The 30th Sint Maarten Heineken Regatta will take place March 4 to 7 2010!
IGY Commodores Cup
Island Global Yachting has signed on board as the sole sponsor for this additional day of racing and could not be a better fit for this event. Their dedication to elevating the standards of marinas goes hand in hand with the dedication of the Sint Maarten Yacht Club to offer the highest level of racing to the competitor.
The Sint Maarten Heineken Regatta will, for the first time in the history of Caribbean Regattas, run a match racing event just before the actual 2009 St.Maarten Heineken Regatta and offer prize money to the winners.
This event will be sponsored by Budget Marine who has been supporting the St.Maarten Heineken Regatta since its inception in a host of different forms, including pioneering the Commodores’ Cup ... Click here to read more! Click here for the final results!
St. Maarten Heineken Regatta Schedule
A complete overview of all the activities and events taking place prior to and during the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta.
Did you always want to race but never found a boat to crew on?
We have good news for you!
Gocrew is connecting boats and sailors for the 29th Heineken Regatta!
Find the party schedule and locations on
mapsxm.com !
(On Mapsxm in the left menu.)
This event was founded by volunteers some 29 years ago when several
people got together and decided to have a regatta. Today that small
event has turned into one with over 280 competitors, and more than 150
volunteers. It is this group of people that keeps this regatta going,
through 2 days of registration, four days of sailing and numerous
parties. Without these volunteers the atmosphere surrounding the
St.Maarten Heineken Regatta would be entirely different. People of
different nationalities, from many different countries all come
together to volunteer their time and energy. Ask any of the people
wearing the regatta team shirts why they like it so much and you will
receive many different reasons. Click here to read more...
Official St. Maarten Heineken Regatta Gear
You can now order your 29th St. Maarten Heineken Regatta team gear online! Go to: www.heinekenregattagear.com
Contact Us
Phone:
(+599) 544-2079
Fax:
(+599) 544-2091
Contact Address:
St.Maarten Heineken
Regatta Office
Welfare Road 90
Simpson Bay
(Next to the bridge)
Postal Address:
P.O. Box 5315
Philipsburg,
St. Maarten
Netherlands Antilles
Find the parties schedule and bands on mapsxm.com !
2009 Roundup
St Maarten Heineken Regatta 2009 Roundup
Watch the videos in HD! Double click on the video and click "HQ" on Youtube!
St Maarten Heineken Regatta 2010!
Promo Sint Maarten Heinekenregatta 2010
A Look Behind and Ahead
As the Epic 29th St. Maarten Heineken Regatta Concludes, Race Officials Begin Plans for 30th Anniversary Bash
St. Maarten, N.A. (March 9) – The wild, windswept, epic 29th edition of the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta concluded in resounding style last evening with the traditional prize-giving ceremony on Kim Sha Beach followed by musical entertainment by a host of top reggae bands including the legendary Wailers, who had a swaying crowd of thousands of sailors and islanders dancing into the wee hours.
As race organizers and the dozens of volunteers who helped make the regatta a tremendous success—despite sometimes intense weather conditions that challenged sailors and race officials to be at the very top of their games—finally took a well-earned rest after the nearly week-long marathon of sailing and parties, plans were already being set in motion for the 30th running of the annual event, which is scheduled for March 4-7, 2010.
Steering committee chairman and event co-founder Robbie Ferron said that the small army of dedicated St. Maarten Heineken Regatta volunteers and organizers learned many new lessons in this latest running of the annual event.
“There was a lot of evolution this year,” said Ferron. “We added the Budget Marine Match Racing Cup, which was a very interesting and successful experiment. And the IGY Commodore’s Cup continues to be an important part of the regatta. But this year’s weather taught us quite a bit about logistics, and risks, and how to address unforeseen challenges safely and efficiently. It turned out to be a memorable year.”
Everyone who sailed the 2009 St. Maarten Heineken Regatta will have lasting memories of the staunch northerly winds and the often nasty seas over which they competed, but no one will recall them as fondly as Jamie Dobbs and his talented crew aboard the J/122, Lost Horizons, who were honored on Sunday for the Most Worthy Performance Overall of any boat in the 218-strong fleet. Dobbs and his team won the highly competitive Spinnaker 4 division with a perfect record of four wins in four races.
“Jamie Dobbs is a special sailor,” said Ferron of the Antigua-based competitor, a regular fixture at events across the Carribean. “He’s a bit of a curmudgeon but he has a big, big heart. He doesn’t miss a beat and he has such a good crew. They’re so consistent, they just do everything right all the time. They were certainly most worthy winners. They just sailed so well.”
Dobbs was not the only sailor recognized at Sunday’s awards ceremony. Prizes were also presented to the top three podium finishers in all sixteen divisions of the regatta, and for the Most Worthy Performers on all three days of the event. The Friday award went to the crew aboard Ralph Van den Berg’s Cyclades 43, French Kiss, in the Bareboat 4 class. For Saturday, the honor belonged to the Charleston, South Carolina, team aboard the Cylades 50, Sequoyah, racing in Bareboat 2. And on Sunday, Ronald O’Hanley’s canting-keel Cookson 50, Privateer, the runaway winner of Spinnaker 2, was the most worthy boat of them all.
With that, the 2009 St. Maarten Heineken Regatta comes to an official close. Race organizers wish to thank everyone who participated and volunteered, and who enjoyed the sensational parties and overall atmosphere at sea and ashore. The event has always been about Serious Fun, and this year was no different. Thanks again, one and all, and see you at the 30th Anniversary of the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta in 2010.
For final results, photos, video and more, visit www.heinekenregatta.com.
To the Victors Go the Spoils:
Privateer, Selene and Lazy Dog Headline Long List of Winners in 29th St. Maarten Heineken Regatta
St. Maarten, N.A. (March 8, 2009) – In what will go down as one of the windiest, wildest events in the storied history of the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta, a long and worthy list of new champions were crowned today as racing concluded in the 29th edition of the annual Caribbean competition. The final tally revealed a host of new winners—including Ronald O’Hanley’s Cookson 50, Privateer, and Wendy Schmidt’s Swan 80, Team Selene—as well as several past St. Maarten Heineken Regatta victors like Sergio Sagramoso on the Beneteau 44.7, Lazy Dog, and James Dobbs on the J/122, Lost Horizons.
The 2009 St. Maarten Heineken Regatta will largely be remembered as the year a solid northeasterly breeze kicked in on the first day of the three-day event, and continued in unrelenting style for the duration of the racing. Due to the severity of the winds—which peaked out at nearly 40-knots on Day 1 of the regatta—and the massive, confused seaway that soon accompanied them, race officials decided to forgo the usual Saturday and Sunday racing schedule that in past years took the fleet in and out of the exposed French-side port of Marigot.
Instead, the race committee concentrated the weekend competition off Simpson Bay on the island’s southern coast. Even so, there was no lack of drama on the race course, where calamity often reigned and blown sails, toppled masts and bone-jarring collisions were all part of the action.
Sunday’s final day of racing was conducted on two separate race courses: the Non-spinnaker, Bareboat, Cruising Multihull and Open divisions sailed a 17-nautical mile course that included a long windward leg up the west coast of St. Maarten to a turning mark in the Anguilla Channel, while the Spinnaker 1-6 classes raced over a 20-nautical mile track that featured a rugged beat up the island’s eastern side to a mark off the isle of Tintamarre. Once around that mark, however, the all-out racers enjoyed a thrilling run under spinnaker in wicked surfing conditions.
None were faster, or more impressive, than O’Hanley’s Farr-designed 50-footer, Privateer, which capped off a tremendous St. Maarten Heineken Regatta series to win the Spinnaker 2 class with a perfect scorecard of four first-place finishes. Privateer not only left it’s entire class well astern, on the final race they caught and passed the entire Spinnaker 1 division with the sole exception of the Farr 115, Sojana.
Wind, Breeze and More Wind Highlight Day 2 of the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta
St. Maarten, N.A. (March 7, 2009) – It was a day of snapshots, of one indelible image after another. With staunch northerly breeze whipping the cerulean waters of the Caribbean into a frothy, turbulent, massively confused seaway, some 200 boats set sail today on Day 2 of the 29th St. Maarten Heineken Regatta, an event that is rapidly reaching epic, historic proportions.
The crew of the 44-foot Moorings charter boat Lady L will certainly never forget the moment when their forestay parted and their mast and sails came tumbling down. And SAIL magazine editor-in-chief Peter Nielsen, sailing another bareboat, a Sunsail 39-footer called Dancia, will have fond memories of leading 18 other competitors around the top mark. No one who saw Peter Harrison’s Farr 115, Sojana, will have a hard time remembering the huge ketch rolling down the course at double-digit boat speeds and jibing its thousands and thousands of square feet of crisp white sails—including a cloud of asymmetric spinnaker and matching mizzen staysail—almost on a dime.
And though they’d probably like to, the team aboard the Anteros 36, Easy, would just as soon erase from memory the moment when they botched their spinnaker hoist and came to a crashing halt, their kite wrapped beneath their keel and rudder, their speed reduced to zero. Sailors call it “shrimping,” and Easy made it look, well, easy.
Admittedly, it’s unfair to single out Easy on a day when sail-handling miscues were rampant and blown-out sails were a matter of course. In fact, the crew should be applauded for hoisting their kite at all; many crews in the spinnaker classes decided to sail today’s downwind legs sans chutes and under poled-out jibs. The rugged, stiff conditions often rewarded discretion over valor.
Certainly, after Friday’s inaugural session was conducted under squally skies packing gusts of up to 35-knots, the race committee’s decision to reschedule Saturday’s racing proved to be wise and prudent. Saturday’s races usually end on the French-side port of Marigot. This year, because of the weather, race officials instead set courses on the island’s leeward coast, beginning and finishing off Simpson Bay, and out of the worst of the wind and swell.
A complete overview of all the activities and events taking place prior to and during the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta.
St. Maarten, N.A. (March 9) – The wild, windswept, epic 29th edition of the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta concluded in resounding style last evening with the traditional prize-giving ceremony on Kim Sha Beach followed by musical entertainment by a host of top reggae bands including the legendary Wailers, who had a swaying crowd of thousands of sailors and islanders dancing into the wee hours.
St. Maarten, N.A. (March 8, 2009) – In what will go down as one of the windiest, wildest events in the storied history of the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta, a long and worthy list of new champions were crowned today as racing concluded in the 29th edition of the annual Caribbean competition. The final tally revealed a host of new winners—including Ronald O’Hanley’s Cookson 50, Privateer, and Wendy Schmidt’s Swan 80, Team Selene—as well as several past St. Maarten Heineken Regatta victors like Sergio Sagramoso on the Beneteau 44.7, Lazy Dog, and James Dobbs on the J/122, Lost Horizons.
Instead, the race committee concentrated the weekend competition off Simpson Bay on the island’s southern coast. Even so, there was no lack of drama on the race course, where calamity often reigned and blown sails, toppled masts and bone-jarring collisions were all part of the action.
St. Maarten, N.A. (March 7, 2009) – It was a day of snapshots, of one indelible image after another. With staunch northerly breeze whipping the cerulean waters of the Caribbean into a frothy, turbulent, massively confused seaway, some 200 boats set sail today on Day 2 of the 29th St. Maarten Heineken Regatta, an event that is rapidly reaching epic, historic proportions.
And though they’d probably like to, the team aboard the Anteros 36, Easy, would just as soon erase from memory the moment when they botched their spinnaker hoist and came to a crashing halt, their kite wrapped beneath their keel and rudder, their speed reduced to zero. Sailors call it “shrimping,” and Easy made it look, well, easy.
