Registration for the 49th BVI Spring Regatta & Sailing Festival is underway with outstanding conditions forecasted throughout the week. Competitors are preparing for Wednesday's race, the Scrub Island Invitational, which will be followed by the Race to Foxy's on Thursday. The action then ratches up a notch for Spring Regatta April 1 through April 3.

"Conditions tomorrow and through the week are going to be near perfect," Bob Phillips, Regatta Chairman said. "We are expecting winds in the mid-teens with temperatures in the mid-eighties and sunny skies. For the race to Scrub Island, different classes will sail different courses and the race committee is expecting to use some of the outer islands like Cooper, Salt, and Dead Chest for turning points – competitors will see the outside of some of the islands they may not have seen previously before a glorious run down to Scrub Island."

The Regatta has traditionally attracted a diverse fleet of boats in addition to a strong bareboat fleet. This year is no exception. Tschuss, the FAST 40 owned by Christian Zugel, is in the Caribbean making up for lost time these past few years, said Johnny Mordaunt, Tschuss boat captain.

"We'll sail BVI Spring Regatta with eleven on board including owner who drives," Mordaunt said. "We're fairly competitive under IRC and are only just dipping into the CSA rating system so we won't know how we go up against other boats until we get out there and go sailing!"

Mordaunt continued, "We did the BVI's some years ago with the old boat, a MAT 1180 also called Tschuss, and had a ball, it was just fantastic. We're really looking forward to getting back out on the water there. The organization has been great, and the one thing we love about sailing there is the decent breeze and flat water."

A newcomer to the BVI is the Swan 58 OMII, owned by Shahid Hamid. The boat, whose home port is Cowes, Isle of Wight, is a new build from the Swan factory in Finland, hull number 6 of Swan's new line of cruising racing performance yachts. Hamid had started the Caribbean season in 2020 with the St Maarten regatta racing on his old boat, a Jeanneau 57 before the pandemic thwarted his next two Caribbean racing seasons.

"Our new boat had to be trucked and commissioned in Barcelona due to the pandemic, and then we had to do the Atlantic crossing to get to the Caribbean, so about 5,000 miles in 30 days!" Hamid commented. "It was a great shake down. I hear the BVI is beautiful and stunning, and we're looking forward to competing,"

OMII will sail with Hamid's family crewing along with Olympic Silver medalist Annemieke Bess trimming main and Bram Ven de Biest calling tactics.

"We are thrilled to finally get a Regatta underway," Judy Petz, Regatta Director said. "It's been a long road and a ton of hard work but we're almost there. We are sad that some of our charter boats are unable to join us due to circumstances outside of the event's control, and we will miss them but are hopeful they will join us for the 50th edition of our beloved Caribbean regatta in 2023." https://bvispringregatta.org/ #BVISR