2016 St Barths Bucket Regatta - Another perfect day

by Paul Cayard on 21 Mar 2016 2016 St Barths Bucket Regatta - Another perfect day today with winds a bit further right coming out of 130 at up to 20 knots. The course for the final race was clockwise around the archipelago of St. Barths.

For the third time, Peter Holmberg and I devised a good strategy to get clear of the traffic starting just in front of us in this pursuit racing format. We opted to start on port gybe while those just in front of us went off on starboard gybe. When we came back together, Rosehearty was already in the lead; traffic free.

On the long upwind leg up the north side of St. Barths, we suffered a break down. The tack fitting on the genoa broke and we were forced to furl that sail and sail with the staysail up wind. Needless to say this was quite loss in performance for the hour that remained of upwind sailing.

Seahawk sailed very well and fast to win today’s race. Our closest rival, Ohana, finished second again. Perseus 3 was third while we finished fourth and Meteor fifth.

Rosehearty tied Ohana on points for the overall win, but won by virtue of our two first place finishes on day one and two. That’s about as close as it gets!

The crew did an outstanding job of dealing with today’s adversity and kept the maneuvers tight so we could preserve the fourth place we needed to win overall. A very happy owner and all concerned.

That is my final report for a few weeks. Next up for me is the Star World Championship starting April 10th.