International Rolex Regatta at St. Thomas - Overall
by Barby MacGowan 26 Mar 2007 08:24 BST
23-25 March 2007
Devil 3 wins six races at the International Rolex Regatta © Daniel Forster / Rolex
Winners named in seven classes
A third day of perfect trade winds and pleasant sunshine helped wrap up the International Rolex Regatta, where sailors on 87 boats have been competing in seven classes. The event, in its 34th year and hosted by St. Thomas Yacht Club, is the oldest of the Caribbean's popular Spring racing events and counts as the favorite for many, with its unique blend of around-the-buoys and through-the-islands racing mixed with lively local flavor and camaraderie ashore.
"This is one of the best island regattas because of the venue, the course selection, and the winds," said defending champion Martin Jacobson (Greenwich, Conn.), whose Swan 44 Crescendo won today's Pillsbury Sound distance race and added the victory to three others in his six-race series to secure victory in the Spinnaker Racing Cruising class. "It's why we come back." Jacobson's class, along with four others on the Ocean Circle, sailed three windward/leeward courses on opening day and two middle-distance races (from the east end of St. Thomas to Charlotte Amalie and back) on Saturday. Today's race, a navigator's delight, totaled 21 miles and took about three hours for Crescendo to complete. Straight bullets marked the overall regatta performances of three winning teams, whose skippers were awarded with Rolex Steel Submariner timepieces as prizes.
One of those teams was Doug Baker's (Long Beach, Calif.) Olson 30 J Bird 4 in Spinnaker Racing Class 3. About today's racing, tactician Keith Kilpatrick (Newport Beach, Calif.) said a good start combined with the longer length of the course enabled his team to put more distance on the fleet than in the previous races. "Our strength is buoy racing, because there is not as much local knowledge involved " said Kilpatrick, adding that the boat's southern California crew gets plenty of experience in that discipline from regularly sailing Baker's Andrews 80 Magnitude. "Today on the first beat, we really didn't know which way to go -- but it was all fun."
For Chris Stanton (St. Croix, USVI), who strung his victories together like a perfect pearl necklace in Spinnaker Racing Class 2, today's winds, rather than local knowledge, helped put his Melges 24 Devil 3 ahead. "It seemed to start out light, but it got every bit as windy as the last few days," said Stanton. "It was more southerly than usual, so the waves were not as steep as they can be in the Sound--it helped us in the smaller boats." Sailors dubbed racing in this class the "battle of the Melges boats," since three other Melges 24s and two Melges 32s also competed.
In the Non-Spinnaker class, which sailed only one race through the islands on opening day to include four races instead of six in its scoreline, it was Christopher Lloyd (Tortola, BVI) and his Beneteau 442 Three Harkoms who won all the races to easily defend his crown. "Nobody stopped working the whole time -- that was the secret," said Lloyd.
Carlo Falcone (Antigua), the winner of Spinnaker Racing Class 1 on his Vallicelli 44 Caccia Alla Volpe, today continued focusing on his closest competitor Clive Llewellyn (Paris, France) aboard the Grand Soleil 48 Mad IV. He finished second to Llewellyn's first, but it was enough to edge Llewellyn out of first by two points. "We stayed close but had a bit of a cushion today," said Caccia's mainsheet trimmer Karl James (Antigua), who has represented Antigua twice in the Olympics in the Laser class.
The IC-24s, a fleet indigenous to the area, completed 13 races in their series, using this final day to complete five windward-leeward races on a separate racecourse instead of participating in the Pillsbury Sound race. Tieing on point scores were Mio Broadband's Robby and Michael Hirst (Tortola, BVI) and Orion's Fraito Lugo (Ponce, PR), with the tie-breaker going to Mio Broadband.
"On the last day you get more defensive if you have the lead, and it's better to be on the offensive," said Robby Hirst, who was the British Virgin Island's Olympic representative in 1996 and has won the IC-24 class here now three times in a row. "We had very mixed results today, and we could see that Fraito was very focused." Going into today, Orion was 12 points behind Mio Broadband, having made the major mistake of missing a mark of the course in yesterday's second race and suffering dearly for it after having to turn back to re-round. Today, however, Lugo -- who has won this event five times in a J/24 and another time in a Melges 24 -- did a stellar job of "putting boats between us," but it was just not good enough for the overall victory.
Enrique Figueroa and crew Jorge Hernandez, two names synonymous with Olympic sailing, easily won the race today and the Beach Cats class overall with their 20-foot Tornado Suzuki/Red Bull. The duo, which represented Puerto Rico in the Tornado class at the Athens Games and hopes to do so again at Quingdao in 2008, blew away their competition, but it was expected. Figueroa, either with is wife Carla or Hernandez, has won this regatta at least a dozen times. "It took us two hours to cover 37 miles today at an average boat speed of 15 knots," said Hernandez, "and we smoked the big boats." Hernandez said he and Figueroa used the regatta for testing equipment before heading off to Mallorca tomorrow for an international regatta. "When we sail in some beautiful place in Europe, and someone says what a nice day, I say 'no, no, you haven't seen a nice day until you've sailed in the Caribbean!'
The International Rolex Regatta is part of the US-IRC Gulf Stream Series 2007.
A.H. Riise, Official Retailer of Rolex watches in the U.S. Virgin Islands, takes an active role in sponsorship of the event. The St. Thomas duty free shop is one of the largest in the Caribbean and is located on the historic waterfront of downtown Charlotte Amalie. Rolex is known for sponsoring high quality events such as the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, Rolex Fastnet Race, Giraglia Rolex Cup, Rolex Middle Sea Race, Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup and the Rolex Farr 40 Worlds.
Overall Results:
IC-24 (One Design - 19 Boats)
1. Mio Broadband, IC-24, Robby & Michael Hirst, Tortola, BVI - 1, 2, 3, 1, 3, 10, 1, 1, 1, 4, 5, 3, 12; 47pts
2. Orion, IC-24, Fraito Lugo, Ponce, PR - 2, 4, 6, 2, 1, 6, 3, 11, 2, 3, 1, 1, 5; 47pts
3. Bambooshay, IC_24, Chris Rosenberg, St. Thomas, USVI - 4, 1, 1, 5, 8, 5, 4, 10/SCP, 14, 1, 2, 4, 2; 61pts
Spinnaker Racing 1 (CSA - 6 Boats)
1. Caccia Alla Volpe, Vallicelli 44, Carlo Falcone, Antigua - 1, 3, 2, 1, 2, 2; 11pts
2. Mad IV, Grand Soleil 48, Clive Llewellyn, Paris, France - 4, 1, 1, 3, 3, 1; 13pts
3. Yeoman XXXII, Rogers 46, Barry Lewis, San Francisco, CA, USA - 2, 2, 3, 5, 1, 4; 17pts
Spinnaker Racing 2 (CSA - 9 Boats)
1. Devil 3, Melges 24, Chris Stanton, St. Croix, USVI - 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1; 6pts
2. Crash Test Dummies, Melges 32, Tim Kimpton, Diego Martin, Trinidad & Tobago - 2, 4, 5, 2, 2, 2; 17pts
3. Expensive Habit, J/100, Robert Armstrong, St. Croix, USVI - 3, 2, 2, 4, 4, 4; 19pts
Spinnaker Racing 3 (CSA - 17 Boats)
1. J Bird 4, Olson 30, Doug Baker, Long Beach, CA, USA - 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1; 6pts
2. The Good The Bad and The Ugly, Kirby 25, John Foster, St. Thomas, USVI - 4, 6, 2, 4, 4, 2; 22pts
3. SP MRI & CT Center/Tax Return, J/24, Carlos Feliciano, Caguas, PR - 5, 4, 3, 8, 2, 3; 25pts
Non-spinnaker Racing 1 (CSA - 17 Boats)
1. Three Harkoms, Modified Beneteau 442, Christopher Lloyd, Tortola, BVI - 1, 1, 1, 1; 4pts
2. Affinity, Frers 49, Jack Desmond, Marion, MA, USA - 2, 5, 2, 2; 11pts
3. El Presidente, Thomas 35, Jeffrey Fangmann, St. Croix, USVI - 3, 4, 3, 3; 13pts
Spinnaker Racing Cruising (CSA - 9 Boats)
1. Crescendo, Swan 44, Martin Jacobson, Greenwich, CT, USA - 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1; 8pts
2. Team Paul Mitchell, Beneteau First 40.7, Mark Palermo, Slidell, LA, USA - 3, 2, 2, 3, 4, 2; 16pts
3. Shamrock V, J/120, Thomas Mullen, Campton, NH, USA - 1, 3, 3, 5, 2, 3; 17pts
Beach Cats (Portsmouth - 12 Boats)
1. DRD/Suzuki/Red Bull, Tornado 20, Enrique Figeroa, San Juan, PR - 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1; 6pts
2. Heineken, Hobie 16, Francisco Figueroa, San Juan, PR - 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2; 12pts
3. Fitness Warehouse, Hobie 16, Dennys Junco, Carolina, PR - 6, 3, 3, 4, 3, 4; 23pts