All set at the 36th Fiji Regatta Week at Musket Cove Yacht Club

36th Fiji Regatta Week © Liz Christmas

The dates are set and the planning is in place for the 37th Fiji Regatta Week, the event cruising and racing sailors across the Pacific consider the "must do" annual sailing event in the Pacific.

Staged by the internationally renowned Musket Cove Yacht Club, located on Malolo Lailai Island off mainland Fiji's West Coast, Regatta Week has a long-standing reputation for being the most fun in the sun you can have when under sail in the Pacific.

The regatta's formula for success, which has evolved over the past 36 years, is built around excellent tradewind racing on well planned courses that take in nearby tropical islands... plus the best onshore fun and friendship to be had.

This year Fiji Race Week is scheduled for September 13-19. Early indications are that a fleet of more than 110 monohulls and multihulls hailing from points all around the Pacific will participate. That converts to some 300 participants, family, friends and crew, sampling the second-to-none Musket Cove camaraderie, especially at the legendary open air Island Bar, sited on its own small island adjacent to the marina.

"In recent years Fiji Regatta Week has taken significant steps forward in every sense," said Musket Cove's General Manager, Garry Snodgrass, "and that is certain to continue. Our aim is to ensure that everyone who is with us this year has the best possible time and subsequently departs as an ambassador for Fiji and Regatta Week. Also, we will be will be applying a similar approach when it comes to serving the best interests of our sponsors and the wonderful local community.

"In recent times Musket Cove has initiated several significant environmental programs to minimise our footprint, and that extends to Regatta Week. Among the programs we now have in place is the reduction of single use plastics by 75% and converting to the use of paper bags wherever possible. We also have an extensive recycling program that sees garden waste being converted to mulch and glass bottles being pulverised and reused as a building material."

Garry Snodgrass added that beyond these programs Musket Cove was also committed to supporting the Fijian community by purchasing all possible produce and products locally.

He also announced that the owners of Musket Cove had pledged F$5 from every entry fee for Fiji Regatta Week, and 50cents from every Musket Money sale, to the Kuita Trust. This organisation has been established specifically to assist Fiji's disadvantaged. Among its many wonderful projects, the Kuita Trust was instrumental in creating Fiji's first kidney dialysis clinic outside Suva.

The Notice of Race and entry information for Fiji Regatta Week can be found on the regatta's website, www.musketcovefiji.com/yacht-club-marina