On Sunday, the 44th annual BVI Spring Regatta wrapped up with an award ceremony on the beach at Nanny Cay.
“It was great sailing; beautiful weather and amazing people,” Ryan said.
The 15-year-old said he has been sailing on Triple Jack all of his life and learned the sport from his dad. However, his mom also played a part with exposing him to sailing.
“My mom was on this boat while she was pregnant,” Ryan said. “I have been on this boat before I was born.”
Ryan started sailing an Optimist when he was 6 years old and has represented the territory at various international regattas.
His father was proud of his son who helped bag the BVI Best Boat award.
“This means I can have a bit of a rest,” Mr. Wooldridge said, who is normally at the helm of Triple Jack. “The teenagers are taking over the boat and that is what we need.”
Ryan said he was a “bit surprised” that he won the award.
“There was some great boats out there,” he said. “The competition was stiff.”
On Tuesday, Triple Jack took line honours in the Round Tortola race, which is part of the BVI Sailing Festival.
“We beat the hottest boat in the BVI Spring Regatta on corrected and elapsed times,” Mr. Wooldridge said. “We felt like that was a defining moment for us. We beat the multi-million-dollar boys and we think that shook them a bit. Unfortunately, we don’t race against them in the regatta proper.”
Triple Jack won all of its six races during the regatta.
The father and son duo said they are now looking forward to the next regatta, which will most likely be a race to Anegada.
“Whatever comes next, I will be there,” Ryan said.
Several Virgin Islands crews took top spots in the regatta, especially in the Jib and Main Class, which was dominated by Tortola sailors. Keith LiGreci’s Girasoli scored no lower than second place in the eight-race series to take first place, while Robin Tattersall’s Diva won the last race, but came second by just three points and Bill Bailey’s Second Nature took third.
“It’s the crew, it’s always the crew,” said Mr. LiGreci. “The win is all down to the crew. I don’t have to do anything on the boat. They all know what to do, they do their jobs and they do them well and the boat goes fast. That’s all, it’s simple. These guys are almost professionals, I consider them pros. I like to cruise my boat and I like to push it to its limits and see what it can do. I want to push myself, the boat and the crew, and they respond superbly. They really do and it makes me a happy camper.”
Another successful VI sailor was Colin Rathbun aboard Tortola Express, who won the IC24 Class for the second consecutive year.
“It is all down to teamwork,” Mr. Rathbun said. “Manoeuvres have to be slick in one-design racing. One bad tack or mark rounding and you are history and I love racing with these guys — it is a lot of fun. Saturday was a great day for us with straight wins and that really set us up for a conservative approach today. We didn’t need to push hard at the starts, we knew that if we made top three then we would win the regatta, and to be honest that is how it has been all week.”
In Racing 3, the top three spots went to VI boats. Windemon took first followed by Pipedream and Rushin Rowlette.
“This year, the regatta was interesting because we had a mixture of conditions,” said Windemon skipper and owner Dave Clasen. “We really struggled in the first race, but we just stuck with it and ended up with a second-place finish in the first race. Again, it was different conditions [on Sunday]; it was much lighter which was also challenging for us, but we had a little margin and we came out and sailed very well again and we are pretty happy with our results.The race committee did an awesome job like always. They set challenging courses and it’s a very difficult regatta with many different conditions and types of courses.”
The BVISR featured more than 70 boats in 13 classes over three days of sailing in the Sir Francis Drake Channel. Organisers said the numbers were slightly down, but the “level of competition was very high,” which included Olympic and America’s Cup sailors.
“We may not have had quantity, but we did have quality racers,” BVISR Director Judy Petz said.
All told, there were only two protests during the regatta.
In the Racing 1 Class, the top two boats had Olympic sailors on board, including Spookie’s tactician Peter Holmberg, who won the Guy Eldridge Award for true Spirit and Enthusiasm, for contributions to sailing in the region. However, Spookie had to settle for second place behind Team Varg, which also had several top sailors on board.
“If you has asked me if we could win before the start of this regatta, I would have said, ‘no.’ My ambition was to just figure out how to steer the boat without hitting anything expensive,” said Team Varg helmsman Ola Hox. “I am really surprised, but Team Varg has an Olympic gold medalist and many World Champions racing, so it is a really good team. The crew have been pushing me really hard, right to my limit and a bit beyond. This has been a fabulous regatta, the venue is fantastic, but I have been focusing on driving and not really looking at the scenery. However, next time I will look around. I will definitely be back.”
RESULTS
Jib and Main 1
1. Nai’a
2. Hotel California Too
3. Island Girl
4. Freedom of Hamble
5. Avanti
6. Boonasta
7. Porthmeor
8. Sea Pearl
9. Recess
Jib and Main 2
1. Girasoli
2. Diva
3. Second Nature
4. Wicked Winch
5. Denny’s Delight
6. Nauticayenne
Bareboat 1
1. Team Merlin
2. Sapphire Dancer
3. Teranga
4. Blue Dog
5. Caribbean Soul
6. L’attitude II
7. Tiger Pause
8. Sail Montana
9. Gris Gris
10. Maitland Chambers
11. Northern Stormers
Bareboat 2
1. Ghalazo 2
2. Bonjour Matelot
3. Lazy Daze
4. Sapphire
5. Olive
6. Energetiki
IC24
1. Tortola Express
2. Bill T
3. CYM/INTAC
4. Island Water World Racing
5. Lord Charlton
6. Ocean Potion
7. Boat Drinks
8. Roosta
Melges 32
1. Soca
2. Smile and Wave
3. Lazy Dog
4. Kick ‘em Jenny 2
5. Big Trouble
Racing 1
1. Team Varg
2. Spookie
3. Black Pearl
4. Dingo
5. Taz
Racing 2
1. Team McFly/ El Ocaso
2. Southern Child
3. Dunder
4. Better Than
5. White Rhino
6. Team Boston
7. Spike
8. Wild Devil
9. Sunset Child
Racing 3
1. Windemon
2. Pipedream
3. Rushin Rowlette
4. Boogaloo
5. Solstice
6. Boomerang
7. Zarafa
8. El Shaddai II
9. Magnificent 7
Performance Cruising
1. Scarlet Oyster
2. Shine
3. Northern Child
Performance Cruising
1. Paladin
2. Beluga
Multihull 1
1. Triple Jack
2. Piglet
3. Bobby Dazzler
Multihull 2
1. Escapade
2. Archer
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