Thirty nine boats and some 298 sailors finished the fun race which culminated in a festive beach party at Marina Cay.
Benjamin Daniel, the Canadian skipper on Panacea X wore a big smile as he came ashore at Marina Cay with his crew who sailed to first place in CSA Performance Cruising. Even sailing with a new crew, his team were top performers today in the annual Scrub Island Invitational. Thirty nine boats and some 298 sailors finished the fun race which culminated in a festive beach party at Marina Cay.
“We’re happy to get first in our class. It was pretty good, light winds, but nice flat water, which made it easy to keep going but it was super shifty out there which made it a little bit hard,” Daniel says.
“We definitely missed the biggest shift of the day, which Apollo got right and they got the overall win which I think was well deser ved on their part. We went left early and I’m not going to give all our secrets away for why we did that, but we gave up on it a little bit too early. We should have stuck it out on the left. We have a new crew who are top notch which allows me to focus on driving the boat. I don’t have to worry about what else is happening anywhere else, which is really good – I’m just focused on making the boat go fast the entire time. BVI Spring Regatta is always one of the most fun events that also has really good racing. Coming to Marina Cay is always lovely as well and a great place to bring our new people on board with the nice beach, great swimming, it just feels right!”
Sam Talbot, skipper on Spike, the Rapido 40, was thrilled to take first in CSA Multihull with an easy win over second place Layla, the Gunboat 72.
“It was a great race and a beautiful day; it worked out really well for us,” Talbot said. “It started a little up and down and we got forced out to a side where we weren’t initially planning on going but it paid really well. We came back right to the front of the fleet. You can’t ask for much more than that. We won our class at the Caribbean Multihull Challenge a couple months ago, and I think we got second overall here last year. I think Layla got us last year – so despite all the big teething issues, we’re working through it. It looks like it’s going be a competitive fleet this week but we’ve got an awesome crew who have been sailing together for years since the previous Spike. It’s all starting to pay off with the new boat.”
Steve Denure is from Toronto, Canada and he’s been coming to Tortola with his family since the ’70s. The first time he sailed in the BVI Spring Regatta was in 1980 but it’s only over the last few years that he’s returned to race in the Regatta. Today his team took first in CSA Bareboat on the Dufour 41 Mistral.
“If we were first in class today it’s because of Olympian Terry McLaughlin, Rod Wilmer and Sandy Andrews who have sailed together for a couple of decades and have many times been J105 North American champions,” Denure notes. “They love coming down here and especially to do the Scrub Island Invitational. The breeze was quite light today and it was not the trade winds that we expected. After the winds of the last couple of days, we weren’t sure what to make of it. We tried to follow some of what I learned from Dr. Tattersall – that is sticking to the coast – but there was a lot more breeze offshore, and we were kind of torn between being inshore and offshore, at least in the Sir Francis Drake Channel. We did a bit of a combination of both and had some surprising turns of the breeze that brought us in where we came. We all love this race, and we’ve had a great day.”
Florian Baier is crewing on William C, a Dufour 44. The all-German team took 2nd in CSA Bareboat on their first race to Marina Cay, and Baier’s first time racing in the BVI. The group of friends usually sail in Europe as a team in local races and some of the crew have sailed other Caribbean events.
“We had a great day!” Baier says. “We started in the morning without even knowing where to go, the start was ok but then we were doing very well after that. We were in first for most of the race but corrected out to second. It felt really good to get second, the breeze was quite light – we had almost nothing approaching Marina Cay but then we got some breeze just before the finish. It was perfect for the first day. We did go out yesterday to test the boat – it’s a bit special because it has a hard top so we are sailing with a few more kilos!”
Kim Brew and her 31-year-old daughter Colleen, from Jacksonville, Florida, took third in CSA Bareboat on Stingray, a Dufour 44. The Brews, including husband/dad Rich, have always wanted to do the BVI Spring Regatta and finally had the time this year to do it. They’re racing with a group of good friends who are also good sailors. Colleen is tactician for BVI Spring Regatta and notes the tricky breeze that they encountered on their race to Scrub Island today.
“We weren’t really sure which was the best way to go so we thought we’d see what others did off the start,” Colleen explains. “We were mainly trying to get clear air at the start and as we started we put ourselves in a really good position, but we weren’t quite following people like we thought we were! We were leading most of the way so that actually complicated things because we were really depending on seeing what everybody else was doing for a while. Then we just started making calls like we normally would. At the start of the race, staying close to shore was really paying off for us, but then it felt like it was getting really light at the shore so we tacked out and tried to get some fresh air. We were getting lifted across the waterway there, then we started to get headed and wanted to reconvene with everybody. It did pay off for other boats by staying close to shore so I think they must know something that I don’t! But we stayed right behind them even at the finish line here so I’m really happy for us!”
Some spinnaker practice over the past few days paid off for the Swiss crew on Kali, most of them sailing for the first time in the BVI this week. They took third in CSA Spinnaker which made crew Connie Reichlin’s day even better than it started out. Before they left the dock this morning a diver found her phone which she dropped overboard last night. The phone was still working, and today’s race was just Reichlin’s second race in her relatively new sailing career.
“We were well prepared for our race today but somehow we landed in a different group at the start – we thought we had a later start so we were late for our actual start,” Reichlin laughs. “We had to catch up but it all worked out. We made some quite nice, strategic moves and were able to catch up to some boats and overtook several. It was a great day, just being together and getting to know each other better. It’s been good team building in beautiful islands – I always wanted to go to the BVI and here we are!”
While a fifth-place finish in CSA Spinnaker may not have been what Johannes Schwarz, owner/skipper of the Volvo 70 Monster Project, was looking for in today’s Scrub Island Invitational race, Monster Project was a spectacular sight as she powered across the finish, the first boat in a 39-strong fleet to arrive at Marina Cay, the location for today’s post-race beach party. Schwarz does not just own a few Volvo 70s; he seems to collect them, with four currently in his possession in various parts of the world; he clearly loves the boat.
“Today was a nice day to be out for the first day of the Regatta, it was fantastic,” Schwarz smiles. “We were not fully powered up, but enough to do all manoeuvres and to get up to speed with new crew on the boat and racing it here for the first time. But we were not very happy with our speed, I think we caught something on the keel maybe, so we were very slow in 70% of the race and only at the end we picked up some speed. We’ve raced a lot in the Caribbean islands, but we’ve never raced in the BVI and actually, this is the most beautiful one!”
Barrett Adams is skippering the J120 J-aguar, racing with a group of friends from the Philadelphia area who sail together back home out of the Annapolis area on his J120 Phoenix. Today was the team’s first opportunity to try out their charter boat and while they may not have had the finish score they would have liked, they’re mostly here this week to sail to beautiful places like Scrub Island / Marina Cay and hang out with good friends, which they accomplished today.
“We all showed up yesterday, so we didn’t really have practice days on the boat beforehand; today was as much a practice day as it was a race day, learning where the lines are etc,” Adams says. “Most of us haven’t sailed in six months so we’re shaking some rust off all around. It was pretty light at times, 10 knots and steady, we felt powered up and moving good. As we were rounding Beef Island it really got pretty light for a little while there, it felt like we were bobbing in place a bit! We’re sailing with a group of eight who are our core race crew, and then we’ve swapped in some girlfriends and wives for this week. The competition looks good; there are some serious boats in our class!”
The 53rd BVI Spring Regatta & Sailing Festival continues today with the infamous Round Tortola Race for the Nanny Cay Cup, always an unforgettable race around the island.