2015 St-Barth Cata Cup – Top contenders head to St-Barth

by Dominique Ladouceur on 27 Oct 2015 2015 St-Barth Cata Cup – Only hours after the US National F18 Championships came to an end, boats were being loaded onto a container heading to St-Barth where they will be mounted just in time for the Cup.

Among the top 10 teams from the 2015 Americas Regatta, seven racers will be going head to head in St-Barth with some of the best in the F18 Class, including Tripp Burd (second) John Casey and Colin Page (third), Arielle Darrow (seventh), Ken Marshak (ninth) and Maxime Loiselle and Olivier Pilon (fifth) from Canada. Todd Ricardi and Evan Aras (11th) are also amongst the US crews that will be competing at the regatta.

Fifth year in the making
Besides Florida native John Casey, Tripp Burd has been one of the most long-standing US racers on the event. Although he is usually crewing for Mike Easton, Tripp will be racing with Jacopo Bracco for his fifth time at this edition of the St-Barth Cata Cup.

'It's been another fun local F18 season for Mike and I. We did travel to Kiel for the F18 Worlds but had a disappointing finish despite sailing well in the first few races. We are very happy with this second place finish at the US Nationals. This was actually good practice prior to the Cata Cup since a lot of the teams that were racing this week are also heading out', explained Tripp Burd.

More than sailing
John Casey, who placed third at the US Nationals with Colin Page, handles more than the obstacles and angles to sail at the St-Barth Cata Cup, he makes sure that all of the US and Canadian boats are squeezed in the one container leaving for the four-day trip south. 'It’s like our first race day ! We usually spend somewhere close to eight hours to get everything ready to go', said John Casey, a die-hard fan of the St-Barth Cata Cup.

'Last year’s edition was somewhat challenging on the water. We had continual strong weather and I recall that on the last day almost half of the fleet didn’t make it to the final race. In the end, it was all Frenchmen on the podium and Colin and I were just off the podium with a fourth place finish. If I look at the level of racing that we had this week at the Nationals, I am pretty confident that one of us will be on the podium in St-Barth.'

US among the 16 countries at the St-Barth Cata Cup
Year in and year out, there are typically over 15 different countries that compete in one of F18 racing’s most popular events. The four-day regatta is a mix of professionals and amateurs who enjoy the level of racing and the island spirit. A total of five teams from the US will sail in the eighth edition of the event.