Wet and wild start to St. Maarten Heineken Regatta

by Event media on 7 Mar 2009
Peter Holmberg clasped his hands together and allowed himself a brief glance skyward. It was time, apparently, for a prayer. Holmberg, an Olympic sailing medalist from the U.S. Virgin Islands and a native Caribbean son, is no stranger to big winds and heavy seas, and he was wearing a smile as he took in the wet and wild scene ahead. But the circumstances suggested that a small bit of divine intervention might certainly be welcome. And it’s no stretch to think, that when it came to asking for heavenly wishes, that he wasn’t alone.

Holmberg, calling tactics on the Melges 32, Jurakan, was one of hundreds of sailors on the 218 yachts that set sail today to begin the 29th edition of the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta. It was not a day for the meek of heart or the weak of hull. After a brief series of morning squalls, a northerly breeze packing gusts over 30-knots swept in with a vengeance, and the steady, pumping winds that accompanied them generated gear-busting seas of 8-10 feet and more. Torn sails, bruised sailors, broken equipment—as well as a dismasting, numerous collisions, and a near sinking—soon followed.

The carnage began after the respective racing, cruising and bareboat classes came hard on the freshening breeze off Plum Point on the island’s western flank in the early stages of the day’s traditional round-the-island race, a 30-nautical mile course for the all-out racing divisions, and a slightly shortened 25-miler for the non-spinnaker and charter fleets. It was there that Holmberg, hiking hard with his fellow mates on the slightly submerged and overpowered 32-footer, sought solace from above.

Before all was said and done, at least two other crews would be thanking their lucky stars that the serious mishaps that befell them weren’t even more disastrous. The first was the team aboard the Melges 24, French Connection, who lost their mast off Point Blanche in the final stretch of the race, which ended nearby in Philipsburg’s Great Bay. The second was the crew of the Beneteau 47.7, Yo Yo, which was holed in a collision off Tintamarre, and with the boat beginning to flounder, made it to safe haven and the travel lift at Bobby’s Marina in Philipsburg in the nick of time.

'We jibed with another boat and right afterwards there was a collision,' said a Yo Yo crewman soon after the boat was safely in the slings of the boatyard hoist. 'Their stanchion pierced our hull. We tried to plug the hole but as quick as we could get it out, it was coming right back in. We all put on lifejackets immediately and bailed as quickly as possible, but we couldn’t get ahead of it.'

While French Connection and Yo Yo may have suffered the worst mishaps, there were countless other misadventures, as well. 'There were some spectacular t-bones in the bareboat class, right at the windward mark,' said David De Vries, who had a ringside seat aboard Ian Hope-Ross’s Beneteau 36.7, Kick ‘em Jenny. 'Then a squall came through and you could see all these spinnakers tearing and popping. It was wild.

'We clocked 32 knots of wind in the Anguilla Channel and 34 knots in the squall,' he added. 'The waves were great with this enormous swell.'

Of course, it wasn’t all gloom and doom; in fact, amidst the fray, there was some tremendous sailing and boathandling. 'We had a helluva ride,' said Billy Burke, a crew aboard the Newport, Rhode Island-based canting-keeled Cookson 50, Privateer. 'Down the coast, we were surfing at 16-19 knots in a 4-6 foot swell, which we rode pretty well. It was a pretty spectacular spinnaker run.'

But even Privateer had their trials and tribulations, breaking their boom vang after the kite wrapped in a jibe just a few miles from the finish. But Privateer, racing in the Spinnaker 2 division, at that stage had already left the opponents in their class astern and had even caught and passed nearly the entire Spinnaker 1 class, with the exception of the Farr 115, Sojana; the Swan 82, Nikata; and the Swan 80, Team Selene.

In doing so, Privateer put the final touches on a day to remember, winning the highly competitive Spinnaker 2 class in resounding style.

Other provisional winners on Day 1 of the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta included:

Chris Besser’s Team Selene in Spinnaker 1; Clive Llewellyn’s Grand Soleil 50, Mad IV, in Spinnaker 3; James Dobbs’s J/122, Lost Horizon, in Spinnaker 4; Raymond Margas’s Dufour 34, Speedy Nemo, in Spinnaker 5; and in Spinnaker 6, the aforementioned Jurakan, David West’s Melges 32.

In the Non-Spinnaker classes, provisional winners were Bobby Valazquez’s Beneteau 45f5, L’Esperance, in Non-Spinnaker 1; and in Non-Spinnaker 2, Sandy Mair’s Soverel 30, Streaker.

Multihull 1 Racing was the provisional domain of the trimaran Karibuni, while the Lagoon cat Dream Catcher won the Cruising Multihull 2 class. The top Gunboat was Xabier Ross’s Cream. Tom Deegenaars took the Open class with Goeie Mie.

Provisional winners in the Bareboat classes were the Harmony 51, Neerlands Glorie, in Bareboat 1; the Cylcades 50, Harten Heer, in Bareboat 2; the Oceanis 473, Goldendog, in Bareboat 3; the Cyclades 43, French Kiss, in Bareboat 4; and the Sun Odyssey 395, De Eigenheimers, in Bareboat 5.

Due to a forecast of continued heavy winds and swell, for safety reasons race organizers have re-scheduled racing on Saturday and Sunday. Courses will now be set off Simpson Bay. Saturday’s party and entertainment schedule in Marigot will continue as previously planned.

For full information on the Budget Marine Match Racing Cup, the IGY Commodore’s Cup and the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta, as well as entry lists, results, photos, videos and much more, visit www.heinekenregatta.com