Events

Clcik to enlargeWhat defines a magnificent regatta? Ask anyone who sailed in the 40th Anniversary BVI Spring Regatta and Sailing Festival (March 28-April 3, 2011) hosted and presented by Nanny Cay, and you’ll hear the same thing: red-hot racing, professionally run courses, a family friendly regatta village, and—of course—killer parties…exactly what sailors on 122 different competing yachts experienced at Nanny Cay—the regatta’s base—this weekend.

While the 40th included plenty of firsts, including the inaugural Gill BVI International Match Racing Championship (March 30 and 31), one class that isn’t new is the venerable Squib. These keelboats are similar to Rhodes 19s and are used locally in a variety of youth-sailing programs, including Sailability, which helps facilitate sailing for everyone, regardless of a sailor’s mental or physical handicaps. “These particular Squibs raced in the first BVI Spring Regatta, forty years ago,” said Sue-Ellyn Eldridge, who runs the Squib class’ Race Committee. “We even had one of the original racers from 40 years ago, Peter Bailey, join us.” Eldridge squeezed off several dozen races using a variety of course shapes, giving crews plenty to smile about, regardless of their performance. “Just getting to the end of the regatta and being above the waterline, that’s a success right there.”

Nanny Cay sponsored Triple KackA single day of racing remains at the 40th Anniversary BVI Spring Regatta and Sailing Festival (March 28-April 3, 2011), and the tussle for podium places is getting serious. Razor-thin margins define several classes, and Mother Nature is forecast to deliver a wild card tomorrow: less pressure. For the past two days, 122 participating boats have enjoyed 15-22 knots, so tomorrow’s question mark will test each crew’s ability to switch gears. While the party rages at the race village at Nanny Cay, the regatta’s base, everyone knows that change may literally be in the wind.

One pronounced format change here over most other regattas is the presence of on-the-water umpires in the IC 24 class. While the BVI Spring Regatta isn’t the first to use umpires in a fleet-racing format, we’re advancing a popular new protocol. Rather than using a protest room to settle an on-the-water kerfuffle, umpires observe and assign penalties in real-time; guilty sailors, in turn, serve immediate penance. “We don’t have 10-15 protests stacking up at the end of racing,” said Glenn Oliver, an International Judge and Umpire. “It speeds the game along.” When queried as to whether this innovation will spread, Oliver advises that it requires a sophisticated regatta to pull it off. “You wouldn’t see this in most places—[only] larger events where they can bring in umpires to do the work.”

Despite the calendar date, there were precious few pranks occurring today at the 40th Anniversary BVI Spring Regatta and Sailing Festival (March 28-April 3, 2011), where 122 boats assembled on four different racecourses, eagerly anticipating their starting guns. Fifteen to twenty knots and small seas greeted sailors racing in the protected waters, and classic Caribbean ocean rollers fueled surfing sessions outside of the lee of the islands. The race committees made sure to entertain, sending boats on a variety of courses, ranging from windward-leewards to scenic excursions around the numerous islands that pepper the Sir Francis Drake Channel near Nanny Cay Resort and Marina, the regatta’s base.
 
Back ashore, however, a few sly moves were attempted. “It was mostly in the racing class!” laughed Renata Goodridge, the Regatta Measurer. Caribbean Sailing Association (CSA) rules—the regatta’s governing rules—stipulate that owners can only change their rating three times per year, but this didn’t deter some shenanigans. “Guys always try to one-up each other. They’ll say, ‘that first spinnaker, we used it for one whole regatta—it’s really blown out, let’s measure a new one and see if it will make us go faster.’ But, for the most part, everybody plays by the rules.” Given that Goodridge is also an official CSA measurer, you can bet your last bottle of rum that nothing slipped under her radar.

Willem Wester’s Antilope wins the Nanny Cay CupThe atmosphere is crackling with excitement on the eve of racing at the 40th Anniversary BVI Spring Regatta and Sailing Festival (March 28-April 3, 2011). The race village is open, boats and sailors are here, and everyone is psyched for what promises to be three brilliant days of racing on the Sir Francis Drake Channel. Just poll anyone walking around Nanny Cay—the regatta’s base—and their comments are the same: It’s like summer camp for adults, sans chaperones.