Mount Gay Race Day Showcases Best of BVI Racing

Tight Racing Across All Classes on Day 1 BVI Spring Regatta

A sea of red hats honouring Mount Gay Race Day and a good breeze made a great start to day 1 in the 53^rd edition of the BVI Spring Regatta & Sailing Festival. Racing got underway around 10am in 15+ knots and favourable sea conditions for all fleets. Impressive starts especially in the performance multihull and bareboat fleets highlighted the talent present this week, with port starboard tacks off the line and clean racing. The Diam 24s enjoyed tight racing showcasing their agility and speed on downwind legs; light swell and chop made it playful on the Sol racecourse for some added some challenge.

In CSA Spinnaker, the J105 Kairos owned by Antolin Velasco sits in first with 7.5 pts, while Freelance, the J100 owned by Juan Jose Mari, and Apollo, the J121 owned/skippered by Don Nicholson are in 2^nd and 3^rd respectively after Freelance scored a bullet in the third and final race of the day. Helming today on Kairos was Carlos Ruiz who is from Puerto Rico and resides in Brazil; it was his first time racing in many years and he has not raced a J105 previously.

“First, the weather was fantastic, we had good up wind speed although the wind was shifty,” Ruiz says. “The courses were pretty well set up so there was not really one favourite side of the course. We never had a good start but we managed to catch up on the first couple of tacks and stay ahead of the group for the rest of the race in the first two races. In the last race, we had a terrible start, and we had to do a 360 to recover and that put us back, then we tried to gamble our way with a different idea which didn’t pay off. But we had fantastic racing and we’re hoping for at least 12 to 15 knots tomorrow from the same direction!” 

A close performance today by the top four boats in Performance Multihull with the TF10 Thunder and Lightning leading the fleet with a bullet and a second place today. Layla, the Gunboat 72, Sophia, the Nigel Arens 63, and the DNA F4 Falcon ended the day with 6 points each; Layla took second after taking a bullet in the second and final race of the day while Sophia took a second in the first race, leaving Falcon who scored two third places in fourth. Two-time America’s Cup winner Shannon Falcone is racing this week on the unique foiling catamaran now owned by Matteo Uliassi.

“We did the Med season last year and at the end of the season, I told Matteo that he should take the boat to the Caribbean where there are good conditions; we raced in St Martin and Antigua and now we’re here,” Falcone smiles. “I think he’s enjoying himself because the conditions are great here. It was a little light for what we like today, but luckily the work we did last season to our light air sail inventory has meant that we can compete against the bigger guys. It’s fun sailing in this fleet; they all push their boats and we are appreciative of the fact that they let us race with them.”

It was another top day for this all-local fleet racing in Sport Multihull with Barney Crook on his Corsair 31-1D Airgasm leading the charge and finishing the day with two bullets and a second. Chris Haycraft is racing Ting-A-Ling II, a Corsair F 31 and sits in second, while the father-daughter team Eddie and Ashley Brockbank are in third sailing their Corsair Sprint 750 Lucky 7. 

Chartered by Pike Severance, the ORC 57 Avel Vaez took first in Cruising Multihull class today but not without La Novia, owned and skippered by Georges Coutu, hot on their tail. Both boats finished with three points, however Avel Vaez finished the second race with a bullet. Following an amazing experience racing BVI Spring Regatta last year on Kinship, a Baltic 52 – they won the Performance Cruising A class – Severance just had to come back.

“We had a great time last year on Kinship, we had a lot of fun so I chartered the boat this year and we’re back here down here to have some fun,” Severance says. “We had great races and a lot of fun around the island. It’s a beautiful setting and we’re just happy to be here. Racing a multihull is a learning curve; there are a lot of things we thought we were doing right, and we weren’t, and we had to course correct and figure some stuff out, but it was still fun. I’m really glad we have this opportunity and I can’t take credit for all of this because we have a great crew. I’m just really happy to be here.”

In CSA Performance Cruising, once again, Panacea X skippered by Benjamin Daniel swept the day with two bullets. Fourteen-year-old Aerin Westlake, a junior Opti sailor from Tortola, with her local knowledge and racing skills helped score the win aboard the Salona 45. While she says her role on Panacea is rail meat, this week she’s also been trimming the kite sometimes.

“It was an amazing opportunity to race today and I’m looking forward to the next couple days,” Westlake says. “It’s a super friendly group and you really have to be a team, which it is. Our win today was definitely persevering before the race and really understanding where the wind was coming from. Our first start was amazing; we were on the right side of the line that we wanted to be and we were on the line at the gun, and same with our second start. Just being in tune as a team and communication skills got us to the bullets today.”

In Bareboat 1 – the Sunsail 46 Shore Thing raced by Team RiteWay is in first place after crushing the fleet to finish with two bullets. Dan McGanty and his crew on the Moorings 46 Roaz and the Salish Sisters on a Moorings 46 helmed by Kelly Wharton both finished with five points; Roaz finished the second race with two points to take second, with Salish Sisters finishing the day in third. Racing with a local crew, skipper Colm Crilly has been bringing his team along since their first BVI Spring Regatta event three years ago.

“Thankfully we’re improving!” Crilly laughs. “We’ve got the basics of the same group, but we’re changing the crew every day and it’s going fantastic. We didn’t expect these results and we are just so happy. The starts have been amazing, everybody’s on the line at the gun, and it just gets very tactical, you’ve got to be on it to win it. Conditions were tricky with wind shifts all over the place but the wind was consistent; you just needed to pick your lines and go for it. It was fantastic. I have another great crew tomorrow for another great day; the boat is sponsored by RiteWay and we’re bringing local businesses on board and our staff as well so everybody gets a chance, everybody goes away having learned something and it’s just a great thing.”

In Bareboat 2, the same boats continue to battle for the top three positions: Charlie Garrard sailing with his team from Marblehead, Mass, leads the pack on board the Dufour 41 Topaz taking two bullets today while Steve DeNure and Olympian Terry McLaughlin sailing on Mistral, a Dufour 41, are in second. Rich Brew on Stingray, a Dufour 44 sits in third. 

In CSA Non-Spinnaker, the Beneteau First 40 Libertas, over-flowing with local talent, continues her winning streak taking two bullets, while the J39 Crystal, owned and skippered by Jerome O’Neill is in second. Sandy Mair on his Beneteau First 35 Cricket sits in third.

“We had an excellent first start, then I got a little bit behind on the windward leg,” O’Neill says. “We caught up to our main competitor Libertas and passed him on a downwind leg – we made our time boat to boat but we didn’t make up the time that we owed them -I think we lost by like 50 seconds on corrected so that’s not too bad. I think we needed to improve our trim on the upwind because we were overpowered at the beginning and were having difficulties. Today was the first day we sailed with this newer mainsail which makes a difference. I screwed up on the second start by fiddling around with Libertas who pushed us over the line, and then we stalled out the boat. We’re a new crew and we had a good time so we’re happy!”

Join us for another epic day at the BVI Spring Regatta on Saturday!