International Regatta (STIR) set sail March 26-28 with 33 boats with crews representing the USVI, Puerto Rico, USA and Australia competing in six races. USVI sailors won three of the four classes, while the USA’s Victor Wild and team aboard Wild’s new Botin 52, FOX, won the CSA Spinnaker Racing Class. STIR marked Fox’s first-ever Caribbean regatta. ‘The attraction of racing in the Caribbean for Fox is the great weather, beautiful scenery, and sense of adventure. Who wouldn’t want to race around tropical islands with friendly people? It's just a few hours travel from America,’ says Wild. ‘We are in the initial stages of our 2022 planning. We would love to visit STIR, the BVI Spring Regatta, Les Voiles de St Barth Richard Mille, and ASW. These events offer the best competition and reasonable logistics. We can ship our boats directly to Antigua or St Thomas from the USA.’
STIR 2022 will offer its signature mix of round-the-buoys and round- the-rocks courses for racing, cruising and one-design classes. Key among the latter are IC24s, modified J/24s which the St Thomas Sailing Center offers for race charter. Fox wasn’t the only international team to sail in the Caribbean in 2021. Several teams that that came to compete, only to find regattas cancelled, continued to sail, enjoying destination cruising and a chance to enhance their local knowledge to be even more competitive in 2022. There was a Polish team that flew to St Maarten to race in the Heineken Regatta and still chartered their Volvo 70 for the week. The crew aboard the Spirit 111 Geist were already in St Barths when the St Barths Bucket Regatta was cancelled, so they too sailed on their own and look forward to their first Bucket in 2022. The Cookson 50 Lee Overlay Partners, a frequent ASW competitor owned by the UK’s Adrian Lee, participated in several local races run out of the Antigua Yacht Club (AYC) in June. The race committee and 12 -20 regular island racers obliged the larger vessel by setting up and joining in longer courses set specifically to accommodate the Cookson. A few local captains used these races to enlist youth crew from the AYC and the National Sailing Academy sailing programmes thus enhancing the depth of local talent for international competition in 2022.
Also in June, St Barths welcomed the 15th edition of the biennial Transat en Double, a transatlantic race from Concarneau, France, to St Barths, that saw 18 double-handed teams participate aboard the Figaro
Top:
initiatives like Steering The Course have encouraged many women to try racing in the Caribbean Above: Victor Wild’s new Botín 50 Fox won the spinnaker class at this year’s St Thomas International Regatta. The team plans to return next year and defend their title
Beneteau 3, a foiling one-design monohull. Much like Les Voiles de St Barth Richard Mille which plans to return in 2022, the Transat en Double’s arrival celebration included a festive race village and concerts along the docks in Gustavia. This is a sign of the times to come as Caribbean organisers, while focused first on maximising racing and challenging courses, are exploring ways to offer a safe combination of sailing and onshore fun.
Looking ahead to the 2022 season
The season kicks off with the 8th Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) Transatlantic Race, leaving Lanzarote in the Canary Islands on 8 January en route to the Camper & Nicholsons Port Louis Marina in Grenada, the same venue where Grenada Sailing Week (GSW) takes place later in the
month. The transatlantic brings several hot racing and race charter vessels to the region for the season. New is a collaboration between the RORC and Yacht Club de France, and between the latter and the International Maxi Association (IMA), to promote this well-established event to its members and affiliated clubs. Official entries include Jason Carroll’s MOD70, Argo; Stefan Jentzsch's IRC56 Black Pearl; new owner Andrew Hall’s Lombard 46, Pata Negra; and Richard Palmer’s JPK 10.10, Jangada.
‘Our campaign starts with the Rolex Middle Sea Race (in October), followed by the RORC Transatlantic in January and the RORC Caribbean 600 in February,’ says Palmer. This will be our third time in the RORC Caribbean 600. We love both the race itself and all the shoreside activities in Antigua. Racing around
SEAHORSE 71
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DEAN BARNES
RENATA GOODRIDGE
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