Racing concludes at Les Voiles de St. Barth

Saturday’s single race for each of the 10 sailing classes at Les Voiles de St. Barth determined the overall winners of the event and marked the fourth and final day of the regatta.

Boats competing ranged from multihulls such as Lloyd Thornburg's Mod 70 Phaedo 3 to new-builds such as George David's Rambler 88 and Jim and Kristy Hinze-Clarke's Comanche (at 100 feet, one of the largest boats) to the more traditional grand prix racers in the 50 to 70 foot range and smaller racing/cruising boats.

While teams in six classes had clinched their overall victories on Saturday, four classes went down to the wire in 15 to 20 knot winds.

Jeremy Pilkington, the winning captain of Lupa of London commented, “It was a very interesting race course. There was much more going on today than there was on the courses that were set earlier in the week, so it kept us busy. We had a few little challenges and a few ups and downs going around, but we were very pleased with how we did. We had to finish top-three and were assuming that Selene was going to win on handicap, and we did a little bit better than that.”

In the Spinnaker 2 class, which sailed a shorter version of the 28-mile course, Ramanessin, chartered by Germany's Christian Zugel, raced against El Ocaso and Ventarron with only one point separating the boats going into the last day.

Christian Zugel commented, “Today it was very tight. We started with one point up, so if we had finished second today we would not have won. Right at the start line we were lined up very nicely, but one boat came from the left on the port side and hit us, so you can see some pretty big scratches on the front of our boat but luckily no further damage. We decided to keep going and managed to win. I'm German but live in the US and I am crewing with a team of Irish and English sailors who have sailed all over the world, so it is a great experience for us all to be here.”

The event's largest, fastest boats sailed in the Maxi 1 class and it was George David's Rambler 88 that won the four-race series. All eyes had been on Rambler 88 and the larger Comanche during the first two race days, since no one had yet seen the two boats sail against each other.

George David commented, “I'm very happy, I think we sailed very well to rating, and we are just a click off Comanche. Of course, they have the big-boat edge and get in front, and that tends to help a little bit, but I am impressed by how fast we are. In fact, I'm very impressed. This boat is wicked quick and I think we'll do even better in the future. I don't count us out for records, including the Transatlantic Race 2015 this summer, which we hold already (with Rambler 100).”

At the prize giving, Principal Event Partner Richard Mille presented George David, who also was the overall winner of the Maxi division, with a Richard Mille Caliber RM 60-01 Regatta watch.

For more information, visit Les Voiles de St. Barth.