St. Maarten Heineken Regatta prizes awarded

by Michele Korteweg on 7 Mar 2012 The last day of the 32nd annual St. Maarten Heineken Regatta closed in outstanding fashion yesterday evening at the traditional Prize-Giving ceremony, followed by an evening of world-class musical entertainment

The evening’s top prize—the St. Maarten Cup—for the regatta’s Most Worthy Performance Overall went to Richard Wesslund’s J/120, El Ocaso, the winner of the event’s most competitive class, CSA 4.

'This is our sixth year racing at the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta,' said Wesslund. 'We’ve won our division twice but never this prize. I ultimately want to thank my great team for all their hard work over the years. We’ll be back!'

The Caribserve-NTG Cup for Most Worthy Performance on Friday went to Frits Bus and Peter Houtzager aboard the Melges 24, Coors Light. The Heineken Cup for Most Worthy Performance on Saturday was presented to Jordan Mindich’s Sun Odyssey 44, Aunt Jessie, in the CSA 4 class. Tom Goebel and Neil Harvey’s Dufour 425, Chillin’ The Most, took the Sint Maarten Yacht Club Cup for Sunday’s Most Worthy Performance.

The Overall Bareboat winner was the all women crew aboard Something Hot, Marieke Poulie’s Sun Odyssey 44i, which also received the Goldendog Cup for the team’s contribution to charity, a goal for many individual yachts that compete in the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta.

The Panama Jack Cup for Fastest Multihull Around the Island on Friday’s opening race was the impressive Irens 63 trimaran, Peter Aschenbrenner’s Paradox. The Fastest Monohull (Spinnaker classes) was Ernesto Cortina’s Volvo 70, Gran Jotiti, which earned the Windward Islands Bank Cup in honor of the feat.

Frederick Walters’ Team Kincsem-Zourite, a 50-foot Beneteau, was presented the Bliss Cup awarded to the Fastest Bareboat Around the Island. Virago, the Swan 100 sailed by Bill and Carolyn Titus and their crew, received the Sol Cup for the Fastest Non-Spinnaker Yacht to circle St. Maarten.

Finally, the Xerox Obersi Cup, also known as the Spirit and Style Award, went to Michael Emmert and Richard Emmert’s lovely Rhodes design, Golden-Eye, a competitor in the Lottery Class.

With that, the 2012 event came to a close. The 33rd annual St. Maarten Heineken Regatta will take place from February 28-March 3, 2013. It’s never too early to start planning!

St. Maarten Heineken Regatta website