Page 14 - ARUBA TODAY

A14 LOCAL
Thursday 20 april 2017
Relatively Smooth Sailing at Les Voiles de St. Barth

ST. BARTH - After three days Peter Corrs, Owner/Driver
of tight competition on the “We got three bullets last
waters off the French West year and another three
Indies island of St. Barth, this year at Les Voiles de
many of the teams racing St. Barth. Coming back
in Les Voiles de St. Barth here and doing this well is
headed into the final day fantastic. I think our team
on Saturday with the hopes sailed even better this year.
of either dismounting class Our team is so good, and
leaders or fending off com- I’m always excited to com-
petitors that were climbing pete here. It’s a great way
up in the rankings. How- to end our Caribbean sea-
ever, due to lack of wind son.”
the Race Committee was
forced to make the difficult CSA 4 Winner: Pasco’s Jag-
decision to cancel the final uar
day of racing. Neverthe- Chris de Glanville, Owner
less, the eighth edition of “We got a third, a first and
the regatta didn’t disap- a second, so we managed
point, with a week of fun to keep the consistency at
and entertainment satisfy- the top. For us, the best day
ing sailors both on and off was Wednesday where
the water. In the end, win- there was good breeze
ners were crowned in all from last year, so it was very and we had a fabulous
nine classes. satisfying to win.” race, and we raced the
boat as well as we could
In Maxi 1, the competi- CSA 0 Winner: Sorcha have done. Basically we
tion was tight between the Phil Harmer, Backstay Trim- had a wonderful time; we
eight boats, but George mer really enjoyed it and would
Sakellaris’ Proteus shined “Les Voiles de St. Barth this love to come back, and
throughout the week, de- year has been a really cool that’s genuine. It has been
fending its 2016 class win regatta. We’ve had lighter a different experience for
and finishing off the regat- wind than you normally get us because we tend to
ta with a solid three-point here but that suits the TP52 just sail windward-leeward
lead over second-place style of boat. It has been races at home, but this was
finisher Prospector. Also, for great to have the owner very different and quite
overall best performance Peter Harrison* racing here challenging at times.”
among all Maxis compet- for a few years and be rep-
ing, Sakellaris took home resenting the title sponsor Melges 24 Winner: Team Is-
the regatta’s most coveted and great for us to win for “We’re very excited to Sir Richard Matthews, Own- land Water World
prize, the Richard Mille 60- Richard Mille watches and place like we did. This is my er Frits Bus, Owner/Driver
01 Regatta Flyback Chro- for Peter who is always try- first time winning any type “This week, we had a good “I’ve been a Melges 24
nograph timepiece. ing something new and al- of regatta, and I credit it sail on the first day with sailor for 20 years. We’ve
“We arrived here this week, ways wanting to fit in more toward our amazing team breeze, but the truth is, our been coming here every
knowing that it was going and more events. We love and Tommaso Chieffi, boat is quite slow in light air, year and have won a few
to be a super tough event it here and hopefully we’ll our tactician who’s sailed and yesterday we were the times and have broke our
like it always is here, with be back again next year.” in the Olympics and the slowest boat in our class for mast twice when we were
really high-caliber compe- *Harrison is CEO of Richard America’s Cup. Overall it sure, but out of desperation, winning so we have a little
tition in the maxi fleet, and Mille for Europe, the Middle was a fantastic week, with we tried something differ- bit of history here. This year
obviously we weren’t dis- East and Africa great racing and lots of fun ent and took a big chance it was nice to win again
appointed,” said Proteus off the water.” on the last leg. It was bet- and there was very good
Tactician Stu Bannatyne. “ CSA 1 Winner: Fortunata ter to be lucky than good competition from the other
A few different boats, have Kenneth Howery, Owner/ CSA 2 Winner: Oystercatch- on this occasion. Our tacti- islands. We come here to
strengths in different condi- Driver er XXX1 cian Saskia Clark, who has win and to have a great
time with friends and we
tions and we had to work a gold medal in the Olym-
pics and is the ISAF World did just that.”
really hard to get the results Sailor of the Year, was very
we did.” helpful in making the boat Multihull Winner: Fujin
point in the right direction, Greg Slyngstad, Owner/
Maxi 2 Class Winner: Wind- and we’re all very happy. Driver
fall
Ian Walker, Tactician It’s our first time in St. Barth “We love St. Barth so no
“It was great for us because and we really enjoyed the matter what happens in
last year we had damaged courses and sailing around the regatta we have a
the island. It’s a really great great time. Our boat does
the rigging after having
won one of the earlier rac- event, and I hope we have better when the wind
the opportunity to come blows. When the wind was
es so there was a bit of un-
finished business for Mike, back. We’re going away blowing this week we were
with a lot of good feelings out in front. When it was less
the owner of the boat. He
steered the majority of the about St. Barth and about windy like yesterday it was
difficult. It turned out great,
races and we had pretty sailing here.” we’ll be back, we had a
much the same team back
CSA 3 Winner: Blitz great time.”q