Event
We’re back!!!
Of all the regattas lost in the last 18 months the cancellation of a full Caribbean season was perhaps the most dispiriting to sailors around the world. Now this fabulous marker of sailing life ‘as normal’ is back in action
Like the sun coming out after a storm, competitive sailing has resumed in the Caribbean. It might not be readily apparent, especially for those not in the region, because for two seasons now most major Caribbean regattas have been cancelled or postponed due to precautions and protective protocols against the pandemic. However, in a region that boasts more sea than land, year-round warm temperatures and steady trade winds, local club racing, junior regattas, and learn-to- sail programmes have proved the perfectly socially distanced activity post quarantine. Combine this with increasing vaccination rates, island governments’ progressive pandemic management and race organisers focused on world-class sailing competition and the 2022 Caribbean regatta season is a bright spot on the horizon.
‘We are incredibly lucky in the Caribbean that over the last year although island to island travel has
been challenging and international regattas in the main did not take place, most islands were able to sail locally,’ says Alison Sly Adams, president of the Caribbean Sailing Association (CSA) and president and commercial director of Antigua Sailing Week (ASW).
‘It’s resulted in an increased interest from new people entering the sport and many people getting back onto the water more regularly over the last year. We’ve seen a massive increase in women entering the sport through initiatives like Steering the Course, innovative new events like the Windward 500 which created an ability to race with absolutely no contact with other boats and crews, and governments being able to work through the kinks to simplify immigration procedures. ‘What this means for the next year’s international regattas is that the local sailors are ready to throw down the gauntlet and promise the most competitive racing in years.’
Above:
St Maarten’s Caribbean Multihull Challenge (CMC) was one of only two major regattas that went ahead this year in the Caribbean with a fleet of eight cats and tris
competing. Next year’s edition will feature a new 60-mile drag race
2021 Recap – a year focused on local racing Only two of the nearly 20 major international regattas on the CSA Calendar for 2021 took place. First, the Caribbean Multihull Challenge (CMC), sailed with eight catamarans and trimarans in February, when the St Maarten team of Bernard “Appie” Stoutenbeek and Arthur Banting drove their Dick Newick-designed 36-foot trimaran, Tryst, to first in the CSA Multihull Racing Class. A new feature for the 2022 CMC is the Caribbean Multihull Challenge 60-Mile Sprint, a one-day “drag” race on the windiest day of the three-day regatta, where any participating multihull that can complete a 60 nautical-mile course — St Maarten up to St Barths and then around Tintamarre and then down the Anguilla Channel rounding the western end of St Maarten and back up to Simpson Bay — in under six hours will win.
Second, the St Thomas SEAHORSE 69 w
EDWARD PENAGOS
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