Thursday saw the crew on board charter yacht AQUARIUS having a great first day of sailing, in which they valiantly defied a 90 minute morning squall. By the time of my evening arrival everyone was in fine form to party, having already finished taking the winches apart and cleaning them after this challenging day of racing.
The party, located at Dutch Sint Maarten’s Port de Plaisance on picturesque Simpson Bay, was tremendous fun, featuring rockin’ music and delightful cuisine. The eclectic crowd included jubilant local families, whose little children danced energetically about the grounds. Not to mention of course, the yacht crews, finally able to relax, drink lots of Heineken and eye the many local beauties. Big screens broadcast videos with highlights of the races.
I had dinner on board an elegant Jeanneau 43, which was moored out in Simpson Bay (a bit of a rolly polly place) and gliding on the water from the marina to the mooring on the dinghy the dense forest of glittering masthead lights was truly breathtaking. I am delighted to report that the number of boats in the harbor has easily doubled from last year, including an array of imposing mega yachts. I anticipate a brilliant day of events tomorrow and will keep you posted, with luck right from the rail!
U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) Sailing Foundation’s STP 65 Vanquish will be used in the 2011 All-American Offshore Team (AAOT) Campaign. (Photo Credit Chris Gasiorek)
With the recent establishment of the All-American Offshore Team (AAOT), young American sailors have a unique opportunity to expand their sailing horizons. The AAOT, an extension of the non-profit U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) Sailing Foundation, is committed to providing “high-performance offshore training opportunities for an upcoming generation of American ocean racing leaders” and is currently fund raising and recruiting a team to campaign the Foundation’s STP 65 Vanquish in four key 2011 events: the 66th annual Storm Trysail Club Around Block Island Race; the Annapolis to Newport Race; the Transatlantic Race (Newport, R.I. to the Lizard, U.K.) and the Rolex Fastnet Race (Cowes, U.K. to Plymouth, U.K.).
The AAOT effort is led by Charlie Enright (Bristol, R.I.), Mark Towill (Kaneohe, Hawaii), Jesse Fielding (Wickford R.I.), Chris Branning (Sarasota, Fla.) and Matt Noble (San Francisco, Calif.), who is captain of Vanquish. Enright, Towill, Fielding and Branning helped lead Disney’s Morning Light team, which competed in the 2007 Transpac Race under the tutelage of the late Roy Disney. (Walt Disney Pictures produced a documentary that followed the TP52 Morning Light and its 15-person crew of young sailors, hand-picked from hundreds of resumes, through six months of training and the race itself.)
USMMA Sailing Foundation President Ralf Steitz hatched the idea for AAOT early in January, 2011, when his long-time desire to create a youth-driven effort in the sport of ocean racing was re-awakened by a German youth team entering the Transatlantic Race aboard the Andrews 56 Norddeutche. “I thought ‘if they can do it, why can’t we?’” said Steitz, whose concept was endorsed by USMMA and other leaders in the sailing world, including Oakcliff Sailing Center and the Storm Trysail Club. Steitz added that among the members of a newly forming AAOT Advisory Board are himself, Oakcliff Sailing Center’s Executive Director Dawn Riley and USMMA’s Waterfront Director Chris Gasiorek.
Enright, a four-time Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association All-American at Brown University recently competed in team race championships in Australia and England and took home top marks in the 2010 Caribbean 600. Towill, a senior at Brown University, is an active member of the Brown Sailing Team and after his Morning Light career he sailed in the 2008 Pacific Cup and 2009 Transpac Race. Fielding skippered his University of Rhode Island keelboat team in the 2009 Collegiate World Cup in France and has competed in numerous ocean races including the 2009 Transpac and the 2010 Caribbean 600 Race. Branning, a star navigator in the 2009 IRC East Coast Championships and the 2010 Newport to Ensenada Race, recently took home first place in the 2010 Rolex Middle Sea Race.
In late-May 2011, prior to the Storm Trysail Club Around Block Island Race, the full team will congregate at USMMA headquarters (New York, N.Y.) to participate in a Safety at Sea Seminar and begin practice. In early June, the 2011 AAOT will relocate to Annapolis, Maryland for the start of the Annapolis to Newport Race. Following that, in late June, will be an offshore training session held in Newport, R.I., as the final preparation for the 2,975 nautical mile Transatlantic Race, which takes place in late June 2011 and finishes in the U.K. In August 2011, the team will remain in the U.K. to prepare for the Rolex Fastnet Race, which starts in Cowes.
“Positive support from all corners of the sailing community is needed to get this team off the ground and on to the water,” said Charlie Enright, AAOT’s sailing team manager. “We finally have the chance to shine light on a new generation of offshore sailors and need to seize the opportunity.”
WHISPER is an extraordinary sailing yacht, launched in 2003, that features every classic detail you can imagine. This luxurious 116ft. sloop features naval architecture and styling by renowned Ted Hood/Ted Fontaine with supremely elegant interiors by Andrew Winch. WHISPER, built by Holland Jachtbouw, was the distinguished winner of the 2004 ShowBoats Award for Best Sailing Yacht Under 40 Meters.
WHISPER is an ideal yacht from which to view some of the Caribbean’s most exhilarating competitions. St. Maarten’s Heineken Regatta, March 3-6, St. Barth’s Bucket, 24-27 March, and Les Voiles de St. Barth, 4-9 April, pit award winning world class teams against each other to challenge the seas.
Guests on board WHISPER will thrill to magnificent views from the raised pilot house featuring L-shaped banquette seating and congenial bar area. This luxury sailing yacht also has a spacious cockpit that seats up to 10 guests.
WHISPER has a regular weekly rate of $80,000 but is being offered at the reduced rate of $69,000 per week. This supremely elegant yacht features a highly skilled crew of five that are dedicated to providing the ultimate charter experience.
Boatbookings regatta expert Meg Toppa is keeping her fingers crossed for her highly skilled charter client and his race crew who will be racing to win in the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta on board charter race yacht AQUARIUS.
AQUARIUS is a Nauter Swan 601 high performance sailing yacht with lightweight design for sailing at top racing speed. AQUARIUS classic lines and meticulously handcrafted interiors belie the most advanced building techniques and materials used in construction. AQURIUS features custom interiors and deck layout while maintaining hull shape and rig configuration that comply with one-design class rules.
Meg explains that AQUARIUS’ charter client has an impressive history of previous race participation aboard his own yacht, but this will be the first time he will be racing the superb charter Swan 601, AQUARIUS. He will set the agenda, although the captain of AQUARIUS will be on board (as per insurance requirements), and is sure to lend a most valuable hand to the team.
In a recent press release, AQUARIUS, a middle range contender, was described as “a dangerous presence” in the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta, the first of three competitions that the AQUARIUS team will undertake. Prior to the Rolex Regatta in St. Thomas, March 25-27 and the Tortola BVI Spring Regatta, March 28-April 3, a between race cruise week is scheduled for March 17-23, when the charter client onboard AQUARIUS will get a little respite.
The St. Maarten Heineken Regatta is scheduled from March 3-6, which puts AQUARIUS in the delivery mode at present. Toppa explains, “there are three modes that the race yacht can be in; delivery, cruise, or race modes. Each of these three modes requires changing the sheets, halyards and sails.”
The delivery mode entails lots of logistics, shipping the container with gear, and hotel and flight arrangements for the crew of six, required by any transit exceeding 300 miles. This allows two watches of three crew; one navigating, one helming and one trimming.
This is also a critical time of preparation, which the Captain of AQUARIUS, ChrisRingdahl, describes as very labor intensive. In fact just a couple of days ago, he and his wife were still sanding the keel past midnight. This is all part of playing to win.
Coming up is racing mode on AQUARIUS, when on each exhilarating race day the yacht is stripped to reduce weight and the forward berth becomes the sail locker. At day’s end, numerous chores include removing the drums from each of the nine winches for cleaning.
Keep checking Boatbloggings for AQUARIUS updates from Boatbookings racing expert Meg Toppa. She will be reporting up to the minute news (hopefully from the rail) throughout the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta.
Core Builders of Warkworth, New Zealand, the company responsible for the legendary design that won the 2010 America’s Cup, launched the much anticipated AC45 racing catamaran in Auckland Harbour this week. The sleek and swift AC45 received rave reviews from the international sailing community on hand to participate in the launch.
The AC45 catamaran, a scaled-down version of the boats to race in the next America’s Cup, has been aptly nicknamed the “little sister with attitude”. The high-tech, wing-sailed catamaran is the first of 10 to be constructed by Core Builders in the next six months. The goal is to sail the cutting edge builds in a series of Cup pre-regattas, which have been rebranded the “America’s Cup World Series”, scheduled for June or early July this year.
Oracle skipper James Spithill was at the helm on the maiden voyage, while internationally renowned members of the racing community gathered dockside to witness the event including America’s Cup principal race officer Harold Bennett, Americas’ Cup veteran and sailing TV commentator Peter Lester, and Andy Hindley, of America’s Cup Race Management. According to reports, all were extremely impressed with the speed and agility of the AC45 and forecast a winning future for the Americas Cup.
The party, located at Dutch Sint Maarten’s Port de Plaisance on picturesque Simpson Bay, was tremendous fun, featuring rockin’ music and delightful cuisine. The eclectic crowd included jubilant local families, whose little children danced energetically about the grounds. Not to mention of course, the yacht crews, finally able to relax, drink lots of Heineken and eye the many local beauties. Big screens broadcast videos with highlights of the races.
