesslund, skipper of the J/122 EL OCASO – proved that he’s still a force to be reckoned with, sweeping the class easily with a pair of bullets.
It was a very strong day for the J/Boats in the fleet, and that trend continued in Gill 4, where Robert Armstrong’s J/100 BAD GIRL was the winner with firsts in both races. And second in Gill 4 was yet another “J”, Jordan Mindich’s J/105 SOLSTICE.
After the Gill Commodore’s Cup, the 34th annual running of the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta got off to a magnificent start with the traditional opening-day round-the-island race. In sweet easterly tradewinds hovering in the 14-18 knot range, with gusts in the low 20s, the race committees on two racing circles sent the majority of the fleet on a clockwise spin around St. Maarten.
The top monohulls and multihulls sailed an extended course of 32 nautical miles with an extra leg around Tintamarre on St. Maarten’s northeast coast. Most of the other classes raced slightly abbreviated courses with a mark set inside of Tintamarre. Several competitors who scored highly in that pre-regatta series proved that their earlier performance was no fluke, and they did indeed represent the cream rising to the top. That was the case in CSA-3, where Jim Madden’s J/125 SRM IV was Friday’s winner and also in CSA-4 won by Wesslund’s J/122 EL OCASO.
Saturday’s
sailing brought a lot more drama. Superb sailing, point-to-point
distance racing, classic round-the-buoys windward/leeward courses,
perfect spinnaker sets, botched spinnaker douses, and even a busted
halyard that ended the racing for one of the event’s largest yachts just
moments after it began: It was a wild day. And, when all was said and
done, 211 boats that began racing this morning off Simpson Bay, on the
Dutch side of St. Maarten, concluded a full day of action in Marigot, on
the French shores. There was something for everyone on Day 2 of the St.
Maarten Heineken Regatta.After the first four Class A divisions were underway, Campbell James set up a traditional windward/leeward course for CSA classes 3-9, respectively. Afterwards, these same divisions sailed a second point-to-point distance race to Marigot along St. Maarten’s southern flank.
In the first of the two races, the spray was flying and there was plenty of drama when the boats came screaming down to the first leeward mark under spinnakers. Indeed, there were plenty of opportunities for gains and losses at each of the tight mark roundings. In CSA-3, Madden’s SRM IV, flying a gigantic asymmetric kite off a long bowsprit, put on a sailing clinic with what’s known as a “horizon job” on her competitors, who were far behind and literally nowhere in sight.
In CSA-4, Wesslund’s EL OCASO consolidated her strong lead with a first and second, leaving them all alone atop the class leader board.
In one of the closest and most dramatic final day in the long history of the Caribbean’s biggest annual regatta, division winners were determined by mere seconds. In so many diverse ways the championship teams represented a wide cross-section of international sailors who saved their very best for the last day of racing. And what a day it proved to be.
At the outset of the last day of competition, the final results, and potential victors, in nearly a dozen individual classes were too close to call. “This is the tightest bloody regatta I’ve ever seen,” said official scorer Paul Miller. “There are about 11 classes that are wide open. It’s anybody’s guess who will end up on the podium. That never happens.” Except, of course, on those great days of sailboat racing when it does.
For a day with so much riding on the event’s last race, it proved to be an especially challenging one for the race committee as well as the racers. After two days of solid breeze and outstanding sailing conditions, Sunday dawned with gentle, shifty and patchy winds of 6-8 knots or less, accompanied by cloudy, squally skies. It would be a day that rewarded light-air sailing skills and the ability to find wind and capitalize on the persistent shifts.
The
CSA Class 3-7 fleets sailed a slightly abbreviated 21nm race. As they
rounded “Blowing Rocks”, an especially challenging time this year,
everyone was treated to a picturesque run under colorful spinnakers down
the Anguilla Channel in good breeze. Then, the proverbial air escaped
from the balloon once the boats were around the rocky reef. The last few
miles back to Simpson Bay, often in breeze of three knots or less,
proved to be difficult ones.In CSA-2, Californian Jim Madden’s team on his J/125 SRM IV launched into an early series lead and took care of business in the final race, winning both the day’s contest and the top spot in CSA-2 with a 1-1-2-1 record.
For the CSA-4 fleet, the largest and most competitive fleet in the regatta, with boats like Robert Armstrong’s J/100 BAD GIRL and Wesslund’s J/122 EL OCASO, there were no guarantees on the outcome going into the last race. Ultimately, BAD GIRL won Sunday’s race, but EL OCASO’s third was enough to ensure the CSA-4 win with a 1-1-2-3 record, just two points ahead of BAD GIRL with a 2-2-4-1 tally. Peter Lewis’s J/105 WHISTLER sailed a terrific regatta to grab 6th overall with a 7-5-3-15. Sadly, Peter’s team had a shot at the top five and “punted” on the last day.
At the traditional Prize-Giving ceremony on Kim Sha Beach, the evening's top prize for the regatta's “Most Worthy Performance Overall”- the St. Maarten- St Martin Cup- went to Wesslund's J/122 EL OCASO, the winner of the event's biggest division, the 18-boat CSA-4 class.EL OCASO’s crew, resplendent in blue Hawaiian shirts, received their prize from St. Maarten's Honourable Prime Minister Ms. Sarah Westcott-Williams, who was gracious in her remarks honoring Wesslund and his team, while also recognizing the hundreds of international sailors who'd descended on the island for the Caribbean's largest regatta. It was the second time Wesslund's Florida-based squad was the “Most Worthy” of them all. Other big winners included Armstrong’s team on the J/100 BAD GIRL, winning the Xerox Obersi Cup for “Spirit and Style.” For a great overview of the event, style, fun, take a peak at PIGEON VISION’s “sailing video” taken with a toy-like drone. For more St Maarten Heineken Regatta sailing information
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