Photograph © 2018 corysilken.comIn today’s splendid Caribbean sunshine and 8-12 knot breezes, 26 Superyachts sailing in six classes at the St. Barths Bucket Regatta made their final plays for podium positions. The four-day event started on Thursday, March 15, with fleet racing for J Class yachts and continued Friday, Saturday and Sunday with pursuit racing for the balance of classes.

By virtue of the Bucket’s reputation alone, victors in any class in any given year are big winners, but the biggest winner in 2018 was the sloop Nilaya, who took home overall honors after organizers determined – with a quantitative formula that uses race data, finish times and series points – that it was “the class winner who prevailed in the most competitive, closely contested class.”

Nilaya sailed with two other sloops in the Les Gazelles des Mers class for the most high-performance boats here, and while it looked by her three bullets in three races that she had an easy time, it was anything but. Breathing down her neck at every turn was Visione, which took second, and the Vitters-built Unfurled, which took third.

The four-strong Les Elegantes des Mers class saw the closest racing between the two ketches Sojana and Rebecca. Sojana needed to beat Rebecca on Sunday to take the series and that she did with only a minute and 46 seconds to spare.

Last year’s overall Bucket winner, the Royal Huisman yacht SPIIP, looked good to repeat when she won day one in Les Mademoiselles des Mers class, which was comprised of five closely rated sloops in the 30 metre range. She was tied with Farfalla going into the last day, however, and Farfalla secured overall victory with a win, her second in two days.

Consistency paid in Les Grandes Dames des Mers class, also with five boats. The sloop Whisper, back after a long hiatus, won with all bullets, while the ketch Blue Too finished second with three second-place finishes. Whisper, as well, was the first in fleet to cross the line each day,

Photograph © 2018 Claire MatchesThe Les Voiles Blanche class, the largest here and one for Corinthian sailors, hosted six boats. The Vitters-built sloop Missy, a brand new boat, was tied on points with KOO, also a Vitters sloop, going into Sunday and won, giving her overall victory. The ketch Q went from fourth to second, pushing KOO to third.

Three J Class yachts completed five races, including two windward-leeward races on Thursday before they joined the others for three days of coastal racing. After Svea’s practice days were aborted due to their containers not showing up in time, her team turned in four bullets and conceded victory to another (Velsheda, which finished second overall) only on the last day.

Nilaya photograph by Ed Gudenas