Round Tortola for the Nanny Cay Cup goes to Apollo and Airgasm

The beauty of racing in and around the BVI is that the plethora of stunning islands offer natural marks and turning points which ease the load on the race committee when course changes are required. Lighter than forecasted winds for the majority of the day prompted the BVI Spring Regatta & Sailing Festival Race Committee to modify courses for the fleet setting out this morning on the Round Tortola Race for the Nanny Cay Cup. 

All starts and finishes were off Nanny Cay; CSA Multihull kept to the traditional Round Tortola course, while Cruising Multihull and Bareboat classes sailed to Dead Chest, Peter Island, and Flanagan Island, and the Non-Spinnaker / Performance Cruising boats sailed to Dead Chest and Little Thatch. 

The grand prize for the day – the Nanny Cay Cup – was awarded to both the J121 Apollo owned and helmed by Don Nicholson racing in the CSA Racing Spinnaker (monohull) class, and to local Tortola sailor Barney Crook who sailed his Corsair 31-1D Airgasm to first place in CSA Sport Multihull.

Following on from their Scrub Island win yesterday, the team on Apollo relished the challenge that they encountered among the top three in their class today. On corrected time, Apollo finished just two minutes and nine seconds ahead of Panacea X, the Salona 45 skippered by Canadian Benjamin Daniel. The Club Swan 42 Lady M took third on corrected time but not without a fierce battle with Apollo to the finish. Nicholson’s fast J121 missed BVI Spring Regatta last year due to a collision at the STIR regatta the prior week which left the boat with a lot of damage. A refit was performed which took almost all year so his crew is just now getting a feel for the boat with its new repairs and modifications which included removing a water ballast system lightening the boat some 1,200 pounds. Nicholson also added some bigger asymmetrics to the sail inventory. The boat was re-measured and they took the penalty for the modifications but Nicholson says the changes, both in upwind and downwind performance have been worth that penalty.

“The modifications really paid off for us as we’re seeing on the water – we had a great time out there today, it was fabulous,” he smiles. “Coming off the Scrub Island win, we’re on fire here in the BVI although we actually had a terrible start. We were one of three boats over early – my crew are laughing because of course the helmsman’s always at fault there! But three over early boats ended up in the top three; we all started poorly but the wonderful thing about a distance race is that you shake that off, put the pedal down and do everything you can. We were with Lady M, the Swan 42, match-racing almost the entire course, and they just got past us at the very end. We were proud that we could stay with them right to the end coming up the last beat to Nanny Cay, it was match-racing tack for tack all the way to the finish. Conditions were about as good as it gets, albeit a little light on the back end of Tortola. Our boat really kicks in at 10 knots+ and the sea conditions were very benign for a long race which allowed us to focus on boat handling.”

A long-time favourite in the BVI Spring Regatta & Sailing Festival, the Round Tortola Race is especially beloved by local sailors who not only know the courses intimately but they relish any opportunity to go up against good friends. While no records were broken today – the official fastest elapsed time stands at 1:57:16, a record held by Fujin, the Bieker 53 catamaran set in 2019 – the thrill of the challenge was no less, and the competition, especially among the local fleet as ferocious as ever. 

“It’s very true that Round Tortola has become a classic BVI race,” Chris Haycraft, Regatta Chairman, notes. “We run it in October as well, as part of the club series and there are certain bragging rights that go with it. We brought it into Spring Regatta about 25 years ago and it stayed. Everyone loves it; I chatted with the guys off Sophia after racing today and they loved it. Round Tortola for the Nanny Cay Cup is here to stay as long as there is wind!”

Sophia, the stunningly fast Nigel Irens 63 owned and helmed by Marcos Sirota, corrected out by just five seconds over Haycraft racing his Corsair F31 Ting-A-Ling II, to finish second. 

“Today was probably one of the best races we have ever had because of the flat water which, outside of the BVI, doesn’t seem to exist anywhere else!” Sirota smiles. “I think we did 24 knots on the other side of the island which we didn’t expect so it was good wind for us at least. We didn’t follow an exact strategy; we were just spotting where the wind was and managed to go through the troughs easily. I have an incredibly professional crew – I don’t do anything but sit and drive – they even tell me where to drive! The boat is an absolute joy and it’s fantastic being here for the first time with the boat in the BVI.”

In CSA Non-Spinnaker / Performance Cruising, the local crew on Libertas, a Beneteau First 40, took first while Harry Bowerman racing on a chartered IC24 with his mum, dad and brother took second, quite the feat given that the family have never sailed together. 

“We had a really great race, the conditions were perfect for the boat and we were really pleased with our performance,” Bowerman smiles. “I live in the BVI but the rest of the family are out visiting from the UK. We chartered the boat and borrowed sails from Richard Wooldridge who owns Triple Jack; it’s actually a great boat!” 

Libertas is no stranger to the BVI Spring Regatta podium and with a mainly Tortola-based crew, the home-town advantage played out well for them on today’s distance race.

“We have an amazing crew who did a great job; today the win goes to the crew,” skipper Kevin Wrigley says. “It was a great day to warm up and get all the little kinks worked out for later in the week. The Round Tortola is usually such an epic race, and as we all live here, we love the race. This morning, when the breeze was up, we were a little bit upset that we had a course change, but it turns out the race committee did an amazing job and made the right call for our division.”

Leading the fleet once again in CSA Cruising Multihull, the Leopard 50 La Novia owned and helmed by Georges Coutu from the Dominican Republic.

“We have done Round Tortola four times now but with no wind it would have been very painful!” Coutu smiles. “The race committee definitely made the right decision. We had a nice race, the water was beautiful and we actually found good breeze on our course – 15 knots. We were with Little Wing just 100 feet from each other at the first island, then they got away and we split. We went on the south side of Norman and they went on the north side; when we reached together, we had about the same distance, they had gained only about 1000 feet on us. They are a good challenge for us.”

Charlie Garrard and his crew from Marblehead, Mass, took first on Topaz in tight racing at the top of the CSA Bareboat fleet, finishing with just minutes between them, second place Mistral and third place Stingray.

“We awarded DOTD (Dick of the Day) last night for someone on our boat who used our painkiller mix instead of water to make coffee, which resulted in us starting a little late at the boat end,” Garrard explains. “We went right and felt all alone stuck out to the right while the rest of the fleet favoured the middle left. But it all worked out in the end. We were thankful not to be making that long downwind leg behind Tortola staring at the Windex and begging for a rain shower to take away the sun. We liked the short course but missed the short tacking up through Soper’s Hole. We had a fun downwind leg trying to hang on to Stingray’s tail and ended the day back on our mooring enjoying a painkiller made with coffee.”

It was disappointing for a few boats today who were unable to finish due to equipment failures including Jim Gibson, from Newport, Rhode Island, on his 33’ F10 foiling trimaran Thunder & Lighting. Gibson had an epic start in CSA Multihull division, port tacking the entire fleet off the start and taking a quick lead. But they didn’t make it as far as Beef Island before their jib broke. “It was setting up to be a good day for us today but we’ll get the repair done and be back for the Regatta,” Gibson assures. An issue with a support beam between the port ama and centre hull prompted the legendary Kelsall 47 Triple Jack to retire, as did an incident in CSA Racing Spinnaker class which forced the Volvo 70 Monster Project to retire. Following Thursday’s well-deserved lay day, the main show begins on Friday March 27: the 53^rd BVI Spring Regatta.