Simpson Bay, June 21, 2023
Last Sunday, June 11th, the Keelboat Racing Season, sponsored by Grant Thornton, came to an end with the last race: race day 4. Four competitive boats raced against each other in the CSA 1 Class: Team Caraibes Diesel, Team Solstice, Team Island Water World 1, and Team Budget Marine. They raced in very gusty weather conditions in Simpson Bay.
Despite the unpredictable weather, the participating sailors demonstrated teamwork and diligence throughout the race. After multiple race battles, the Budget Marine Racing team took the win of the day with bullets in all the races. The Island Water World 1 racing team came in second. “We were underpowered today, we were missing weight on the boat and struggled with boat handling today” said Frits Bus, helm on the IWW team.
Solstice finished third-place overall; they spotted a weak spot in their spinnaker and chose to not use the spinnaker again to keep damage to a minimum. In 4th place; Caraibes Diesel, that faced an unexpected accident during the race. They encountered an unfortunate incident when their hiking strap broke, causing all crew members, except one, to fall in the water. After everyone recovered from their swim, they encountered problems with their mast. Recognizing the potential danger, the crew acted fast, dropped all sails and prevented the mast from coming down.
Race officer Wessel Tangenberg looks back on great racing whit a lot of excitement: “The last Keelboat race was a success, a lot happened during the race with the challenging gusty weather. But in the end, I think it was an nice racing day. I want to thank all the volunteers and racers for an exciting season of keelboat racing, we can not do it without them”.
Race Day 4 was part of the overall Grant Thornton Keelboat Season Championship. With 1 race canceled, 4 days of racing were put together in an overall scoring, where Team Island Water World 1 took the win in the CSA 1 class, followed by Budget Marine in second and FKG in third position.
In the Multihull class, consisting of the Diam 24 fleet; Merlin ended third place. Karibuni came in second place and Cry Baby ended up as the winner of the season.
All the pictures and results of the last race day and the overall results can be found online.
Sint Maarten Yacht Club
The club was established in 1980 with the goal to promote sailing on the island of St. Maarten. The Sint Maarten Yacht Club organizes multiple sailing events throughout the year, with the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta as its crown jewel. A youth sailing program stimulates local youngsters to become part of the sailing community, teaching them life skills like teamwork, perseverance and confidence. Always looking to further develop sailing on St. Maarten, the Club is active in promoting the sport, as well as the beautiful Caribbean island destination of St. Maarten. For more information visit www.smyc.com