BVI Spring Regatta and Sailing Festival 2014 - Maritime Heritage Day
by Lisa Ramsperger on 4 Apr 2014
The Tortola Sloop, Sea Moon races on Heritage Day at the BVI Spring Regatta & Sailing Festival - BVI Spring Regatta and Sailing Festival 2014 Todd VanSickle / BVI Spring Regatta
http://www.bvispringregatta.org
At the BVI Spring Regatta and Sailing Festival 2014 yesterday (Thursday 3rd April), the Regatta Village at Nanny Cay opened with Maritime Heritage Day and a full schedule of activities. The Queen's Baton Relay made an official stop in the Regatta Village to begin the celebration. International food, drinks and fun were served late into the night after the Mount Gay Welcome Party kicked off the official BVI Spring Regatta.
The Queen's Baton arrived in Tortola mid-day from Jost Van Dyke. Thad Lettsome, a 12-year-old local Optimist sailor and member of the Royal BVI Yacht Club, was the first to receive the Baton on the island of Tortola. He carried it onboard the 102-year-old Tortola Sloop Intrepid, sailing around Nanny Cay before handing it to Glenford Gordon, a local sailing silver medalist from the 2011 Athens Special Olympics World Games.
'It felt special,' said Lettsome, who is training for the Optimist South American Championship next month. 'It was a surprise when they told me I was going to carry it - I didn't expect to do this. I've never done anything like this before.'
The Glasgow 2014 Queen's Baton Relay is currently in the middle of a 190,000 km, 288-day journey, visiting countries in Asia, Oceania, Africa, the Americas, Caribbean and Europe en route to the XX Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland beginning on 23 July 2014.
Earlier in the day, the Tortola Sloop, Spring Challenge featured racing by three, locally built yachts, including Intrepid, constructed in 1912. Also racing were Youth Instructor and Sea Moon. Winners of the race will be announced on Sunday during the regatta awards ceremony.
The Mount Gay Welcome Party was in full swing by sundown, and Nichole Raab's aerial performance dazzled the crowd. Raab, who is also racing with Team WAVE, hung suspended from a crane and by dock lines above the beach at Nanny Cay. After, the band Final Faze took the stage.
Event website: click here
If you want to link to this article then please use this URL: www.sail-world.com/120749
