International Rolex Regatta action starts tomorrow

by Event media on 27 Mar 2009
The International Rolex Regatta is set to start tomorrow, and by the looks of the action on the water and buzz around the St Thomas Yacht Club, it will be one of the most memorable in the event's 36-year history.

Teams practising today got a taste of the 15-18 knot winds forecast for the duration of the three-day regatta, which is hosting 64 boats split into handicap divisions for IRC and CSA (Spinnaker Racing, Spinnaker Racing/Cruising and Non-Spinnaker Racing), as well as one-design IC 24s and Beach Cats.

While most of the fleet is moored off the club, some of the larger boats are berthed at Yacht Haven Grande Marina, which is five miles up the coast in the main harbor of Charlotte Amalie. The two groups will converge tomorrow to kick off through-the-islands racing on the island's east end with the exception of the IC 24s, which have their own race course for round-the-buoys racing.

Among the teams in IRC class is Ron O'Hanley's Cookson 50 Privateer, which won the Bermuda Race last year and this year won the Pineapple Cup Montego Bay Race along with the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta. Phil and Wendy Lotz's (New Canaan, Conn./Newport, R.I.) Swan 42 Arethusa also sailed in St. Maarten but suffered collision damage there. After managing a remarkably quick repair, they made it here just under the wire and should find the effort worth it when they match up with such standouts as David Aisher's (UK) Rogers 46 Yeoman XXXII, which recently won its class in the Royal Ocean Racing Club's (RORC) Caribbean 600 race.

Sailing against Aisher, who is former commodore of the RORC, will be Jim Muldoon (Washington, D.C.) on his Custom 73 Donnybrook and Jim Mitchell (SUI) on his Reichel Pugh 52 Vincitore, which was launched in last year and is a cruising version of the racy TP52. Sailing aboard will be three generations: Mitchell with both his father and son.

The CSA Spinnaker Racing class has the largest number of entrants with 14, while the Spinnaker Racing/Cruising class sports 12 boats. Both classes, like the IRC class and the IC 24s, will be competing for the coveted prize of a Rolex timepiece.

James Dobbs' J/122 Lost Horizon is sure to be one to watch in Spinnaker Racing/Cruising. He has competed in the event no less than 15 times and has won five times. 'We live on the boat 11 months a year, so I really don't have a hometown,' said Dobbs, an Englishman who sails with 8-12 crew from the local islands. 'We like the Rolex Regatta because it is the only one of the Caribbean regattas that is run out of a yacht club and by a yacht club instead of a commercial venture. It makes a difference because it attracts people who want to sail seriously, and the volunteers are wonderful.'

Lots of youth sailors are competing, none more enthusiastic than eight students, ages 17-19, from St. Thomas' Ivanna Eudora Kean High School, who will crew aboard the Cal 30 Winds Glory in Non-Spinnaker Racing. The boat is a donation to the Department of Education (from a local sailor) that has become the mother ship of a class meant to create new talent for the local marine industry. 'They are all eager to do the regatta and have been practicing hard,' said the boat's skipper Stan Lorbach, who added that a group of St. Thomas Yacht Club members saw how hard they were working and offered to pay the team's entry fee.

The largest boat in the regatta is the Frers 80 Kialoa V, owned by Fred Mills and skippered by his son Freddy Mills (Lake Placid, N.Y.). The smallest boats are two Hobie 16s, Auto-Manic and Island Sol, skippered respectively by Chris Schreiber (St. Croix) and Paul Stoeken (St. Thomas). Live results by yachtscoring.com will be posted nightly at www.rolexcupregatta.com.


Rolex is title sponsor of the event, with active involvement from A.H. Riise, its Official Retailer of Rolex watches in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The St. Thomas shop is one of the largest in the Caribbean and is located on Charlotte Amalie's historic waterfront. Other sponsors are Mount Gay Rum and Bellows International.