Reaping rewards
British Virgin Island spring regatta returns with resounding success.
04 April 2018
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Organisers are celebrating a fruitful BVI Spring Regatta, as 70 boats registered to race, 83% of the number registered in 2017, with the outpour of support from the international sailing community contributing to a successful regatta. On the water, typical Caribbean conditions prevailed which made for great racing and happy customers.
Over and above winning his class, beloved 87-year old Robin Tattersall from Tortola took home two of the important Regatta awards: the International Yacht Club Challenge and the Best BVI Boat award. On the final day, Tattersall took two more bullets in CSA Bareboat 3 with his crew on Gatos del Sol/Makin’ Memories, a Sunsail 41, to win all six races sailed this week.
“We had perfect starts for the first three starts,” Tattersall said. “Team Miami was quite competitive – we were mixing it up, but they are much younger than our crew which averages out over 70 years old!
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“Our last three starts weren’t great, and we weren’t winning until the last legs which we did by cutting some corners – we were perhaps more comfortable going near the rocks which the other guys didn’t do.”
Racing started in 8 knots from the east, shifting to southeast and dropping to 4 knots by end of the day. The competition was very close in the CSA Racing 1 class where all the boats were around 40 feet, and even given the mix of boats, they mostly raced next to each other.
In CSA Racing 1, the Belgian team on the Swan 45 Samantaga finished first in class after taking 2 bullets, consolidating their position over Blitz, the King 40 owned and skippered by Peter Corr who finished second.
Koen de Smedt, Samantaga tactician, said, “We had a good start in the first race although it was hard as you must concentrate more in light air.
We focused on being refined in our movements and sail trim. We started better than our opponents and were able to dominate and push them to the side where they didn’t want to go. Yesterday was our best day, we enjoyed the four races and the race committee did a great job. It’s been magic and we’re very happy!”
Making it four bullets out of five races sailed in the Offshore Multihull class, Flow, the Gunboat 60 owned and skippered by Steve Cucchiaro is first overall in division.
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