In Big Breeze and Rolling Seas, the Fleet Faces Challenging Conditions En Route to Marigot in the 27th St. Maarten Heineken Regatta

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.

There were other, more dramatic incidents on the race course today, too. A crewmember off the Olson 30, Lost Horizons 2, racing in the Spinnaker 6 class, went overboard and was recovered by the team of the Dehler 34, Budget Marine, racing in the Spinnaker 7 division. There were also reports, unconfirmed at the deadline for this release, that a sailor on a Spinnaker 3 class yacht lost a finger in a sail-handling maneuver gone very wrong.

The spinnaker classes completed two windward/leeward races this morning off Simpson Bay, and there were plenty of boats that crossed the finish line after the final downwind leg with kites flying from their mastheads or with massive hourglass wraps that took some time and effort to untangle. It was a wild, colorful scene that was repeated later in the day off Bass Terre on the island's western flank as the entire St. Maarten Heinken Regatta fleet-the bareboat, non-spinnaker and multihull classes did not race this morning-rounded a mark for the final beat to Marigot.

If a picture's worth a thousand words, the images captured today by race photographers Bob Grieser and Tim Wright could easily fill a dictionary's worth of pages. For a complete gallery of the action off St. Maarten, visit the event's website at www.heinekenregatta.com.

In Bigboats 1, skipper Mike Sanderson's Volvo 70, ABN AMRO ONE. held on to the top spot with two more wins, but Jim Swartz's Moneypenny, a Swan 601, slipped ahead of Titan 12 by virtue of correcting out to first place in today's first race of the day.

In Bigboats 2, 2006 St. Maarten Heineken Regatta division winner Clay Deutsch moved to the top of the class aboard his Swan 68, Chippewa, with a perfect Saturday hat trick of three consecutive victories.

With four races now completed, the top boats in the other spinnaker classes are starting to separate from their packs, but most divisions are still wide open with the final race remaining. Sir Geoffrey Mulcahy's Swan 56, Noonmark VI, is atop the Spinnaker 3 class with a pair of firsts and a pair of seconds. In Spinnaker 4, Robert Bottomley and his Beneateau 47.7, Sailplane, hold a slim 2-point lead over Matt Abott and his sistership, Disco Inferno. Rick Wesslund's J/120, El Ocaso, is now leading pre-regatta favorite Sergio Sagramoso's Lazy Dog, and may be poised for the upset in Spinnaker 5. And Paul Christo Johnson's Bruggadung, a Beneteau 10M, needs a fine race tomorrow to hold off John Bishop's Expensive Habit, a J/100, which is only a point in arrears in Spinnaker 6. The Spinnaker 7 class is led by Michel Heidweiler on Vrijgezeilig.

In the bareboat classes today, Canadian Irek Zubko stood atop Bareboat 1 after registering his second win on the Jeanneau 49, Guilt. In Bareboats 2, Dutch sailors Rene Baartmans and Arwin Karssemeijer scored first and second, respectively, on the identical Moorings 505 sloops Harten Heer and Nautica.

Bareboats 3 saw another Dutch skipper, Hendricus van Greevenbroek on the Oceanis 473, Jufidet, overtake yesterdays winner, American Jeffrey Sochrin's Team Goldendog, which finished second. In Bareboats 4, David Saeys of Belgium recorded his second straight bullet aboard the Moorings 515, Papillon. The Bareboats 5 winner was Robert Thole, of the Netherlands, aboard the logically named Oceanis 440, Amsterdam. John Pinheiro's Moorings 403, was another back-to-back winner in Bareboats 6 on Scooby II.

In Non-Spinnaker 1, Bob Phillips sailed his rebuilt bareboat, Three Harkoms, to the winner's circle. So, too, did Bernie Evans-Wong, on Huey Too, repeating his winning ways from Friday's racing in Non-Spinnaker 2. Pascal Marchais won again in the Beach Cats class, where only 3 of the eight boats completed the course. In Multihull 1, Nils Erickson on the Formula 40, Soma, remained atop the leader board with another solid win, while in Multihull 2 the husband-and-wife Allaires are leading the field on No Limit. The Sun Odyssey, Infinito, skippered by Jorge Lopes, won today's Open Class race, as did the 12-Meter, Stars & Stripes, in the Exhibition Class.

On Sunday, the race committee will send the fleet on a course back from Marigot to Simpson Bay, where the prize giving and post-race party will take place on the sandy shores of Kim Sha Beach. The headliners for the grand finale's full slate of entertainment will be reggae starts Damian Marley and Stephen Marley.