Les Voiles de St.Barth - Entertaining lay day brings lots of team play

by Kirsten Ferguson on 14 Apr 2017 After two days of rigorous on-the-water battles, the Les Voiles de St. Barth sailors were well deserving of a break from competition, and event organizers had the perfect remedy: an official 'Day Off' at Nikki Beach Saint Barth, the famous beach club located in St. Jean. Many of the teams joined in the organized fun, which was complete with water activities and a beautiful lunch spread of fresh sushi and rosé.

The setting may have been relaxed, but the rivalry among teams could still be felt when the sailors went head-to-head in jousting matches aboard giant stand-up paddleboards. Sixteen teams took to the water off the beach to compete with four to five sailors on each paddleboard, all with long paddle poles in hand, trying to push their opponents into the water for the win. The event was fierce, but the all-woman team, The Sirens, took first overall, beating out Melges 24 sailors on Team Island Water World. Many of the same teams had some light-hearted fun in an underwater treasure hunt for bottles of sponsor Veuve Clicquot's champagne, with 10 lucky sailors retrieving the hidden bottles in St. Jean Bay.

The regatta, in its eighth edition, prides itself on providing top class fun and entertainment, and it never disappoints, with live music and performances pulsating through the island every night after racing. Tomorrow, the fleet embarks on its final two days of racing (Friday and Saturday). The overall race winner will take home the most coveted prize of all: the Richard Mille 60-01 Regatta Flyback Chronograph timepiece.

Dominique Gerente, Richard Mille Head of Sales for the Americas and the Caribbean

“The boats that you see on the water at Les Voiles de St. Barth are monsters but there are a lot of similarities in terms of material that they use and that we use in our watches. They are racing machines on the sea and our motto has always been that these are racing machines on the wrist. Richard Mille as many know has been using amazing material in the manufacturing of his watches, inside and outside and there are a lot of similar kinds of carbon that are also being used on the maxi yachts. Nobody here invented sailing but what they do is similar to what we do in the watch industry; we integrate and bring it to a new dimension. That is how high-tech sailing is similar to our technique and process of watchmaking. We cannot change time, but we change the way we approach it, the way we show it and the way we wear it.”

Raphaël Lipszyc, Veuve Clicquot Business Development Manager

“When Madame Clicquot took the lead of the company she was very ambitious. She was a widow at the age of 27 years old and decided to discover the world and to bring Veuve Clicquot out of France. That is why we are here today, to begin the international conquest of the company, and Veuve Clicquot is clearly more than champagne, it is an attitude. We used to say that our motto was “let life surprise you” and clearly in St. Barth, with Les Voiles de St. Barth, there are lots of great surprises. It is a really great event.”