Saturday, December 6, 2014

J/Teams Crush St Croix Regatta!

J/27 Mag 7 sailing off St Croix USVI (Christiansted, St Croix, USVI)- The St Croix International Regatta, hosted by the St Croix YC, has a lot going for it and has continues to attract more sailors.  What’s not to like sailing off their famous beach?  For one, the winning skipper’s weight in Cruzan Rum is first overall prize; secondly, there are three spectacular days of racing in classic Caribbean sailing conditions; and lastly, there are live bands each night on the beach with awesome “island-style” hospitality!

The event is somewhat unique from a regatta format as well since there is a “pre-regatta” called the Commodore’s Race Trophy.  This enables the locals, in particular, to get their acts together, work out the rust and get their teams “gelling” like a well-oiled machine!  The first event produced some great racing with J/Teams pretty much dominating the entire regatta.

In CSA Racing, taking 2nd in the warm-up was Paul Davis’s J/27 MAG 7, followed by Jonathan Lipuscek’s J/105 DARK STAR in 3rd and Angela Mayala’s J/80 SUN BUM II in 4th.

The CSA Non-Spinnaker also saw very spirited racing with the winner being Stanford Joines’s J/36 PALADIN looking magnificent, in fact for the second year in a row!  Improving upon last year was Dave Tomlinson’s J/24 EL SHADDAI, taking 2nd overall.

With their “practice regatta” behind them, it was now high-time to determine who would be crowned champions in the “big one”, the St Croix International Regatta and, of course, the skipper’s weight in Cruzan Rum for winning their respective divisions.

The CSA Racing was dominated this year by Jonathan Lipuscek’s J/105 DARK STAR, taking four 1sts and two 2nds on their way to a massive win; the only blemish on their record being a DSQ in race 4.  Sailing a consistent regatta over the seven race series was Davis’ J/27 MAG 7, taking 5th overall.

Continuing their winning ways in CSA Non-Spinnaker was Stanford Joines’s J/36 PALADIN, winning the class with a vengeance, posting only seven 1sts for a perfect scoreline of 6 pts (throw-out included).  Last year’s winner, Tomlinson’s J/24 EL SHADDAI, hung on for 2nd overall.   For more St Croix Regatta sailing information