Team INTAC double victory at Rolex International Regatta

by Robert Jennings on 31 Mar 2011 BVI Based 'Team INTAC' Win’s both the CSA Spinnaker 1 and IC24 Racing Classes at the International Rolex Regatta.

Fresh after winning the St Maarten International Heineken Regatta, BVI based 'Team INTAC – M32' sailing their high performance Melges 32 race boat won top honors in CSA Spinnaker 1 Racing Class at the International Rolex Regatta in St Thomas. 'Team INTAC - IC24' also won a first place Rolex in the highly competitive IC24 class.

From the first day of the regatta, BVI’s Mark Plaxton and his 'Team INTAC – M32' established a lead over the past year’s winner, Budget Marine a Melges 24 from St Maarten, by achieving first and second in the two races held on Friday. On Sunday Team INTAC – M32 solidified the victory with back to back bullets in the final two races and having never scored worse than a second place over the entire regatta Team INTAC – M32 yielded an average race result of 1.5. CSA Spinnaker 1 is dubbed, 'the high performance racing class', and is fiercely competitive with some of the best sailors in the world duking it out on the race course. Second place went to Team Budget Marine from St Maarten and third place to BVI’s Team Jurakan.

Team INTAC – M32 consisted of: Mark Plaxton – Skipper, Ben Beer – Main Trimmer, Anthony Koutan- Tactician, Sam Rogers – Jib Trimmer, Mark Stephenson – Pit, Topher Kingsley-Williams – Foredeck, and Leslie Baehr – Float/Sewer.
INTAC President Tim Vermeulen stated, 'Again, we cannot be happier with the results our two racing teams have delivered, our firm is having a stellar year both in the investment markets and on the race course. We will continue our support of BVI sailing all the way.'

Team INTAC’s second Rolex won at the regatta this year was in the very competitive IC-24 one-design class, where William Bailey, skippered 'Team INTAC - IC24' to first place. The IC24 crew included 2010 College Sailor of the Year Thomas Barrows and Peter Stanton, who each represented the USVI at the 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games last summer. BVI’s Robert Jennings was spinnaker trimmer and Jenna Barnes was in pit. Even with a bad start in the first race on Sunday Team INTAC – IC24 calmly worked back to win handily, then continued with a string of finishes that were no worse than fourth place. The margin of victory was decisive, as the second-place finisher Fraito Lugo's Orion, out of Puerto Rico, was a full 24 points behind Team INTAC - IC24, followed by Soggy Dollar BVI, which was skippered by St. Thomian Chris Cuerreri.

BVI based Team INTAC has announced its intention to compete on the world circuit in 2011 starting on June 10th at the US National Championship held at the American Yacht Club in Rye NY followed by the North American Championships, Newport USA, the Northeast Regatta in Newport USA, and the Gold Cup hosted by Lauderdale Yacht Club, Florida, USA.

In 2012 Team INTAC will do the full race circuit in Europe, the Caribbean, and the USA leading up to the World Championships. Their strategic media partner is T2P Productions, the foremost media company in the yachting world guaranteeing maximum coverage and branding for accepted sponsors. ESPN is also covering the Team & Sponsors with the first segment airing in April. Interested companies are invited to contact INTAC by email mplaxton.intac(at)surfbvi.com for sponsorship opportunities; sponsors will be featured at the World’s most exclusive yachting events and through International Media Partners.