The 27^th edition of the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta concluded in fine fashion last evening with a prize-giving ceremony on Kim Sha Beach followed by musical entertainment by the band Orange Grove and the offspring of reggae legend Bob Marley-sons Damian Marley and Stephen Marley-who captivated the crowd of thousands of sailors and islanders with a set that included stirring renditions of many of their father's most memorable songs.

The 27^th edition of the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta concluded today in spectacular fashion as more than 200 boats in 20 divisions enjoyed classic Caribbean sailing conditions to wrap up a most memorable running of the annual event.
Highlights of the regatta included the dominating performance of the Volvo 70, abn-reach-finish-big ABN AMRO ONE, Mike Sanderson's world-beating yacht, which put on a sailing clinic while regularly registering speeds of better than 20-knots; the addition of a first-ever fourth day of racing for the top race boats, which turned out to be a resounding success; and a Boat of the Regatta award to a design that was first introduced some 40 years ago.
With three straight wins to capture the Non-Spinnaker 2 class, veteran campaigner Bernie Evans-Wong's Cal 40, Huey Too, was named Boat of the Regatta for the 2007 St. Maarten Heineken Regatta. Evans-Wong, from Antigua, was sailing the venerable design first introduced by designer Bill Lapworth in 1967. The boat was an immediate success in the classic Transpac Race from Los Angeles to Honolulu, and four decades along, Evans-Wong sailed it to perfection to win his class, and the prestigious prize for 2007.

They said it would blow, and blow it did. As early as last Monday, forecasters peering into their long-range crystal balls predicted that the conditions for the 27^th edition of the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta would peak for Saturday's racing, with winds hovering around 25-knots and more. Meteorology, of course, is often an inexact science, but this time the weathermen were spot on. When the figurative dust had settled this afternoon and the crews aboard the final boats to arrive had set their anchors off the French port of Marigot, they did so after a fine, challenging and memorable day of yacht racing.

It was the sort of day that sailmakers love, for there was no lack of carnage in the sail inventories-particularly the downwind sails for the seven spinnaker divisions-of many of the 239-boats competing in the event. Tom Hill's 75-foot Titan 12 shredded a spinnaker in spectacular fashion while trying to reach up to a mark off Simpson Bay. A cloud of headsail aboard Lord Irving Laidlaw's Swan 112, Highland Breeze, came floating down to the sea after a halyard parted as the boat cleaved to windward.