Caribbean recovery continues with 45th St. Thomas International Regatta

St Thomas, USVI (March 23, 2018) – Nearly fifty boats will compete in the three-day 45th St. Thomas International Regatta (STIR), starting today and continuing to March 24.

Last year’s podium finishers well represent CSA Spinnaker Classes. In fact, the first through third place boats in Spinnaker 1 in 2017 are back to battle again. In order, these are St. Thomas’ Peter Corr’s King 40, Blitz; Teamwork powered by El Ocaso; and Big(gest) Trouble, St. Petersburg, Florida’s Tom Elsen’s Melges 32. Likewise, Touch2Play Racing’s Butler’s is back and looks forward to bettering their second-place finish last year in CSA Spinnaker 2.

New this year is a one-design Hobie Wave class. The beef-up of the beach cat class this year is ideal since the boats are beach-able. This is something that helps ease the traffic at the dock, which is much smaller due to hurricane damage.

“Beach cat racing is very in touch with the water and is usually laid back with lots of laughter out on the course and even more on shore,” says St. Thomas’ John Holmberg, who has sailed a number of types of beach cats in STIR in the past and is a former Prindle 19 National Champion. “I am looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones too.”

Another Hobie Wave entrant is St. Thomas’ Kyree Culver. “This will be my first time skippering in a major regatta. I like the fun and friendly attitude of the beach cat sailors. I will be sailing by myself.; no crew needed on the Hobie Wave! I’m excited about the range of experience in the fleet. There will be newcomers like me and experts like John Holmberg.

Equally large at 13 boats is the one-design IC24 class, with sailors representing the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, St. Maarten and the U.S.A.

“We are looking forward to giving our best in the IC24 class competition, to support our neighboring island of St. Thomas, and to have lots of fun,” says Puerto Rico’s Luigi Miranda, who is crewing on El Castigo del Pollo.

“Our skipper, Gilberto Rivera, is an experienced IC24 and J24 class competitor with previous STIR participations. Our trimmer, Kiko Dalmau, is another experienced sailor that has participated in many international sailing championships in other classes such as Melges 32. Our foredeck, Lucas Miranda, is a young experienced sailor that has represented Puerto Rico in several international youth championships in the RS-X and Techno windsurfing classes.”

Event information – Racing details – Entry list

Source: STIR