BVI Spring Regatta - J class ready for action in St. Thomas

by J/Boats on 24 Mar 2013 The 42nd edition of the BVI Spring Regatta and Sailing Festival is set to take place March 25-31 at Nanny Cay. A truly international cast is making ready to take centre stage in the beautiful sailing grounds off Tortola, British Virgin Islands. Entries from at least 12 different nations including Australia, Germany, USA, Netherlands, Sweden, UK, Luxembourg, Canada, Russia, Switzerland, British Virgin Islands and other Caribbean islands.

The allure of racing in some of the most scenic, varied and challenging waters on the planet is the reason that most competitors return each year. Uniquely, the BVI Spring Regatta race course takes place in the Atlantic Ocean, the Sir Francis Drake Channel and the Caribbean Sea.

Richard Wesslund's J/120, El Ocaso from Miami Florida (USA) had one of their best Caribbean racing seasons ever in 2012 and are hoping to repeat their class win at this year's BVI Spring regatta. Their highly competitive team get to vote on which regattas they attend each year and are looking forward to coming back to compete at the BVI Spring Regatta once more. Joining them in CSA Spinnaker Racing will be a slightly different, if not even more competitive crowd than what they face in the Rolex Regatta. On the same starting line vying for class honors will also be the J/122 Lazy Dog with Sergio Sagramoso skippering from Ponce Yacht & Fishing Club and the J/100 BAD GIRL sailed by Bob Armstrong from St Croix YC.

This regatta has slightly different class 'splits' than the Rolex Regatta, so in CSA Racer Cruiser will be yet another J/105, this one in the form of Umakua sailed Julio Reguero and friends from Club Nautico Puerto Rico.

Again, the 'white sails only' CSA Performance Cruiser division will be tough as nails to handicap as to who will be the winner. Perhaps the Rolex Regatta will see one of the three J/Teams rising to the top. The same trio of the J/120 Jaguar Waterworld (Ben Jelic from St Maarten YC); the J/36 Paladin (Stanford Joines from St Croix YC); and the J/95 Shamrock VII (Tom Mullen from Royal British Virgin Islands YC) will be at it again less than 48 hours after they've finished the Rolex Regatta! Oh my won't that be fun?! We wonder who's going to be buying drinks for the others in an effort to avoid going for a victory BVI Spring Regatta website