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Caribbean
Fleet Readies for Battle - International Rolex Regatta,
St.Thomas, US Virgin Island
Date Posted: March 28, 2008.
At the St. Thomas Yacht Club today, positive energy blended
splendidly with the excitement surrounding preparations for
the 35th running of the International Rolex Regatta. The
three-day event starts tomorrow, offering handicap and
one-design racing for 90 boats and hundreds of sailors, who
are giving two thumbs up to some new twists. First, the
regatta has taken a lead in offering IRC racing, since the
popularity of that rating rule has grown rapidly in Europe
and North America and is now catching on in the Caribbean.
Second, the event is the first part of Virgin Islands Race
Week, which combines the International Rolex Regatta scores
with those from next week's BVI Spring Regatta to determine
winners in a series that unites two Caribbean nations.
"It's a good IRC turnout," said John Munns (Ipswich,
Suffolk, UK) about the 12 IRC boats split into two classes.
Munns, who is the navigator and captain aboard Richard
Matthews' Oystercatcher XXVI, further explained that in the
past the only option was to sail under the CSA, or
"Caribbean Rule." "Richard, with his previous
Oystercatchers, has sailed here many times under CSA," he
said, "but this boat was purpose-built for IRC. We have won
several notable events in the UK in the year since the boat
was launched, but we came here for more competition. We also
have a CSA rating, but IRC is a better rating for us." Munns
then laughed: "But technically we're not in a position to
argue, because we just won (in CSA racing) at the Heineken
Regatta."
Up against Oystercatcher XXVI will be someone who has proven
himself many times over at this regatta: Clive Llewellyn
(Paris, France), with his Judel/Vrolik 49 Mad IV. At the
same time, OnDeck, a St. Thomas company that offers racing
yacht charters, has entered one of its Farr 40s with a
partially supplied crew. It will be skippered by St.
Thomas's America's Cup veteran and Olympic Medalist Peter
Holmberg, who is rounding out the crew with Sailing World
editor Stuart Streuli and local talent Maurice Korg, Ben
Beer, brother John Holmberg and Dean Coles.
Perennial competitors Bill Alcott, owner of the Andrews 68
Equation and Jim Muldoon, owner of the custom 72 Donnybrook,
also are sailing IRC and will face formidable competition
from the likes of Norbert Plambeck's (Cuxhaven, Germany)
Frers 80 Hexe, Sam Fleets (East Greenwich, R.I.) Swan
601Aquarius and Ron O'Hanley's (Ipswich, Mass.)
Farr-designed Cookson 50 Privateer, which sports the only
canting keel here at the regatta and may bode well for the
brisk breezes forecast for the next few days. "It means that
in high winds, we've got a lot of stability and we can be
full-on with our sails," said the boats captain Ian
Henderson (Newport, R.I.), explaining that others in those
conditions would have to shorten sail.
Highlighting the CSA division in Spinnaker Racing 2 class
will be the BVI's Guy Eldridge aboard his Beneteau First
Luxury Girl. Having won this regatta in 2005 on a Melges 24,
Eldridge is already turning in winning performances with
this new boat. Crewing with him are two Olympians from the
UK, Barry and Sue Parkin.
In Spinnaker Racing 1 will be Caccia Ala Volpe, the
Vallicelli 44 owned by Carlo Falcone (Antigua). "We are best
in the windward/leeward racing," said Falcone, adding that
some boats with asymmetrical spinnakers fare better than his
on reaching legs through the islands.
The regatta kicks off on Friday with an all-classes distance
race, along the south side of St. Thomas and finishing
inside Charlotte Amalie Harbor, in the shadows of the cruise
ships, creating a colorful spectacle for spectators. The
fleet will then restart for a second race, reversing course
back to the East End. Saturday will be the make-or-break
day, with multiple around-the-buoys races taking place on
the Ocean circle for two IRC classes, two Spinnaker Racing
classes and a class each for Non-Spinnaker Racing and Beach
Cats. On the Jersey Bay circle, plotted closer to shore, the
IC24 one-design class will compete in back-to-back races, as
many as can be fit in. To top things off, on Sunday, a
middle-distance race in Pillsbury Sound will provide more
incredible vistas and a challenging course for the racers,
while the IC24s continue their non-stop windward-leeward
competition.
Enrique Figueroa (San Juan, PR), who is sailing the 20-foot
Tornado DRD/Suzuki/Red Bull in the 17-boat Beach Cat class
and has been coming to the Rolex Regatta since 1979, winning
it more times than he can count, may have competition from a
new sherriff in town. That would be Gringo Starr, sailed by
John Casey (Orlando, Fla.), the U.S. Mulithull Champion who
has won the Tybee 500 three times. "I've got plenty of time
on the ocean, just not here," said Casey, who is new to
Caribbean racing. "Enrique has a 57 rating (Portsmouth Rule
for Beach Cats) and we have a 59, so we owe them time." The
result should be that Casey will be the first to finish in
the races, but Figueroa has proven time and again that his
blazing speed rewrites the theory of rules.
