2011 Les Voiles de St. Barth

[MLovett]

www.lesvoilesdesaintbarth.com

Les Voiles de St. Barth 2011: Build It and They Will Come

4th April 2011

The Carl Gustaf Hotel, high on the hill overlooking the main port of Gustavia, provided a great vantage point to watch the Les Voiles de St. Barth fleet slowly filling up the anchorage and quays in the main harbor of this idyllic French island. Boats continued to arrive throughout the day, while others took advantage of the day’s fresh easterly breeze to go through some crew maneuvers and test sails.

The luxury hotel was host to a press briefing where Michel Magras, Senator of the St. Barth Collectivity and Francois Paul Tolede, general manager of Les Voiles de St Barth organizing committee, welcomed the media. Tolede said, “For the second edition of the event we are really happy to see such a healthy entry list. We must congratulate ourselves for having been able to position ourselves amongst the great sailing events in the Caribbean.”

While the Caribbean has seen a resurgence of new yachting events, Les Voiles de St. Barth seems to have struck a chord among sailors – the regatta has seen entries rise from 23 boats last year, to 53 for 2011. The island turns on its charm easily, what with Jimmy Buffet as the event’s Godfather, and festive dockside entertainment each day for the 500 or so sailors on hand.

As for the racing, tomorrow’s forecast calls for easterly trade winds of 22 knots, providing a great start to the week. The island and surrounding archipelago offer a variety of courses from 14 – 37 nautical miles, something for all classes.

Racing begins tomorrow and continues through Saturday, with a lay day on Thursday. The international fleet includes over 50 boats – from 17 countries – entered in five classes: Maxi, Racing, Racing/Cruising, Classic, Multihull.

In the Maxi class, Peter Harrison’s (UK) 115-foot Farr designed ketch, Sojana – a frequent competitor on the Caribbean circuit – will have a solid afterguard on board with Peter Holmberg at the helm, and French sailing legend Lionel Pean on tactics and navigation. Pean, who made his name in more solitary pursuits of singlehanded and around the world racing, has traded up to the comfort and camaraderie of a fully-fitted out boat such as Sojana. As for his return to Les Voiles, Pean said, “St Barth’s is very singular, you don’t have to move a mark, there are natural marks everywhere. You can design a very nice race course along the shore. It’s very exciting for the crew, and exciting for the viewing, and makes this event unique.”

More than a few competitors have made the regatta into a vacation, Pean included, “Last year I brought my family, it’s great, we spend a perfect week. There are beaches everywhere.”

The Maxi Class also includes Rambler 100 (US), chartered by George David, with Ken Read as skipper; the Swan 112 Highland Breeze (NED) which has Volvo Ocean Race veteran Bouwe Bekking on board; the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy’s Dubois 97’; Genuine Risk which has a mix of US and Swedish crew headed by Hugo Stenbeck; and the 86-foot CNB sloop, Spiip.

The Racing class includes Jim Swartz’ (Park City, Utah) Vesper, returning for the 2nd edition of Les Voiles de St. Barth. A frequent visitor to the island with his wife, he said, “I’ve always loved coming to St Barth’s – I think it’s the single best place in the Caribbean. It’s a great island, great people, great food, great sailing and when I heard about a regatta here, I said count me in!” Swartz’s “new” boat this year is the TP 52 Vesper, named – as all of his boats are – after James Bond movie characters. (Note to Trivial Pursuit players: Vesper Lynd was Bond’s one true love). Swartz has enlisted a formidable crew including Gavin Brady as tactician and Chris Larson on mainsheet.

Asked what draws him to Les Voiles, Swartz said, “It’s very much at the top of my list. It comes at a very good time, the transition from winter to summer, for those of us in the U.S.; it’s not overly crowded, the weather is spectacular, and it’s a great location.”

The Racing class includes Peter Cunningham’s Farr 60 Venomous (USA), with Tony Rey calling tactics, and Wilem Wester’s Grand Soleil 43 Antilope (NED) and James Dobbs’ J/122 Lost Horizon (ANT), both fresh from class wins in St. Thomas.

Nico Cortlever is the skipper of Nix (NED), a 60 footer from St Maarten, that is in the Racing Crusing class. Cortlever spends half the year racing in regattas throughout the Caribbean and spends his summers on the boat in the Mediterranean. The genial Dutchman has commandeered friends from his sailing club in Loosdrecht, a small lake south of Amsterdam, where they race Star boats and other small one-designs. He sails Nix with a crew of 12 friends, though he says, “They’re not all experienced, so we have to train and sort out positions. We’ve always raced in the BVI (British Virgin Islands), but it’s a long way to sail from St. Maarten; this is closer by, it’s a nice island, and everyone likes to come here.”


Key information:
Les Voiles de St. Barth will be hosted from April 4 – 9 2011 by the St. Barth Yacht Club, which is affiliated with the French Sailing Federation and the Caribbean Sailing Association.

Les Voiles de St. Barth officially begins on Monday April 4, 2011 with the registration and the official opening of the Race Village on Quai du Général De Gaulle in Gustavia.

The Race Committee, led once again by principal race officer, Luc Poupon, will signal the start of the first race at 1300 (local time) on Tuesday, April 5. Racing for the rest of the week (Wednesday – Saturday) will begin at 1100. Thursday, April 7 will be a lay day, which will give the crews a chance to relax and enjoy themselves with a full and varied program of events planned at St Jean Beach. The closing ceremony and fireworks will follow the awards ceremony on Saturday, April 9.

More than 50 yachts have registered for the Les Voiles de St. Barth 2011 and they will be split into five classes:
SUPER / MAXI YACHT: a prototype or boat produced in limited numbers measuring at least 21 metres (69’) in length.
CLASSIC: referred to as classic or traditional yachts, these boats must be at least 35 years old.
RACING: racing monohulls, designed specifically for coastal or offshore racing.
RACING/CRUISING: mostly series boats, which are designed for cruising and for racing.
RACING-MULTIHULLS: Racing multihulls, including trimarans and catamarans, between 30 - 60 feet in length, which are very light and fast.

[MLovett]

St. Barth Express
5th April 2011

The first day of racing at the 2nd edition of Les Voiles de St. Barth dawned with 25 knots of tropical tradewind breeze and showers sweeping over the picturesque French island located midway down the Caribbean chain. The regatta’s fleet of maxis, racing and cruising yachts, multi-hulls and classics – 48 confirmed on race day – set off on a race course around the nearby archipelago, and met with plenty of wind and bumpy seas, especially on the islands’ exposed eastern side.

You certainly couldn’t have asked for a prettier race course, which today sent fleets on jaunts of either 16-, 22-, or 25-nautical mile jaunts. Most intriguing was the trip around the northern tip of St. Barth and through the nearby archipelago, which in a typically French way makes one ready for a meal with names such as Ile Chevreau (baby goat), Ile Fregate (bird), Ile le Boulanger (the baker), Ile Fourchue (fork), Grouper et Petite Groupers (fish), Le Boeuf (beef), and Le Pain du Sucre (sugarloaf).

Today’s later start at 1300 did nothing to diminish the wind and sea, as the first two classes off – Maxis and Multihulls – with eleven boats, started in 22 knots and encountered two meter seas and were sent on a 25-nautical mile course. George David’s Rambler 100 with Ken Read as skipper, got away at the pin end of the starting line and lead Hugo Stenbeck on Genuine Risk up into the outer harbor to an offset turning mark. Once around, Rambler set a huge asymmetric spinnaker and was on her way for the day.

On the eastern, and windward, side of the island the big boats reveled in the conditions which eventually topped out above 30 knots – Genuine Risk, with their combined crew Swedish/ American crew, recorded 30 knots of boat speed surfing downwind through the islands.

Also racing in the Maxi class was the 86’ CNB sloop Spiip, owned by Robin de Jong, who is making his way westward to Tahiti with the boat. Onboard Spiip is Bruno Trouble, well known for creating and overseeing the Louis Vuitton Challenger Series (for the America’s Cup) that originated in 1983. Trouble is racing at the regatta for the first time, and he said, “Les Voiles de St. Barth reminds me a lot of the early days of the Nioulargue with boats from all over the place taking part. Things are going to really build and it is just great, it really reminds me of the first Nioulargue!”

In the Racing Class, the crew work aboard Jim Swartz’s Vesper looked well-honed as the team traded tacks with Peter Cunningham’s Farr 60 Venomous (CAY) up the first short beat. Back on the quay, Venomous’ tactician Tony Rey recounted the day, “We had some great sailing – St. Barth’s is such an awesome place to sail, every time you turn around an island, or a piece of land, the view just gets better and better. It’s just that the race course is a minefield because the wind twists and turns up the corners and the crevices – but it’s a fascinating place to sail! We also had the added challenge that our instruments went down, so we were guessing on our wind speed and direction, and guessing at our boat speed for part of it too, which turned us into good seat-of-the-pants sailors.”

Before scores were tabulated, though Rey suspects, “We think we were probably 2nd or 3rd, we’re pretty sure Vesper beat us handily, because downwind you just can’t stay with a boat like that. We could have sailed better for sure, we left a few seconds on the race track, but generally we’re thrilled, it was a great day of sailing!”

In the 24-boat Racing Cruising class, the Swan 60 Fenix closely led Jereon Hin’s First 50 Black Hole (NED) after the first upwind beat. This class has a gamut of boats including two all-women entries, Annie O’Sullivan’s Diamonds Are Forever (UK), and Henneke Stegweg’s iLost (NED). As well, there are two Moorings 50.5 charter boats with two crews from Oakville, Ontario, Canada, headed up by Andre Beese and Patrick Festing. Both crews are comprised of friends and fellow Etchells sailors, who were originally headed to Antigua to race when a friend suggested they race at Les Voiles de St. Barth.

The Classics class, while low on numbers with just five boats, were high on style points with the 76’ W-class White Wings, the 80’ Fife yawl, Mariella, the 60’ dark-hulled gaff-rigged yawl Kate from St Kitt’s, and the 26’ Friendship sloop La Sirene, gracing the line.
Carlo Falcone, from Antigua, is a frequent competitor with Mariella in both classic and offshore races around the world, which he, more often than not, wins. He enjoys sailing in St. Barth because it has, he says, “more European style than other parts of the Caribbean.”

The yacht was designed by American naval architect Alfred Mylne, and built by Fife in Scotland in 1938. As Falcone says, “The beauty of this boat is the mix of the two. Mariella is well sailed and immaculately maintained, and Falcone says, “I believe the more you use the boat the better it is. But it’s never-ending work – not buying the boat, but keeping it. They say, ‘the owners are just taking care of the boat until the next one.’” His regular crew is a mix of family and friends including his daughter Sylvia, his long-time navigator, 89-year old Henry Pepper (Marblehead, Mass), and crew from Italy, Australia and Dominica. Les Voiles de St.Barth is a way to prepare the boat for this summer’s classic yacht series in New England.

With a relatively new event, one may wonder what goes into the thinking for the course on day one. Following this morning’s skipper’s briefing, the, Les Voiles Race Committee Principal Race Officer, Jean Coadou offered some insight, “There were three main elements: the weather forecast, looking at the strength and direction of the wind around all of the islands. Also it was important with such a large fleet to avoid any boats crossing paths. And first and foremost, the enjoyment of sailing was a key factor. We try to ensure that the competitors encounter all the different points of sail, upwind, downwind and reaching. The idea is to come up with three hours of exciting racing each day; that is why the courses are around 30 miles in length for the fastest boats and 16 miles for the smaller craft.”
Key information:

Les Voiles de St. Barth is being hosted from April 4 – 9 2011 by the St. Barth Yacht Club, which is affiliated with the French Sailing Federation and the Caribbean Sailing Association.

Racing will continue tomorrow, with a first warning signal at 1100. Thursday, April 7 will be a lay day, which will give the crews a chance to relax and enjoy themselves with a full and varied program of events planned at St Jean Beach.
Racing continues on Friday and Saturday with a first warning signal at 1100.
The closing ceremony and fireworks will follow the awards ceremony on Saturday, April 9.

RESULTS – For full results go to event site at: http://bit.ly/hyNMvC

Place, Boat Name, Skipper, Points
MAXI
1) Rambler 100, Ken Read (USA), 1.0 points
2) Genuine Risk, Hugo Stenbeck (USA), 2.0
3) Sojana, Marc Fitzgerald (UK), 3.0

RACING
1) Antilope, Willem Wester (NED), 1.0 points
2) Vesper, Jim Swartz (USA), 2.0
3) Venemous, Peter Cunningham (US), 3.0

RACING CRUISING
1) Black Hole, Jeroen Min (UK), 1.0 points
2) Nix, Nico Cortlever (NED), 2.0
3) L'esperance, Bobby Velasquez (St Maarten, West Indies), 3.0

CLASSIC
1) Mariella, Carlo Falcone (ITA), 1.0 points
2) White Wings, Faraday Rosenberg (USA), 2.0
3) Kate Dutch Sailing Team, Philip Walwyn (St. Kitt’s, West Indies), 3.0

MULTIHULL
1) Fat Cat, John Winter, 1.0 points
2) Bordelo, Stephane Penigaud (St. Barth, FWI), 2.0

[MLovett]

Les Voiles de St. Barth 2011: Time Out
7th April 2011

Following two spectacular days of racing punctuated by strong breezes sweeping across the Caribbean, the Les Voiles de St. Barth shifted into “lay day” gear today. Understandably, the approximately 400 owners, skippers and crew competing here -- on 48 boats from 17 countries -- wanted to make the most of their stay on St. Barth, so some took advantage of the rest, relaxation and entertainment (including a remote-control sailboat regatta) offered at Nikki Beach resort on St. Jean Bay while others went off packing to enjoy some of the wonders the island has to offer.

This second edition of Les Voiles de St. Barth is quickly growing into an event that looks to blend the competition with the natural surroundings to be enjoyed, and this rest day will give all teams a chance to recharge and start fresh for the last two days of racing, which start tomorrow. There is a certain hierarchy, however, that has been established across the five classes over the first two days of the regatta.

Class standings to date
Maxis: Genuine Risk and Rambler tied
These super yachts are impressive and Rambler 100, described by skipper Ken Read as a "beast," has set the lead. Immaculate starts, well-executed maneuvers, and seamless tacks and gybes have been leading the huge Juan Kouyoumdjian design across the finish line first on elapsed time. Ken Read and George David's crew are taking it somewhat cautiously, as they are aware of just how powerful the boat is. "It’s a different game altogether, and we’re still learning," affirms Read. Despite Rambler 100's overall superiority, there is a real threat with Genuine Risk, the Dubois-designed 97-footer handled by Swedish America's Cup specialist Hugo Stenback. While it’s near impossible to match speed with the Juan K rocket ship, Stenbeck plans to stick close to Rambler's wake in order to make the most in terms of points overall. The two boats are currently tied on three points.

Racing: Status quo
The highly competitive 50-foot class really shined in the big swell on the first days of racing. The fleet held tight around the marks and upwind with Jim Swartz’s TP52 Vesper, under Gavin Brady's (NZL) careful direction, leading overall. Tied on points is Dutchman Willem Wester’s Grand Soleil 43 Antilope, which has managed several top podium finishes at Caribbean regattas this season. Peter Cunningham’s Venomousand his all-star crew, led by tactician Tony Rey, are sailing on the powerful Farr 60, which they’re using until they move on to their “new” TP52: the ex-Russian Team Synergy.

Local entries Raymond Magras’ Speedy Nemo (last year's winner) and Patrick Demarchelier's Swan 45Puffy are both sailing with locals and are attempting to limit their losses against the professionally crewed class leaders.

Racing Cruising: Nix and Black Hole Tied
The largest class in the fleet is the Racing Cruising, with 24 yachts. Wins in this class are hard-fought. Two Dutch boats, Nico Cortlever’s Nix and Jeroen Min’s Black Hole, share the lead, each with a first and second place. This leaves James Dobbs and his speedy J/122 Lost Horizon in third, with his immediate pursuer, Bobby Velasquez’s L’espérance, trailing in fourth.

Multis: first you have to finish
Class leader, John Winter's 80-foot Morelli/Miller-designed Fat Cat, has suffered the least in the big and often crossed seas found on the northern areas of the courses. Blanca was dismasted yesterday and is out of the regatta, while the Gunboat Phaedo suffered damage to the boom on the first day and retired from the regatta as well.

Classics: Spritely for 80
What they lack in numbers they make up for in beauty. The Bermudian yawl Mariella, designed by Mylne, built by Fife and launched in 1938, has reveled in the strong, steady breeze off St. Barth. Italian owner Carlo Falcone has enjoyed the opportunity of grabbing the lead over Donald Tofias’ classically styled W76 White Wings. The majesty and elegance of these yachts grabs the attention of even the most modern sailor and is what gives Les Voiles de St. Barth a special element of charm.

Social Scene
Last night Les Voiles de St. Barth skippers and guests enjoyed a cocktail party hosted by the luxurious Guanahani & Spa hotel. The event included an auction to raise awareness and funds for Bay Kout Men Haïti, a non-profit organization set up in 1901 by people in the construction business to help rebuild the devasted Caribbean island.

François Tolède, event organizer of Les Voiles de St. Barth
“We feel that the idea that we offer here is the right recipe: a mix of serious racing on the water and fun on shore, for the fleet of modern and classic boats of all sizes, on a really great sailing area with fantastic conditions, a dream for every sailor. This event format is working and the word is spreading among competitors all over the world. We are going to have to be prepared for growing pains and keep a cool head as we build on our successes thus far. We must maintain cohesion among the classes, maintain a balance between the competitive and fun aspects, as well as carefully consider our hosting capacity ashore and on-the-water. We must carefully consider all of these key points.”

Anne Lisa Gee, co-organiser of Les Voiles de St. Barth
“Everyone looks forward to a rest day, as much as they do to the perfect sailing conditions – it is in keeping with the spirit of what the owners and yachtsmen have come to look for in St. Barth. Everyone has been complimenting race organizers Luc Poupon’s and Jean Coadou’s choice of courses and we are getting the positive feedback from the sailors and owners who foresee a good future for the event.”

SCHEDULE
Racing continues on Friday and Saturday with a first warning signal at 1100. The closing ceremony and fireworks will follow the awards ceremony on Saturday, April 9.

RESULTS
http://www.lesvoilesdesaintbarth.com..._st_barth.html

[MLovett]

9th April 2011

As if to ensure that competitors had seen all the beaches and sights that St. Barth has to offer, race officers today sent the 48-boat Les Voiles de St. Barth fleet on its final circumnavigation counter-clockwise around the eight-square mile island: a 30-nautical mile course for the Maxis, and a 23-nautical mile course for the Racing, Racing Cruising, Classics, and Multihulls. This morning, rain clouds scudded over the island, which by the 1100 start time caused some impressive shifts in wind direction and velocity on the right side of the race course. Once around the southern end of the island, the boats were into a 17 knot east-southeasterly with a three-foot sea. While it qualified as the lightest wind speeds for the week, it still ranked as great sailing conditions.

At the Maxi start, it was “all to play for” for Genuine Risk (USA), which trailed Rambler 100 (USA) by one point in the overall standings. With the pin end heavily favored, the Dubois-designed 97 footer came down the line on starboard, crossing Rambler’s bow and tacking over to weather at the gun. The first beat to the offset was more like a fetch, which the big boats easily laid. Around the east side of the island, with spinnakers set, Genuine Risk managed to draw even with Rambler. Though Rambler’s skipper Ken Read explained how it had shredded its running spinnaker in practice before the regatta, the canting-keeled 100-footer didn’t appear to suffer too much and made it around the race course in two hours flat. The USMMA-owned Genuine Risk did a great job of keeping the pressure on and finished 11 minutes behind, missing out on beating Rambler on corrected time by only two minutes.

Peter Harrison’s (GBR) Sojana, a 115-foot Farr design, with a who’s who of sailing talent including Peter Holmberg (St. Thomas, USVI) and French sailing legends Lionel Pean and Jacques Vincent, was hard-pressed against the two maxis and turned in a steady performance with a string of third places for third overall.

For the Racing class, a similar situation existed between Vesper (USA) and Antilope (NED), also a point apart. A win by Antilope would result in a tie that the Dutch boat would win in a count-back. So in a bit of David and Goliath action, Antilope went after Vesper at the start line and tacked in front of them, trying to engage them in a match race on the first beat. Vesper’s tactician Gavin Brady (Annapolis, Maryland) recalled that “before the start we talked about going after Antilope, and then decided to sail our own race. Then they came gunning for us!,” But the TP52 used its superior size and speed to make things difficult for the Grand Soleil 43 and managed to sail past its rival and push them back.

Brady described the somewhat tricky conditions, saying, “It was lighter today – well, 17 knots – so lighter for St Barth. We had a 40-degree wind shift in the rain shadow on the west side, and the breeze dropped to nine knots at one point. Then on the windward side there were some pretty big waves. We knew we couldn’t make any mistakes today. There were a lot of sail changes, and then we ripped one spinnaker and managed to nurse it into the bottom mark.” Vesper won Racing class overall with three wins and a second-place finish.

Local talent Raymond Magras, on Speedy Nemo (St. Barth), had a third-place finish today, which moved him up past Peter Cunningham’s Farr 60 Venomous and secured the team a third place overall.

In Racing Cruising, there were a handful of boats in contention for first overall going into the last race, including Nix, Lost Horizon, and Black Hole, and last year’s class winner L’Esperance from nearby St. Maarten. In the end, it was Nico Cortlever’s Nix (NED), with its second win of the week, that prevailed. James Dobbs’ J/122 Lost Horizon had been on a roll, moving up the rankings through the week, but was stopped just short of a win, correcting out today three minutes behind Nix to finish the week in second overall. Frans Vandyk’s chartered Beneteau First 50 Black Hole (NED) managed to tread water and maintain its third place overall.

In the Classics, Mariella had it all but locked up for the overall win before today’s race. The majestic Fife yawl slipped around the island in three hours, securing her four wins in four races for first overall ahead of Donald Tofias’ (Newport, R.I.) graceful 76-foot W-class yacht White Wings. David Pertel’s (St. Barth) La Sirene finished the week in third place overall.

The Multihull class began the regatta with five boats, and by the final day was almost down to the last man standing as John Winter (USA) on the 80’ Fat Cat continued his sweep of the class with a fourth bullet. Eric Coulombel’s (FRA) 40-foot trimaran Dauphin Telecom finished second overall.

As the competing yachts crossed the finish line they were greeted by a tender manned with Les Voiles de St. Barth officials, who presented each of the crews with a bottle of Taittinger champagne – and thus putting a final French touch on a ritual that in other parts of the world involves iced cold beer.

Les Voiles de St. Barth 2011 Prizegiving
Tonight’s prize giving will take place at 6pm on the Quai General de Gaulle, where the winners of each class will be presented their awards.

The winner of the Maxi class overall, George David from Rambler 100, will be presented with a Richard Mille limited edition RM028 Voiles de St. Barth watch.

The winners of the Racing, Racing Cruising, Classic, and Multihull classes will each be presented with a week’s villa stay by WIMCO Villas and Sibarth Villas, which both specialize in luxury villa rentals.


What they said ~

Ken Read (in advance of today’s race)
We give Genuine Risk a little over eleven minutes per hour, right around that range; so in a 30-mile race, an hour and a half, maybe. These boats are pretty quick; it’s pretty phenomenal how fast you can get around the track. You’re racing against the clock more than you’re racing against the other boat. We have to get to a point where we hardly see them, that’s really kind of the goal.

We like to reach. They are a little quicker dead downwind and we owe them a lot of time. That’s not a perfect point of sail for us; upwind and reaching, that’s great. We have one problem; we blew up our running spinnaker practicing and that’s kind of put us behind the eight ball. No matter what, it’s a good, fun race course – this is the classic race course, that’s what you come here for.

Yesterday we did a nice job, had a good first beat, first reach, first few legs, and developed a nice cushion for ourselves. The day before, we just didn’t sail very well. I think if we sail well, we should be in reasonable shape.”

Ralf Steitz, Strategist on Genuine Risk, and Offshore Sailing Director at USMMA Sailing Foundation
“Genuine Risk is owned by the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy Sailing Foundation in King’s Point, N.Y. We have a bunch of Swedish people on board. We’ve done a collaboration where we’ve raced in the Pineapple Cup, St. Thomas, St. Maarten, and now St. Barth, and then we’re going to Antigua. We’re trying to get young people into sailing as much as we can, and have as much fun as we can.

“It’s spectacular sailing here in St. Barth…sailing around the rocks that are not in the right place. I know the rocks have been there for a long time, but the chart makers haven’t caught up. So, it’s entertaining, it’s fun, the conditions are awesome, the people are nice, and we’re having a ball! Today we’re going to stick it to the Rambler guys, we’re going to beat them and win the regatta – it’s perfect!

“We may lose some of the guys to the French women. They’re very beautiful, so the guys are very excited about that. They’re not used to nude beaches in the U.S., and in Sweden it’s too cold.

Jim Swartz, Vesper:
“I’ve been here a number of times, but this is our second time sailing in this regatta; it’s one of my favorites really. What’s not to like about the food, and everything French, so it’s a real treat. And the sailing’s fantastic: predictable winds, big seas, and blue water – its fabulous!

“We’re the new kid on the block, so we’ll have a run for right now, and then another boat will come along. But for now, it’s fun.

“The big attraction for me to get into the TP52s? I like one-design racing, a box rule, where handicaps aren’t so important. There are a number of boats being built every year, and a lot of them are finding their way to the used market. There’s a group of 10-15 boats scattered through the U.S., and if we can get a group of them down here next year, that would be fabulous.”

Nico Cortlever, Nix
“We are very happy that we did a very good job here; we didn’t expect it. There’s so much competition here, as equal qualities as we, so we were just lucky. The time difference (between the boats) is very small, so we are very close, and you know almost immediately how you did.

“We have an excellent team from my sailing club in Loosdrecht, The Netherlands. Yesterday we had a problem; we had a lobster pot under the keel. We couldn’t get it off, so we were only fourth. So, we had to be first today to win the overall.”

RESULTS – For full results, go to event site at: http://bit.ly/fSHR6O
Place, Boat Name, Skipper, Race 1-2-3-4, Total Points

MAXI
1) Rambler 100, George David/Ken Read (Hartford, Conn./Newport, R.I.), 1-2-1-1, 5.0 points
2) Genuine Risk, Hugo Stenbeck (USA), 2-1-2-2, 7.0 points
3) Sojana, Marc Fitzgerald (GBR), 3-3-3-3, 12.0

RACING
1) Vesper, Jim Swartz (Park City, Utah), 2-1-1-1, 5.0 points
2) Antilope, Willem Wester (NED), 1-2-2-2, 7.0
3) Speedy Nemo, Raymond Magras (St. Barth, FWI), 4-5-4-3, 16.0

RACING CRUISING
1) Nix, Nico Cortlever (NED), 2-1-4-1, 8.0 points
2) Lost Horizon, James Dobbs, (Antigua, W.I.), 4-3-1-2, 10.0
3) Black Hole, Frans Vandyk (NED), 1-2-6-4, 13.0

CLASSIC
1) Mariella, Carlo Falcone (ITA), 1-1-1-1, 4.0 points
2) White Wings, Faraday Rosenberg (Newport, R.I.), 2-2-2-2, 8.0
3) Kate Dutch Sailing Team, Philip Walwyn (St. Kitt’s, W.I.), 3-3-3-3, 12.0

MULTIHULL
1) Fat Cat, John Winter (USA), 1-1-1-1, 4.0 points
2) Bordelo, Stephane Penigaud (St. Barth, FWI), 2-2-3-5, 12.0
3) Dauphin Telecom, Erick Clement (FRA), 6-3-2-2, 13.0