The 34th Sweethearts of the Caribbean and the 30th Classics Regatta was hailed a success by organisers with 44 boats sailing in the annual West End Yacht Club event.

The two-day regatta is staged at the Jolly Roger Inn in West End. It has become the second largest regatta in the Virgin Islands and hosts many visiting sailors competing aboard “classics,” according to organisers.

For the past 30 years, the WEYC has defined a “classic” as “any boat of a design 30 or more years old.”

“Back in 1978 when the WEYC was formed there were few high-tech boats and classic meant an old ‘woody,’” WEYC Commodore Martin van Houten said. “But today this simple definition now includes not only the gnarly wooden boats of yesteryear but  some of the great cruising and racing designs of the 70s and 80s.”

Saturday’s forecast of six knots led to the course being shortened for the single-handed sailors and schooners for a frustrating cruise around Sandy Cay. Patience was needed to make the boats move along in the wind zephyrs. Four boats made it “ghosting to the finish line” in Sopers Hole by the 5 p.m. time limit. The schooner Heron justified her position by reclaiming the Spirit of the Sweethearts trophy as the first schooner to finish. The one-design squib class was sailed by four young crews from the BVI Watersports Centre, who completed two races around Little Thatch with close finishes.

After the award ceremony at the Jolly Roger the party started and continued through the night.

On Sunday winds were forecasted to exceed 15 knots and the race committee set a course around Pelican, Flanagan and Little Thatch for five different class starts. From 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. the West End silence was interrupted with the yacht club’s  “new” air horn, recovered from an old sunken schooner. The Kahlenberg copper dual horn has been dated from its serial number circa 1910, according to organisers.

All three “working” Tortola sloops manned by three or four youth sailors (there was an adult somewhere there in the bilges as well) made an appearance.

“Kudos to the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College for maintaining these pieces of living BVI History,” said a WEYC statement. “With such a resurgence of interest we hope soon to see the oldest sloop Vigilant back in the waters she plied two centuries ago. Built in 1880 and preserved at the college, she will need all the TLC that Curator Geoffrey Brooks can muster, to bring her back to sailing condition.”

The regatta features a wide range of boats including sloops like the modified 10-metre Diva, designs from J boats, Santa Cruz, Morgan, Pierson, C&C, Tartan, yawls and ketches and even Beneteaus and a catamaran.  

“Fortunately there exists a data base of ratings called the Performance Handicap Racing Formula, which provides a judicious method of dealing with this incredible diversity — most of the time,” said the WEYC statement. “But then again this provides fertile cause for more rum debate at the bar over one’s ‘poor’ rating.”

 

 

Results:
Single Handers:
1. Cayennita Grande, Tony Sanpere
2. Diva, Robin Tattersall
3. Molto Bene, Richard Ewing

One Design:
1. Hope , Joseph Wells/Delroy Gordon/Mareq Romney

Island Sloops:
1. Youth Instructor, Sam Morrel

Classics 25 to 34 feet:
1. Zing, George Stuckert
2. O’dege, Sara O’Neil

Classics 34 to 45 feet:
1. Diva, Robin Tattersall
2. Reba, Jon Charlton

Classics 45 to 60 feet:
1. Castanet, John Ford
2. Ginger, Bruce Fletcher

Wannabe:
1. Hotel California Too, Steve Schmidt

Couples:
1. Latitude 18, Giles Wood