This morning, the energy as well as enthusiasm of the Swan crews and owners at the Rolex Swan Cup Caribbean were not influenced by the late night dancing under the stars at the Oil Nut Bay Beach Party.
Rolex Swan Cup Caribbean - Racing Class A - Photo by Rolex/Carlo Borlenghi
With ten knots of prevailing Caribbean winds out of the East, racing got underway at 1100 in the event organized by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda at its Caribbean base in Virgin Gorda. The course for the racing divisions reversed the route taken yesterday, with a downwind start outside North Sound down Drake’s Passage keeping the Dog Islands to starboard.
Turning North with Round Rock to port the fleet raced hard on the wind along the East coast of Virgin Gorda before turning west at Pajaros Point, launching their spinnakers to pass Oil Nut Bay and continue towards Necker Island and on to the finish. PRO Peter Craig ensured that the fleet returned to the dock in good time for the ClubSwan Cocktail competition, which just got underway.
In the Maxi class a repeat performance of yesterday’s textbook sailing saw Swan 80 sailing yacht Selene take the wind off of Jim Madden’s Swan 601 yacht Stark Raving Mad. Meanwhile in Class B, it was the South Africans on James Blackmore’s Swan 53 Music who were first in class with Phil Lotz’s Club Swan 42 Arethusa in second.
Swan 100 superyacht Varsovie at Rolex Swan Cup Caribbean - Photo by Rolex/Carlo Borlenghi
“Pretty light conditions should make things a little more interesting in the coming days. We hope it is not too light, as we want to get the races in. We picked the sails we’d need down range under 10 knots, which we haven’t seen much of. We always like coming here to this part of the islands, warm weather and nice breezes. The atmosphere and the parties are great,” said Phil Lotz (USA).
Making the most of the event is the Cruising Class, specially created by the YCCS Technical Officer offering shorter courses, no spinnakers and a rating system classified from ‘top secret’ to ‘incredibly super top secret’. After two days of ‘racing’, Swan 44 yacht Hokusai (FIN) leads the Cruising Class.
Racing continues tomorrow at 1100 local time.
