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| Peter Peake's winning boat Storm, chases Minny The Moocher upwind. Photo>Dean "The Sportsman" Greenaway |
TORTOLA—The 37th annual British Virgin Islands Spring Regatta that wrapped up three days of racing on Sunday on three courses in the Sir Francis Drakes Channel and attracted 129 entries, was a resounding success officials said.
“We had three of the best days of racing I’ve ever seen in the Sir Francis Drakes Channel,” said event Chairman Bob Phillips in his post event analysis on Monday. “The breeze blew, the sun was out most of the time, the water was rough—but not so rough that people were made uncomfortable—it was just a perfect Caribbean Regatta.”
Phillips said he has received excellent feedback on the three day event. He said the mix of the round island courses with windward-leeward, allowed some boats that don’t usually do well in windward-leeward courses to shine in that type of racing. Everyone he said loved sailing on the big swells on the back side of the outer islands. “You had Equation out there and I think they got up to about 22 knots at one point. You had boats like Yani, Storm, Oystercatcher they were just loving it out there,” Phillips noted. “The cruising boats got out to see that as well. The performance-cruising boats, Stay Calm, a Swan 70, talking to her bowman, they said they have never been to a better regatta.”
The IC-24 course Phillips noted had 15 races over the three days. He said Puerto Rico’s Fraito Lugo—who has been coming for the last four years—won his first big IC event. “He was always a bridesmaid, this year the bride,” Phillips said.
Those on the cruising course—particularly the performance cruising—did up to six races and circled Thatch Island and out back to Norman and Peter Island and got to see as much of Sir Francis Drakes Channel as possible.
When asked what they can build on, Phillips—who has been in the BVI since ’93—said they will be marketing the event more in Europe, starting with Cowes Week, a 1000 boat event on the south side of the UK. “We want to see the bareboat fleet increase, we want more performance cruisers, everybody out there was having a good time,” he recalled. “We had positive feedback from almost everybody and they all said this was the best run event they have ever been to. So, we want to increase out marketing, but there’s not a heck of a lot we could have done to improve the event.”
