Cool shirts and a Fun Family Vibe = The Brew Family

With already two podium awards under their belt at their first BVI Spring Regatta & Sailing Festival, the Brews from Jacksonville, Florida are having a blast on Stingray, a Dufour 44 that they have chartered for the week. The Brews – Rich, Kim and their daughter Colleen have always wanted to do the BVI Spring Regatta and finally had the time this year to do it. They’re racing with a group of good friends who are also good sailors, and Colleen is the star of the show this week playing tactician.

At home the Brews have a number of boats which they play on: an old Hobie 33 which they have owned for years and enjoy racing. They also each have a Hobie 18 including their other daughter Shannon. Kim laughs, “Of course we race against each other in the 18s which is so much fun.”

They just bought a Beneteau 46 which they found in Grenada and sailed it home. Justifying the purchase of a cruiser racer, Colleen notes, “It’s hard to find that fine line between luxury and speed, and you always want to get somewhere, but at the same time, you know, you don’t want it to be stressful!”

Truly a boating family!

Rich and Kim met sailing so technically their daughters have been sailing their entire lives and more. Colleen sailed in college and competed in Thistle and J24 racing for a long time, jumping on boats which would fly her around to race. The first time she sailed in the BVI was some 29 years ago when Kim and Rich had chartered one of eight boats among a group of friends.

“We just played and it was just a lot of fun,” Kim says. “The girls were just two and five at the time. We didn’t do this regatta then because we didn’t know about it. We haven’t been back since but I don’t think it’s changed very much, it’s still a beautiful place, it’s what you want to come back to.”

Leading into BVI Spring Regatta with two podium finishes is a nice boost for the Brews who didn’t know what to expect of the competition this week.

“Obviously there are great sailors here, which is so cool. I love to see competitive sailing,” Colleen says. “It’s nice to see that people are still really enjoying the competition and not too concerned about what they’re racing on. You can tell a good sailor when they can sail a boat well no matter what it is!”

The Brews have set the bar high for the best-dressed team this week with outrageously colourful shirts for starters, and there is more to come, apparently.  

“We’re weeding out our friends from our non-friends!” Colleen, who is an engineer in her professional life, laughs. “We’re trying to keep it fun, we’re here to have a good time because we are all here using our PTO (paid time off) so this is our time to just enjoy ourselves. We love the competition, we take the sailing very seriously, but off the water, it is absolutely not serious!”