Overall 2019 Bucket Winner: HETAIROS

Friday Highlights:

Barby MacGowan – ST. BARTHS (22 March 2019) – The first racing day at the St. Barths Bucket is always full of excitement and color, first at the docks in Gustavia and on moorings in the outer harbor where 1500-plus sailors can be seen preparing their giant rides for battle; then on the race course where the stunning sailing machines that have gathered here for competition strut their sky-high masts and glorious spinnakers; and finally, on shore again where a joyful evening “yacht hop” rocks the waterfront. Today was that day, when the 31st edition of this highly competitive yet famously congenial “Bucket regatta” kicked off racing, sending 34 magnificent superyachts in six classes on a counter-clockwise course around the island of Saint-Barthélemy.

It was “high fives all around” for the 33.3m ketch Blue Too, which handily won the six-boat Les Femmes class in the 5-18 knot breezes that blew steadily throughout its race of nearly 22 miles. Blue Too started fourth in the timed pursuit start that is a hallmark of superyacht regattas, and on its first tack after the start, headed all the way into shore. “When we tacked out, we were able to take over three of the yachts that had started before us,” said bow man J.T. Charles. “Only Aquarius (eventual winner in Les Elegantes class) remained ahead of us, and we passed her shortly after our first jibe (after rounding Roches Rouges on the south side of the island).”

Charles added that talented sailors aboard, including father/son duo Chris and Richard Bouzaid and John Baxter, who put the Blue Too program together in 2011, make things happen. “The challenge for Blue Too is we don’t go upwind well, so we just picked the right angles to sail instead.” The 33.3m sloop Nakupenda, which finished second across the line, took a penalty for failing to observe a mark and fell to fourth, allowing the 43.1m Vitters-built Bella Ragazza a second-place finish.

Aquarius, a 56.2m Royal Huisman ketch, outpaced all five of the other Les Elegantes class competitors, crossing the finish line ahead of its closest competitor, the 39.3m J Class sloop Velsheda, by just under three minutes. Since the J Class has had its own series here in recent years, it was somewhat unknown how Velsheda would fare against the other ORCsy-rated superyachts in her rating band.

“Velsheda was very strong upwind, but we gained and were slightly more ahead of her at the finish than we were at the start,” said main trimmer Joey Allen, adding that Aquarius was launched in 2018 and this was the boat’s first-ever day of racing. “We know a lot about Velsheda but no one else; we’ve had only three days of practice here, so we’re just trying to get around the course, sorting out our own issues rather than worrying about the others.

”As green as the Aquarius team may sound, Allen and his teammates Barry McKay, Murray Jones and Tony Rae are America’s Cup veterans. They sailed for Team New Zealand in 1995, while another teammate Bill Smith sailed for One Australia in 1995.

“We’re just a bunch of tired, old, burnt-out, America’s Cup sailors,” he laughed.

Other classes were topped by the 59.9m ketch Hetairos (Les Gazelles), the 35m ketch Sojana (Les Mademoiselles), the 58.7m Perini Navi sloop Perseus 3 (Grand Dames) and the 49.6m sloop Ohana (Les Voiles Blanche).
Tomorrow’s course is scheduled to be the “Not So Wiggley”, which will take the fleet on a multiple-leg journey west and north of the island. Tomorrow evening’s social affair is the Bucket Bash featuring a favorite Evan Goodrow. The party is at the Collectivité across the harbor from Bucket headquarters.

Saturday Highlights:

ST. BARTHS (23 March 2019) – On the second day of racing at the St. Barths Bucket, 34 superyachts enjoyed a quick pace around 23- to 26-mile “Not So Wiggly” courses, ironically named, since they were indeed quite wiggly, winding around turning marks that were the isles and rocks to the north and west of Saint-Barthélemy. Breezes of 12-18 knots blew steadily all day while five spinnaker classes and one non-spinnaker class battled for optimum positions going into tomorrow’s third and final race.

In Les Grandes Dames class, yesterday’s third-place finisher, the 55.8m Perini Navi Rosehearty sailed smartly to win by over three minutes and enter a three-way tie for first with yesterday’s winner, the 58.7m Perini Navi sloop Perseus^3, and yesterdays’ second-place finisher, the 47.4m Royal Huisman-built sloop Hyperion. After Rosehearty crossed the finish line, her team anxiously watched to see who, between Hyperion and Perseus^3, would edge the other out, and it was (to Rosehearty’s benefit) Hyperion by a mere 19 seconds.

“I’ve been sailing here on Rosehearty for five years, and I think this was maybe the most satisfying race I’ve ever experienced,” said tactician Paul Cayard. “Basically, we sailed the course about a well as you can sail it, and a lot of that is because we’ve sailed for five years with largely the same crew.”

Cayard mentioned the short kite runs between Ile Pele, Roche le Bouf and Ile Fourchue as being especially challenging, with the turn at le Bouf being his team’s best-executed maneuver of the day. “It’s tricky because there’s a sunken rock there; you have to have enough speed to coast through your whole maneuver, and you have to have the right trajectory, so that you don’t turn too sharp and scrub off all your speed.”

Yesterday, Rosehearty got picked off by Hyperion and Perseus^3 on the last windward leg to the finish, because her pointing angle is not as high, but today the team’s lead was too strong to overcome, and Rosehearty executed two tacks with confidence to make lay line. “It’s painful to tack compared to the sloops. It’s a big cost, but we had a high degree of confidence that the wind was going to go left, and we were going to get the payback. It did, and it all worked out.”

Similarly, WinWin’s owner believed this to be the best race day in WinWin’s history. The 33m sloop, entered in Les Gazelles, has sailed the Bucket three times and won its class in 2017.

“He loved it because of the overall fantastic racing and tight mark roundings,” said captain Ryan Taylor. WinWin started third behind the 33.4 Vitters-built sloop Inoui and the 34.1m sloop Nilaya and overtook them on the first beat upwind. “From there, our execution of maneuvers was very good. We made one jibe to everyone else’s four, which gave us nice time and distance on them.”

Other WinWin crew members noted that they are the smallest of seven boats in their class; in that respect it was exciting, because “the big boats are chasing us.” They were happy when the 39.7m sloop My Song finished second today, leaving yesterday’s winner, the 59.9m ketch Hetairos, with third-place overall. WinWin beat My Song by a mere 31 seconds.

In the non-spinnaker Corinthian Spirit class, or Les Voiles Blanche, the 49.6m sloop Ohana is leading after adding a second victory to her score line today. “We caught Q (the 51.7m ketch, which starts 8 minutes ahead) halfway up the first beat and didn’t pass her until after the two downwind legs, so we were together quite a long time,” said Ohana’s captain Mattia Dzaja. “They were chasing us today as well as yesterday. We didn’t imagine Corinthian class would be so much fun and so challenging; we thought we’d be sailing alone because we are the slower boats, but we are right in the middle of all the competition.”

The 35m ketch Sojana also posted a second victory to maintain her lead in Les Mademoiselles, while Blue Too did the same in Les Femmes. Velsheda switched places with Aquarius on the scoreboard, after winning today in Les Elegantes

Tomorrow’s course is scheduled to be the Wrong Way Around course, which will have the fleet once again circumnavigating the island, but this time clockwise rather than counterclockwise. The regatta prizegiving will take place at the Collectivité across the harbor from Bucket headquarters.

Sunday Highlights:

ST. BARTHS (24 March 2019) – Sailing on the last day of the 2019 Bucket Regatta couldn’t have played out any better for 34 superyachts fighting for podium positions in five spinnaker classes and one Corinthian Spirit (non-spinnaker) class. Winds ramped up to 18-20 knots just before the start of the scheduled “Wrong Way Around” race, which sent the fleet counter-clockwise around the island of Saint-Barthélemy after a downwind start that required precision crew work and timing, especially in the cases where super-sized spinnakers were deployed to capitalize on the benefit of their awesome power. After two days of racing in all-day sunshine and perfectly moderate breezes, no one quite minded a brief squall that passed through on the north side of the island; it gave way to the day’s balance of more clear skies and shifting moderate-to-high breezes that would make or break many teams’ chances of winning.

“If you won your class at the 2019 St. Barths Bucket, you were doing something right and can be very proud,” said Race Director Peter Craig at Sunday evening’s Awards Ceremony. “Across the board, we had incredibly competitive racing.”

With a 1-2-3 scoreline to show for its crew’s strong execution of plan, the 59.9m ketch Hetairos, a design collaboration between Dykstra and Reichel/Pugh, won the six-yacht Les Gazelles des Mer class and met – better than any other – the organizers’ criteria for taking home overall honors and the coveted Bucket trophy. It prevailed in “the most competitive, closely contested class” after a finish-for-the-ages in Sunday’s race where the ultimate third-place finisher My Song, a 39.7m sloop, beat out Hetairos by a mere eight seconds. Then, in final scoring, a mathematical tiebreaker had to be applied to determine Hetairos’s series victory over runner-up WinWin, a 33m sloop. Proving that the handicap rating rule (ORCsy for the spinnaker classes and ORCcs for the non-spinnaker Corinthian Spirit class) worked well here, Sunday’s race for the Gazelles also saw five yachts finish within one minute of each other.

In the six-yacht Mademoiselles des Mers class, the 35m ketch Sojana was never more than 5.7 seconds from the starting line in the pursuit starts that have become a hallmark of superyacht racing. She had a perfect score line, with the 31.8m sloop Farfalla and the 32.9m Vitters-built Missy sailing consistently to take second and third, respectively. Farfalla is a class winner from last year, while Missy is logging her first year in spinnaker racing after having sailed in the Corinthian Spirit class last year as their introduction to superyacht racing.
The top two yachts in the six-strong Les Elegantes des Mers class exchanged leads on the first two days of racing and were knotted up in Sunday’s race until the 56.2m ketch Aquarius untangled it all, winning to edge out the 39.3 J Class yacht Velsheda by one point in final scoring. Aquarius, built by Royal Huisman and designed by Dykstra, was brand new to racing, as was her owner; she had, however, a crack crew that included several America’s Cup and Volvo Ocean Race veterans. Taking third in class was the 42.4m ketch Rebecca.

Blue Too, the 33.3m ketch that finished second here last year, stepped it up to post consecutive wins this year and top six yachts in Les Femmes des Mers class. Second-place finisher Bella Ragazza, a 43.1m Vitters-built sloop, sailed solidly with finishes of 3-2-3, while the 33.3m Nakupenda, with a first-time owner/driver, finished third overall in a three-way tiebreaker.

From day one, the Grand Dames des Mers, had one of the toughest battles out there, and by the end of racing on Saturday, three yachts (the 55.8m Perini Navi ketch Rosehearty, the 58.7m Perini Navi Perseus^3 and the 47.7m Royal Huisman sloop Hyperion) wound up tied on points. Knowing they had to win on Sunday to win the class, Rosehearty’s crew prevailed upon its five years of experience as a Bucket team to do just that. They sailed quickly off the line and finished almost five minutes ahead of Perseus^ 3, which started just over 20 minutes behind Rosehearty and was their closest competitor. In overall scoring, Perseus^ 3 took second while Hyperion settled for third.

In the third year for the Les Voiles Blanche class, it was clear that Corinthian Spirit racing is starting to take hold here. The winner, a 49.6m sloop named Ohana, got down to business early, winning both Friday’s and Saturday’s race against two others in the class. The 51.7m ketch Q, which had been a bridesmaid on Friday and Saturday, became the bride on Sunday, beating Ohana by a close 35 seconds. Nevertheless, she took second overall, while the 31.9 sloop Child of LIR, a local team back for a second year, finished third.

About the St Barths Bucket Regatta

Eligibility

The St Barths Bucket Regatta is an invitational regatta. The regatta is open to cruising yachts whose length is 30.5 meters or greater, or those yachts that meet the 90’ Class criteria (NOR Part 2, Section 6.7). The 2019 regatta will also offer a ‘Corinthian Spirit (Les Voiles Blanche)’ class (NOR Part 2, Section 6.6). Safe sailing is the highest priority of the organizing authority; therefore, an invitation will be extended to those eligible yachts whose owners, Captains, crews and guests endeavor to make this a safe and enjoyable event. Part 1 of this notice deals with general administrative information and Part 2 with the rules and conditions of the regatta.

A Brief History of the Bucket Regattas

The first Bucket Regatta was organized in Nantucket, Massachusetts in August of 1986. At a birthday celebration organized by Nelson Doubleday, several yacht owners participated in a spirited discussion about optimal yacht design and individual sailing prowess. The following day, with only a night of preparation, seven sailing superyachts raced on a hastily prepared 15-mile course on Nantucket Sound. The stated prize of this impromptu competition was simply to attain undisputed superyacht sailing bragging rights for the year. They soon learned, however, that the pleasure and enjoyment of a camaraderie formed at sea between like-minded individuals was the greatest prize of all. As a result, a nearby spare bucket was deemed sufficient to commemorate the racing accomplishment and the Bucket Regatta was born.

For over 30 years since 1986, the world’s premier superyacht sailing vessels, owners, crew, and guests have reunited with the same intention.

Between 1986 and 2001, the Nantucket Bucket flourished. The summer event then shifted to Newport, Rhode Island where the event was well hosted at the Newport Shipyard from 2002 to 2014.

In 1995, the beautiful French island of St Barths hosted its first Bucket Regatta and it has done so in March every year since then. Although the size of the yachts and competing fleet has grown significantly, the spirit of the event has remained unchanged. In recent years, 40 or more superyachts have gathered to compete for the Bucket in glamorous St Barths.

Over the years, many of the world’s most notable and accomplished sailors have participated in the racing. Nonetheless, as the Bucket Regatta has evolved, the organizers have kept a tight focus on maintaining the original camaraderie and non-commercial spirit of the event. It was, and still is, an event conceived and hosted purely for the pleasure and enjoyment of the sailing superyacht owner. There is no other regatta of magnitude on the superyacht racing circuit with the same goals, and the event organizers consider themselves the stewards of a most worthwhile tradition. Every year, invitations are extended to like-minded individuals.

The St Barths Bucket Regatta: Website