SMYC Cruiser's Regatta

This past Sunday, April 25th, Paul and I participated in a Cruiser's Regatta...

Back track time!

Almost every time we are out sailing, there is another sailing vessel (SV) that takes advantage of the fair finds: SV Bunglebird, a really interesting 33' monohull that has a 'wishbone' shaped "boom" and a mast placed directly at the bow. The captain has been racing competitively for about 40 years, and it's an absolute marvel to see him out on the water. We usually don't see him for long though, because he's gone long before we could ever dream of catching up to him!

Photo courtesy of: St. Maarten Yacht Club

One day after coming back into the lagoon at the 5:00 bridge opening, SV Bunglebird and its captain, Robbie, coasted next to us while we motored to our mooring. Our first thought was something along the lines of: Oh no... what did we do wrong?! Thinking we had made a grave sailing 'faux pas,' we were ready to get a strip torn off of us. However, it was Robbie wanting to invite us to participate in a Cruiser's Regatta! He was helping to organize it on behalf of the St. Maarten Yacht Club (SMYC) and wanted to give us an 'honorary membership' to compete. Gratefully accepting his invitation, we signed up for our first regatta with our big baby, Panta Rhei.

Fast forward time!

The regatta was AWESOME! We had two extra crew members on board, colleagues and friends Greg and Maryanne, to help us out. The day started at 7:45 AM on the boat with a race briefing, in which we looked over the map of the regatta course, as well as the requirements for tacks and jibes in regards to the port or starboard side of our SV in respect to buoys and markers.

We were off through the 8:30 bridge opening, and had about an hour to kill before getting geared up to race. We started by raising our main sail fully; but after some gusts in the bay, we chickened out and reefed our main sail to make it smaller. There were three classes in this regatta - the racing class, cruising class, and the multihull class. For the cruiser's class, there was only our boat - Panta Rhei - and Robbie's SV - Bunglebird. Remember how I mentioned Robbie has 40+ years of racing experience? Yeeeeah, we were pretty much just fodder for him, lambs to the slaughter so to speak! However, we learned a lot and were able to push our comfort limits while still respecting the rigging specs of our SV. The cruiser's class race started at 9:55 AM, and we managed to make it out of the bay - after circling the starting marker, the first buoy, and the second buoy (making a type of 'sausage' track) - around 10:30 AM. By that time, Bunglebird was far, far out of sight!

We reached our next marker - a large buoy in Marigot bay on the French side of the island - after some intense blasting wind gusts. It was the hardest our boat has ever heeled (leaning over drastically to one side), as well as the hardest we've ever pushed her. We clocked a max of 7.5 knots, and Paul says he's never seen that much 'bottom' of our boat leaning out of the water before while heeling. I wouldn't know, because my eyes were squeezed tightly shut in those "exciting" moments! Paul handled our boat beautifully, and I am so proud of his accomplishments.

We finally reached our destination - Friar's Bay - around 1:10 PM, just over 3 hours after the beginning of the regatta. Passing through two yellow markers to indicate the 'finish line' of the regatta was a huge sigh of relief. And our competitor, SV Bunglebird? They had arrived about an hour prior to us, and were on anchor enjoying some lovely refreshments before taking their dinghy ashore for lunch! As we cruised by them, they yelled a hearty congratulations to us for completing our very first regatta!

It was a leisurely sail back to Simpson Bay, arriving around 4:25 PM. Bunglebird DID manage to make it there before us - even after enjoying lunch ashore! But, for us, making it through the regatta, and back to Simpson Bay, was a personal best and huge accomplishment in our books. Plus, we won 2nd place in the cruising class of the regatta! It's just a small note that there were only two competitors in total. :)

After making it through the 5:00 bridge, we were all feeling sunkissed, windswept, and ready for a hearty meal. As we were cleaning up the boat, Robbie motored over in his dinghy to congratulate us once more. "Why didn't you come ashore?" he asked us. "Because we would never have made the 5:00 bridge if we did!" I laughed. Robbie assured us that our big baby really could be pushed even more, and he graciously offered to come sailing with us to show us the ropes. With such a wealth of knowledge, how could we refuse?

Overall, it was a day of excitement, learning, pushing our comfort limits, and enjoying those three W's: wind, waves, and weather. Paul will be participating in the next SMYC regatta on May 15th and 16th, working as crew on another captain's boat. They were looking for a good strong crew to winch the spinnaker (basically, crank the winch handle to bring in the sheet as fast as you possibly can, while the force steadily increases and increases)... so I'll be a spectator for that one!

Photo courtesy of: St. Maarten Yacht Club

Here you can read the article directly from SMYC for more information about the regatta: https://www.smyc.com/post/sint-maarten-yacht-club-s-first-simpson-bay-to-friar-s-bay-race-much-appreciated-by-13-competitors?fbclid=IwAR3hSrXVyxH-1XOCpEkwXeZZygukf3L53EeQJGcPLGHj28xyR8m_PfYPpyM

"In the Cruising class Bunglebird, a Nonsuch 33 owned by Robbie Ferron, sailed against Paul Beaton in the Bavaria 390 Panta Rhei. Having cruised the Sint Maarten coastline for several months, this was the first actual race of Panta Rhei, putting them in second place behind Bunglebird in first place."

And here is the official photo gallery (we made the cut!): https://smycmanager.wixsite.com/simpson-bay-to-friar

That's all for now, friends and fam! Sending our love your way!

- [First Mate] Toni