It couldn’t have been a more beautiful day to have a distance race around the 14-square-mile island of Saint-Barthelemy, and there couldn’t have been a more spectacular fleet to sail in the sunshine and 13-15 knot breezes than this year’s 26-strong Bucket fleet of Superyachts. Six classes, sailing on scenic counter-clockwise courses ranging from 21 to 25 nm in distance, included one for J Class yachts, which sailed using the traditional fleet racing format, and five for ORC handicapped boats using a pursuit-style racing format put into practice at the world’s most important Superyacht regattas.
With pursuit-style racing, the boats start at different times based on their handicap. Theoretically, if they sail perfectly, they arrive at the finish line together, and today in the Corinthian Spirit Les Voiles Blanche class, the finish was almost too close to call. The 43 metre Vitters sloop Koo, defending its class victory from last year, edged out the 52 metre ketch Q by only two seconds, while the new Vitters sloop Missy finished only 30 seconds behind Q to take third.
“Q started five minutes behind us and followed us all the way around,” said Koo’s Captain and Helmsman Brendan Crawford. “Then we were both on starboard coming up to the finish and were pretty much even, so both boats stuck it up in the wind at the line. If the idea is getting the boats to finish at the same time, you can’t do much better than that…it was exciting. All in all, the handicappers must be the winners today, given that the three boats finished within 32 seconds of each other. I give full credit to them.”
The ORC Superyacht Committee appreciated Crawford’s comments. “This was a good test that the system works” said Member Alessandro Nazareth. “We’ve been predicting these results for these boats and they performed to their rating.”
Spiip, which triumphed as overall Bucket winner last year, looks to be at up to the task again in Les Mademoiselles des Mers class. The 34 metre Royal Huisman sloop posted a 27 second victory over her closest competitor, the 32 metre sloop Farfalla.
But in Les Grandes Dames des Mers, last year’s victor, the 56 metre Perini Navi Ketch Rosehearty, didn’t have it so good. She finished third today when Whisper, which started behind her, and Blue Too, which started before her, turned in finishes of 1-2, respectively.
“We made a few little mistakes,” said Tactician Paul Cayard, “and I don’t know if it would have amounted to beating Whisper or Blue Too had we not made them, since we finished a full 5 ½ minutes after Whisper. Basically we’re dealing with two different types of boats in our class now: the big heavier yachts we’re used to sailing against and these lighter boats that just sail differently. We started out with a third last year also, so we can definitely win again. It will be a different course tomorrow and people can make mistakes; we just have to bring our A game.”
The 35 metre Ketch Sojana won in Les Elegantes des Mers class while the 34 metre sloop Nilaya topped the Les Gazelles des Mers class in another very close race. She finished only 36 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Visione.
Adding their first coastal win to yesterday’s two windward-leeward race wins, Svea is in clear charge of the J Class series at this midway stage, four points ahead of Velsheda, which now posts a 2-3-2 for 7 points.
Tomorrow’s planned “Not so Wiggley” Course will see the fleet sailing on the west side of the island around some of the smaller islands and rock outcroppings there, while tonight’s Yacht Hop will see the sailors enjoying visits to each other’s rides for a splash of non-competitive camaraderie.
Photographs © 2018 Michael Kurtz
You must be logged in to post a comment.