Bareboat Racing in the BVI Spring Regatta & Sailing Festival – Familiar faces return for the best week ever, part III

Chartering two boats this year, including a Sunsail 41 for his racing crew, Ben Sampson’s been a visitor to the BVI for 30 years and for the past ten years he has raced BVI Spring Regatta & Sailing Festival. He returns with his group of characters who call themselves Team Poulet Peeps – full disclosure, Ben was once a chicken farmer. Team Poulet Peeps, who will be clearly recognized around Nanny Cay Resort and Marina wearing team tee-shirts emblazoned with chickens, are a group of long-time family friends from the Pittsburgh, PA area.

At 79 years old, Sampson is more like a captain emeritus; he prefers to manage his sailing group and enjoy the racing from a chartered catamaran which serves as the team mother ship. His racing team won the Scrub Island Invitational race, then were plagued with some mechanical issues but that’s the way it is with sailing, Sampson notes nonchalantly.

Sampson’s been sailing for some 60 years having learned to sail on FJs (Flying Juniors) as a kid at a YMCA camp on the Chesapeake Bay where he worked in the summers. Today he keeps an Island Packet cruising boat in the Chesapeake which he has sailed to the BVI in past years. On his early trips to the BVI Sampson learned about racing boats from former Tortola resident and sailor Julian Putley, a friendship that has grown strong over the years; Putley’s son Jason will again be the captain and helmsman for Sampson’s team.

“We have about 12-14 people who come down, maybe 6-7 of them race and the rest of us stay on the cat we charter; I’m usually mostly interested in where we have dinner on a given night,” Sampson smiles. “Last year were probably the toughest conditions I have seen in the regatta and just finishing it was a challenge – I don’t need to get incapacitated at my age! The camaraderie with the crew is always fun between the catamaran crew and the racing crew – where we had lunch and went snorkeling that day versus the racing crew risking life and limb in big breeze,” he laughs.

Crew Nicole Nicolette, who organizes the travel arrangements and books the boats, says she’s typically not a sailor other than participating in BVI Spring Regatta last year for the first time after Sampson invited her to join the team.

“I’m a learning in process crew member – they throw me where I am needed,” Nicolette says good humoredly. “I have mostly enjoyed the excitement and the adrenalin that comes along with it. Last year the weather put an unexpected twist into the racing – it was really cool being out there dealing with the weather and the race, being in the moment with it. It’s a great environment for learning – I’ve learned about what the terms refer to, what happens in different scenarios, when you pull back, when you let go, but I’m still not tending towards any particular position on the boat.”

Nicolette, recalling the BVISR fun she had last year, adds, “The sailing festival itself, the atmosphere is electric with people from all different parts of the world sailing. Everyone is there for a common reason which is just great.”