Last weekend, more than 50 sailors competed in the the 16th annual Virgin Islands Dinghy Championships hosted by the Royal Virgin Islands Yacht Club.
On Saturday, racing started in the Sir Francis Drake Channel.
The regatta also included sailors competing in the Laser Radial and IC24 divisions. The Optimist Championship Fleet featured 29 boats, which completed 12 races throughout the regatta..
The Optimist Green Fleet, which had 12 sailors, completed a 16 races.
As marks were set by volunteers and members of the RBVIYC, Optimist took to the line.
Ultimately, Rayne Duff would win the regatta.
“I was really hoping to win this because it’s my last dinghy champs,” he said on Sunday. “I Just kept a clean head and saw what I did in the first race and I did pretty good so I was like, ‘okay, I can do this.’”
Mr. Duff scored 17 points and held off Mia Nicolosi, of St. Thomas, who has won the Dinghy Championships for two consecutive years.
“I just kept on getting consistently good results like seconds and my rival, Mia Nicolosi, would mess up and I would just keep going,” he said. “And that helped me get in the front in the beginning and then afterwards it was just keeping her behind me.”
The winner’s weight, compared to other sailors in the division, posed a challenge.
“I have to work the boat a lot more and it’s a lot more effort on my part to keep up with those kids,” Mr. Duff said.
Ms. Nicolosi managed to place second in the regatta and finished with 31 points despite receiving a black flag penalty.
“The first two races I had a really bad race and then I had the over so it was hard to recover from that,” she said. “But after that I got three bullets and then two seconds. That still didn’t put me in a good position because I had a 10 and an over.”
Adding that it was a challenge for her on Sunday being on top of the shifts.
“Rayne mostly had seconds and then a first and a third, so he just had to stay ahead of me so he tacked on me a bunch,” Ms.Nicolosi said. “And, before the last two races, we both knew our positions overall.”
During the weekend regatta, sailors would complete the first half of racing and sail back to their coaches’ boats in the water to discuss their performances and have lunch.
Weather conditions faired well during the event and sailors were able to complete all their races, while parents and spectators watched from shore or a handful of boats on the course.
In the Optimist Green Fleet, Sebastian Medina, of Puerto Rico took first place.
In the Laser Radial Division, Daniel Smit, of Antigua, was the overall winner.
IC24s sailors raced only one-day, with Richard Wooldridge and crew taking first place aboard RIP.
At the awards ceremony, the 2017 VIODA Triple Crown winners were announced. The event included the Crucian Open in February, the VIODA Regatta in April and the most recent VI Dinghy Championships
First place went to Caroline Sibilly, of St. Thomas, while Jose Arturo Diaz, of Puerto Rico, took second place and Katherine Majette, of St. Thomas, took third.
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