Day 2, BVI Spring Regatta: great racing & sighs of relief as Conditions Mellow

Day 2 of racing in the BVI Spring Regatta saw few lead changes with teams at the top of their class holding firm. Perfect Caribbean conditions prevailed in the high teens under blue skies, which was a relief to competitors as they were able to switch from survival mode of the past few days to a more controlled mode, as Jules Mitchell, boat captain, coach, and main trimmer on the unbeatable Warthog, a Reichel 37, noted. Warthog, owned and skippered by Jim Vos is racing BVI Spring Regatta for the first time in only its second-ever Caribbean regatta. Today they took two more bullets to lead the CSA 1 class.

“The forecast was a little lighter than it has been this past week which was super nice because we were actually able to sail the boat and use all the correct sails. It was just much more enjoyable pure sailing because you’re not just surviving,” Mitchell said. “The course today was great because we got to sail around some of the offshore islands and had fun getting the code 65 out. This team is still quite new and so our learning curve has completely ramped in the past few days and Jim’s learning the helm really well which has all been super fun.”

The Swan 58 WaveWalker owned/skippered by Woody Cullen took two second places to finish second overall, while JAX, the custom Brooklin Boat Yard 43’er owned/skippered by Oivind Lorentzen took two third places to finish third overall.

Tony Mack and his long-time crew on Team McFly racing the J122 El Ocaso leads in CSA 2 after taking two bullets today. The Elan 450 Emily of Cowes, skippered by David Hall is in second after a 4, 2 today while the J105 Kairos skippered by Antolin Velasco, is in third with a 3, 3 today. Cathal Leigh-Doile, jib trimmer and racing his seventh Spring Regatta with Team McFly, noted that finishes have been just seconds apart, even though the boats in class are quite different.

“It shows that the (CSA) handicap system is working because the racing is quite close,” Leigh-Doile said. “Thankfully there was a little drop off in the breeze today; in the first race we were seeing 15-18 knots, and in the second race a consistent 18 up to 22, so still fresh but manageable, I think most of the bodies are still quite sore after yesterday! The second race today was two hours fifteen minutes, it was a beautiful tour as always but it was fresh around the back of the islands, so a lot of work, but what conditions! And beautiful sunshine.”

In Performance Cruising A, a lead change today saw Kinship supported by Bitter End Yacht Club, a Baltic 52 skippered by Ryan Walsh, move into first and now just one point ahead of the Salona 45 Panacea X. In third place is Lazy Dog, a Grand Soleil 52 owned/skippered by Sergio Sagramoso.

“It’s very close racing, I think in the first race there was just 36 seconds between the top four,” Walsh said. “The starts have been very competitive, multiple times boats have been over early; there were some fouls in the race 2 start today so it’s very close racing across the board. Panacea is a tough boat, they sail really well, so it will come down to the last day. The key right now is clear air. Panacea is a little slower boat so they’re behind, we’re a faster boat but we have boats faster than us and if we get into a tacking dual with other boats, which slows us down and allows Panacea to stay close by and stay in the mix. We’ll do what we need to do to keep them behind us!”

In Performance Cruising B, the IC24 Big Island skippered by Scott Stanton took two bullets to lead against the IC24 Bravissimo, skippered by Mike Feierabend.

Scott Stanton, sailing with his oldest son Grayson, 13, said, “We decided not to sail yesterday because it was so windy, we weren’t going to go out there and destroy our bodies and our boat. We went out today and it was a little sporty – 20 knots, gusts over 20. We were focused on keeping the boat safe and stable especially downwind. Going around the north side of Norman Island and Peter Island there were big waves, we were surfing off big waves doing 15 knots which is pretty fast on an IC! We put a lot of time on Bravissimo in the second race on a reach from Norman Island; we were able to hold our spinnaker longer than them and put a lot of distance between us.”

The VX One class are having a blast, and perhaps no-one more than Sandy Askew sailing with her well-seasoned crew on Flying Jenny Rob Greenhalgh and Drew Barnes. Her husband David is helming Wizard with Charlie Enright and Patrick Farrell and at the end of race three today, the two boats were tied for first. A not particularly well-executed start in the fourth race was enough to push Wizard back to second overall. Tim Pitts, VX One fleet organiser and skipper of Another Bad Princess is in third.

“It’s the first time I’ve beaten David at anything in my life,” Sandy Askew laughed. “It’s very difficult, it’s full on, it’s very windy, the sea state is quite rough, jibing is difficult, and everybody has got their hands full. David beat me solidly in the first race, we didn’t have a good start. My weapon today was definitely Rob; he and Drew make it easy for me.”

David Askew commented, “It’s a long day, four races so a lot of racing, people get tired, I think everyone is getting tired and then you’re prone to making mistakes. We didn’t get off the line in the last race so we were playing catch up, that means we’re back in the scrum, we made a few errors and ended up not doing as well as we wanted. Even though we say to ourselves, let’s just have a nice race, without any unforced errors, it happens. The fleet is pretty competitive too!”

In other day 2 class results, Layla, the Gunboat 72, owned/helmed by Andrew Anne, took a 2, 1 to lead the Performance Multihull class; Ting A Ling, the Corsair F27 skippered by Graham Harney leads the highly competitive Sport Multihull class, taking a 2, 1 today; Alice Martin helming the Sunsail 46 Painkiller took a 2, 1 today in a tightly contested race with Orange Breeze, also a Sunsail 46, who finished with a 1, 2 in Bareboat 1. Dr. Robin Tattersall prevailed in Bareboat 2, taking a 2, 1 on Jitterbug on the Horizon Yacht Charters Bavaria 37 in another tight battle with Mi Piba, the Sunsail 42 helmed by Charlie Garrard who finished the day with a 1, 2 for second place. There were no surprises in Cruising Multihull with a clean sweep by La Novia, the Leopard 50 owned/helmed by Georges Coutu to lead in class. In Jib & Main, Cricket, the Beneteau First 35 owned/skippered by Sandy Mair, took a 2, 1 to lead over the competitive Beneteau First 40 Libertas owned/skippered by Walter Keenan who took a 1, 2 to finish in second.

The final day of racing in the 52nd edition of the BVI Spring Regatta gets underway on Sunday, with the final prizegiving and party in the Regatta Village post-racing. See you there!