Multihulls Lead the Way, Chippewa Off the Warpath in Wild Opening Session of the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta.

Philipsburg, St. Maarten (February 7) – On roiling, turquoise seas flecked with whitecaps, a record fleet of 284 entrants – fueled by steady easterly Caribbean trade winds of 25-knots and more – set sail today to begin the 28th annual running of the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta. And as the day progressed, there were more than a few surprises throughout the sizable fleet.
Perhaps the biggest surprise occurred relatively early in the action, when Clay Deutsch’s Swan 68, Chippewa, a seasoned campaigner in major East Coast events and throughout the Caribbean – and a defending champion in the Heineken Regatta, having won its class in 2007 – was forced to the rear of the Spinnaker 2 division after losing its lone headsail halyard.

Chippewa also broke a jib halyard in Thursday’s preliminary Budget Marine Commodore’s Cup, and thus came into today’s racing with no spare halyard, and thus no margin for error. After the gear failure, forced to sail long upwind tacks under mainsail alone, Chippewa was severely underpowered and finished a distant seventh in its class. But the big Swan’s misfortune provided a major opportunity for Jeff Eckhard’s canting-keel Baltic 78, Rusulka, which took full advantage by winning Spinnaker 2, with Peter Harrison’s grand 115-foot ketch, Sojana, taking second.

It was a good day for the two canting-keel yachts in the fleet; along with Rusulka’s bullet, the other “canter,” Ian Henderson’s Farr 50, Privateer, earned a second in Spinnaker 1. The class winner there was Benny Kelly’s fast, well-sailed TP 52, Panthera. With three races scheduled on Saturday for the Spinnaker classes – a pair of windward/leewards followed by a point-to-point distance contest from Philipsburg to Marigot – the duel between Privateer and Panthera is on. 

The six-boat Gunboat fleet also provided a few startling moments. Not one but two Gunboats were forced to retire – the metallic-blue 48-footer, Hammer, and its sistership, Blast, which suffered a litany of problems – but when the smoke had cleared, it was the third 48, Xabiar Ross’s Cream, that corrected out over the 62’s Safari, Lickety Split and Looking for Elvis. Of course, there was a pair of ringers aboard Cream, including Gunboat founder Peter Johnstone and ex-America’s Cup ace Cam Lewis.

The 16-boat Spinnaker 3 division is loaded, with an abundance of both talented sailors and top yachts. Today, it belonged to Peter Peake’s Reichel/Pugh 44, Storm, closely followed by Richard Matthews’ brand new 42-footer, Oystercatcher XXVi. Matthews, of course, is the builder of the Oyster brand of long-range cruisers, and his latest Oystercatcher is designed by Tom Humphreys, son of long-time Oyster naval architect, Rob Humphreys.  

In Spinnaker 4, many local observers felt the race would come down to Arnaud de Meillac’s A 40, sailing styl’caraibes, and Puerto Rican ace Sergio Sagramoso’s Beneteau First 40.7, Lazy Dog. So imagine everyone’s, yes, surprise, when Rick Wesslund’s J/120, El Ocaso, emerged as the winner, followed by de Meillac and yet another J/Boat, James Dobbs’s J/122, Lost Horizon. Amazingly, Lazy Dog, the first 40.7 home, was fourth. 

The strong J/Boat theme continued in Spinnaker 5, with Robert Armstrong’s J/100, Bad Girl, leading the pack in the 11-boat class; and in Spinnaker 7, where David Cullen’s J/109, Pocket Rocket, was the victor. Christopher Lloyd’s tricked-out, souped-up Oceanis 440, Three Harkoms, won spinnaker 6. 

The Multihull classes are one of the fastest-growing classes in the Heineken Regatta, and today they also provided some of the tightest, most entertaining racing. The line-honors title for fastest big boat on elapsed time came down to two big Multihull 1 class entries, the pink Nigel Irens-designed trimaran,

Yacht Club des Saintes, and the Formula 40, Soma. Both hove into view of the finish line, after some 34-miles of racing, just over three hours after the start. Yacht Club des Saintes, skippered by Anne Caseneuve, held what looked like a comfortable lead as the boats dropped kites and sheeted in for the last upwind leg off Philipsburg. But Nils Erickson’s Soma was able to sail tighter angles to shoot into the lead and win the match. Soon after, however, with a reefed mainsail and jib, Carl Hennix’s SeaCart 30, True Look, came screaming into the picture and across the line to win the racing multihull class.  

The first three boats represented a broad range of multihulls: the all-carbon True Look, in first; the Derek Kelsall-designed Triple Jack, built of fine Caribbean plywood, in second; and the flat-out racer, Soma, in third.

In Multihull 2, the winner was the 13-meter cat, POLO. Five of the nine Beach Cats ultimately retired, but the conditions were just fine for the class winner, Marchais Pascal on the Hobie Cat Tiger, Dell-Snickers-Quiksilver.  

There was heaps of drama in the six bareboat classes, particularly in the starting sequences. In one incident, the Harmony 42, Epicure, lost its rudder in close quarters, then rounded up and nailed the Sun Odyssey 45.5, Diamant. And an unidentified crewman was knocked overboard and injured – but successfully recovered minutes later – in an accidental jibe during a starting line maneuver gone very, very wrong. There were also winners: Bob Storck’s Moorings 495, Team Pied Piper in Bareboat 1; a Mooring Cyclades 50, BVI Yacht Charters 1, in Bareboat 2; Mark Chapman’s Mooring 473, Liberty’s Reach, in Bareboat 3; V. Bras’s Moorings 44.3, Esquire, in Bareboat 4; and Jan Soderberg’s Oceanis 440, Chess, in Bareboat 5. 

 Last, but hardly least, there was a pair of winners in the Non-spinnaker divisions: Ralph Johnson’s Beneteau 53f5, Rapajam, in Non-Spinnaker 1, and Hugh Bailey’s First 456, Hugo B, in Non-Spinnaker 2.

For full information, class results, photos, video and more, visit the official event website at www.heinekenregatta.com.

Herb McCormick.