Day 2 – St. Barths Bucket Regatta – Six Classes, Six New Winners

 

2017 St Barths Bucket Regatta: Results

Pursuit Classes Series after two races
Pursuit Classes Race 1 17 March 2017 (pdf)
Pursuit Classes Race 2 18 March 2017 (pdf)

J Class Overall: after four races (pdf)
J Class Race 1: 16 March 2017 (pdf)
J Class Race 2: 16 March 2017 (pdf)
J Class Race 3: 17 March 2017 (pdf)
J Class Race 4: 18 March 2017 (pdf)

 

Watch or replay the 2017 races with TracTrac.

 

18 Mar 2017| St. Barths Bucket Regatta | Barby MacGowan – The second day of the Bucket Regatta saw six new winners in six classes after the 38-strong fleet sailed a long “Not So Wiggly” course around and through the smaller islands and prominent rock formations lying to the north and west of St. Barths. Performances turned in by the victors (Unfurled, SPIIP, Axia, Rosehearty, Koo and Hanuman) also translated into new teams atop the leaderboard in four of the five pursuit classes as well as the J Class when cumulative scores were tallied.

After yesterday’s race around the island, Rosehearty sat in third in Grandes Dames as did Unfurled in Gazelles. Both are defending champions and made a point of saying they were far from being counted out. Unfurled’s victory today put her in second overall, only one point behind yesterday’s leader WinWin, while Rosehearty’s gave her a tied point score with Meteor for first (tie-breaker rules give the nod to Rosehearty) and dropped yesterday’s leader Perseus^3 to third.

Even with all the “ins and outs” of the course, Rosehearty never put her spinnaker up. “It was pretty windy (18-20 knots), and we had broken our spinnaker earlier in the week, so it was a risk vs. reward thing,” said Rosehearty’s tactician Paul Cayard. “We had good tactics and lay lines, sailed in all the right places and were able to hold everybody off without it.” Cayard saw Perseus^3 deploy its kite and have some problems, which may have contributed to the team’s fourth-place finish. “The angles just weren’t right for us to put it up; it was a little painful to go slow but the right thing to do when racing these boats.”

Near the end of the race, two boats from another class were ahead of Rosehearty, slowing it down, while Meteor was advancing quickly from behind. “We focused on staying in front of Meteor; otherwise, they were going to pass us and they’d be winning the regatta.”

In Les Voiles Blanche class, Koo also stakes her first-place position on a tied overall point score with yesterday’s leader Q, while in the Elegantes, P2 trails leader SPIPP by only four points for second, tied on point score with Sojana.

P2’s tactician Tony Rey said his team spent last night repairing a spinnaker that blew out yesterday, causing the team to start their three-race series with a fifth-place finish. “The pressure is higher when you are dealing with your own adversity,” he said with a chuckle this morning before racing, “but today will be windy and not so wiggly. This is a course that separates the men from the boys. It sounds innocuous and benign, but it’s plenty wiggly for these boats.”

In Mademoiselles, today’s winner Axia, also a defending champion, is now in third overall, tied in scoring with two others behind her, while Adela stands between her and overall leader Wisp from yesterday. According to Axia’s tactician Robbie Doyle, his team’s seventh yesterday hurt them, but mathematically, it’s still possible for them to win. “Wisp has to make a mistake, but mistakes are made, as we’ve proven,” he said.

The J Class had a glorious day of sailing, starting off with a thrilling 2.5 nm downwind leg. Yesterday’s leader Velsheda suffered a penalty after the start, clearing the way for Hanuman to lead the entire way around the 26-mile course.

All to say, there are no runaway winners going into tomorrow’s final day of racing when a race around the island, this time clockwise, will conclude the on-water competition.

 

As the Winch Turns: Day 2

18 Mar 2017| St. Barths Bucket Regatta | Barby MacGowan – Sam Von Schwarz, whose father John sails aboard Hanuman, found a new friend in David Wegman, the local artist who splits his time between here and Key West and has a special connection to the Bucket. Some years ago, when Rebecca blew out a spinnaker and didn’t know what to do with it, the creator adopted it, making sails for his special lead-keeled boat that tacks and jibes intuitively with the wind (no remote control needed here). Its skipper, “Guido the Pirate” (look closely), shares a message on the side of the painted styrofoam hull that reads: “Slow down, turtles were here before you.” What did Wegman do with the rest of Rebecca’s spinnaker, you might ask? “Part of it I sent down to an orphanage in Brazil where the kids made kites out of it,” said Wegman, who also ran the Tea Cup regatta here for many years with as many as 20 similar boats made by local children. (Wegman’s studio is above Le Select, which boasts his artwork as does Eddy’s Restaurant.)

 

 

As usual, the SuperYacht Racing Association meeting on Wednesday was an annual gathering of who’s who in the yachting industry. Representatives of member yachts, superyacht events and industry organizations went about the “housekeeping” of keeping superyacht racing on an even keel soon after SYRA’s Executive Committee Chair Kate Branagh and Executive Director Peter Craig presented this year’s Chelsea Ship Bell Plaque to the ORC Technical Team (represented by Alessandro Nazareth) for its contributions to fair sailing.

Bucketeers who had been missing the Evan Goodrow Band at the Baz Bar this week got their fix when the Boston-based trio played at Friday night’s Bucket Bash. Held at the Capitainerie in Gustavia, where regatta headquarters are located and many of the Bucket’s mighty superyachts are berthed Med-style for all to enjoy, the party featured dancing (of course!), a delectable assortment of foods from the grill, and plenty of Caribbean Kool-Aid (code for rosé wine) to share with friends both old and newly made.​

And speaking of the hospitable waterfront of Gustavia, there is no man busier or more in charge there than Port Captain Ernest Brin. He has been at his job since 2009 (and working for the Port of Gustavia since ’89). He manages 60 berths dockside, anchorage in the inner harbor for 14 yachts and anchorage in the outer harbor for 100 plus. The Bucket is one of his favorite times, even though the job of insuring safety and security while organizing arrivals and departures of the superyachts (as well as ferries and cargo vessels) is massive. “All year, the boats here are very nice, but regattas are something special, and the Bucket is the first one. (Les Voiles de St. Barths, with smaller race boats, follows in April.) It is a special nautical heaven. When we have sailboats arriving here I think their smiles are bigger than anybody else’s.”

 

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