The West End Yacht Club hosted its 35th annual Sweethearts Regatta last weekend at Nanny Cay.
The regatta featured schooners and classics racing around
Peter and Flanagan island and finishing back at Nanny Cay.
With winds gusting up to 26 knots on the first day, a fleet of four schooners and a dozen single handed sailors made short work of the 14-mile course.
Hotel California finished in one hour and 48 minutes, while the double ender Afrigan Queen sailed its own course with a time limit set for 5 p.m. Since the race was a pursuit, John Hayes’ catamaran Wildfire took line honours for first place in the Single Hander Division.
On the second day, the race committee utilised a Husky Salvage boat, a more stable platform, to avoid sea sickness.
Eighteen Classics and Wannabe Classics competed on a similar course followed by the Sweethearts Couples fleet of five boats.
The port side of the start line was favoured by the sailors due to a wind shift, which made for an interesting start, according to an organiser. But all the boats got started without an incident. However, the larger 45- to 60-foot classics started 10 minutes later and most did not notice the wind shift and approached on the starboard side. The early boats found it difficult to lay the line, and tacked to a vulnerable port position. Mah Jong made a timely and fast starboard start tight on the committee boat, which found Ginger in a vulnerable, slow port position on the line.
“To the credit of both skippers the ensuing nautical ballet had Mah Jong tacking smartly and Ginger sliding down behind the stern of Mah Jong,”?an organiser said in a release sent to this newspaper.
WEYC Commodore Martin van Houten handed out several bottles of rum, Mount Gay red hats and prizes for each sailor.
The next WEYC regatta is the Dark and Stormy race to Anegada on March 8-11.
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