Racing on Island Time
There’s plenty of ways to get sailing and get in on the serious fun at the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta
Like many of the competitors, Crum sails with a mix of regular crew and pick ups.
“The crew is made up of a hodgepodge of people, including Q’s regular crew from Bayfield and Minneapolis, some who I have sailed with for 20 years, along with people we have just met in the islands,” Crum said.
Having raced nine previous Heineken Regattas on various boats, Crum said that the event is always a great time, with well-run racing and onshore fun, even though he’s now too old for the late night adventures, preferring to head back to the crew villa after the awards.
“This year we had a very novice crew, so we had a little problem with the windward-leewards on the first days of racing,” Crum said. “But we were very pleased to take a bullet in the round-the-island race.”
“Like a lot of other boats, we just carry a No. 3 because of the rating hit under CSA,” Crum said. “Most of the time it’s windy enough that you’re sailing under a No. 3 anyway.”
Quintessence III finished 7th in CSA 6 after having to drop out of the final day of racing with an equipment failure.
“We still had a great time, and St. Maarten is a great place to get your boat fixed in the Caribbean.”
The draw for many is the varied race courses, tailored to each class. With two separate starting lines, the race committee sends the boats on a mixed bag of windward-leewards and loop-de-loops courses that often send the multihulls and bigger race boats to a longer course on the windward side of the island, and other classes on more gentler routes on the leeward side.
While St. Maarten may bring in sailors from around the world, there is plenty of terrific island-based talent with local favorites such as the Melges 32 Lazy Dog from Puerto Rico and the J/122 Liquid from Antigua winning their classes. And it’s not just for out-of-towners.
The island has also long been fostering its own sailors. The Sint Maarten Yacht Club has an active learn-to-sail youth program and the young sailors competed on Simpson Bay aboard the club’s RS Zest fleet in the Next Generation Regatta, and winners were awarded prizes during the evening festivities alongside the big boat winners at the regatta village. But some of its students have already moved on to race in the regatta.
“I grew up racing a Laser 4.7 at the club, and two years ago I got into small keelboat racing with my friends, racing last year’s Heineken Regatta on a Sunfast 20,” said 17-year-old Jordan Pieterse. “I was looking to try something new, and Garth Steyn from the Maritime School of the West Indies offered to let me helm his J-70 Franny for this year’s regatta.”
Racing in CSA 7 against a mixed bag of J/105s and small production racers, the team finished sixth.
“I’m much more nervous racing with professional sailors, but I hope this is a first step to full-time sailing,” she said. “It would be great to get sailing against other J/70s.”
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