2023 Pure Grenada Sailing Week - Day 2
by Grenada Sailing Week 1 Feb 2023 22:59 AEDT
29 January - 3 February 2023
2023 Pure Grenada Sailing Week - Day 2 © Tim Wright /
www.photoaction.com
Tyrell Bay once again bustled with boats today as crews prepared their sails for the second race day of the 2023 Pure Grenada Sailing Week, and another day of light northeasterlies.
A new day and a new course would take the entire regatta fleet 32 nautical miles from Tyrell Bay, Carriacou, to Le Phare Bleu Marina, Grenada.
Repeating the previous day's start time and order, the Simplified class were up first, and once again the 1966 Morgan 34, Sea Swan, was first over the start line. The Multihull class followed the Outremer 45 Delphine across the line, and the start of the Classics saw Mathew Barker's The Blue Peter take a slight lead over Mah Jong. Two more Classics, Glacier and Cherub appeared on the water late but happily made it through the gate with time to spare.
CSA 2, the largest class this year with 11 boats, had the most exciting start of the regatta so far as they jockeyed for position and converged on the start line as the final horn blew. Right-of-way-reminders were called out and this race reporter got so caught up in the action she wasn't able to discern who was first through. Luckily, regatta videographer Arthur Daniels had a drone in the air and caught the excitement on video, in footage that is highly anticipated.
Today's CSA 1 class leader across the line was GFA Caraibes - La Morrigaine, and with that they were off to the races.
It wasn't long before spinnakers were up and boats were past Carriacou's southern tip and into the 14 nautical-mile stretch of open ocean between Carriacou and Grenada. All but one passed outside Grenada's offshore islands before the 16 nautical-mile downwind run along Grenada's windward coast and around to the island's southern shore.
Maisons Satec, a Farr 40, once again took line honors with an elapsed time of 3:57:14, followed by Richard Szyjan's Category 5 and then Sang Neuf.
Wind grew increasingly lighter as the bulk of the fleet finished, with the last boats trickling into the bay around 4pm. The weary sailors were greeted to cold drinks and a BBQ on the lawn at Le Phare Bleu Marina while results were calculated. The first, and hopefully only, protest of the regatta was filed against Category 5, the local favorite, for making a course error by passing inside one of Grenada's offshore islands, which shaved significant time off their track. The resulting disqualification left the CSA 1 leaderboard open for Terrien Jean Francois's Sang Neuf to place first, once again followed closely (by two minutes of corrected time) by the Surprise Archambault, GFA Caraibes - La Morrigaine.
Robbie Yearwood's Spirit of Everest placed first in the Multihulls class again today, and it was no surprise to see Mark Chapman's Dingolay take first in CSA 2. The Simplified class had a new winner as Bronwen McKiever's Sea Swan beat her much larger rivals to take first place. The Classics did, however, hold a bigger surprise, as the underdog of the group, the locally-built Carriacou sloop Glacier, owned by traditional boat builder Benson Patrice, beat out both the Yawl 52, Mah Jong, and Matthew Barker's The Blue Peter.