Tahiti Pearl Regatta warm up race

by Denis van den Brink on 17 May 2012 Tahiti Pearl Regatta ninth edition is currently underway. Today a nice and peaceful 'warm up' round off Uturoa, on the island of Raiatea, one of French Polynesia leeward islands, was held for 40 multihulls and monohulls.

Until next Sunday, over 250 yachtsmen and women, from eight different nations including Australia, the United States and Japan, will compete in three separate Classes (one multihull and two monohulls), on offshore and inshore races. Today’s race will not appear in the official ranking. The whole purpose of this 'warm up' was to let everyone including the race Committee get a little taste of what lies ahead, blazing sun, calm seas, gentle breeze… and breathtaking views.

Cook Islands Yachtsman Jason Gard, aboard Spirit, the only trimaran competing in the Multihull Class, will be hard to beat, no matter his heavy rating. The boat has shown tremendous speed upwind and downwind, and the level of concentration displayed by the crew all along the seven miles course shows how much the Cook sailors want to win this race.

The Tahiti Pearl Regatta is the fast growing event in this part of the Pacific and yachtsmen from eight Nations have come to enjoy some of the best sailing any yachtsman could ever dream of.

Frenchman Jean Pierre Basse is one of them. He's back to repeat last year’s success on board his Archambault 40 'L'Agathe'. The fast Joubert-Nivelt cruiser-racer loves the calm waters, steady breeze of the lagoons. She'll be hard to beat, even by the large fleet of 44 footers competing in his class.

More spectacular racing tomorrow with the much expected Raiata-Bora-Bora race, an astounding 27 miles course downwind towards one of the most renowned Tahiti Pearl Regatta website