Caribbean Perfection

I really can’t imagine how it could get any better at all.  It’s pretty near perfect here right now.  Here, of course, being the lovely St Martin where J/World is participating in the 2015 Heineken Regatta.  This event is world renowned for the epic Caribbean sailing conditions and serious hospitality and festivities that surround the sailing.

Some of the best sailing and sailors in the world are right here at the
2015 St. Martin Heineken Regatta!

We are thrilled to report that we have an excellent bunch of sailors charging the event onboard our J World West Coast entry.  The round-the-island race yesterday was a hoot.  We came off the starting line into a warm 25 knot breeze.   We opted to start out with a reefed main, but within moments of clearing the starting line we noticed that the headboard sliders had broken off the head of the sail.  The loads were threatening to break all of the slides holding the mainsail to the mast.  The only thing we could do to lessen the loads was to shake the reef (which would result in the halyard pulling the head of the sail towards/against the mast, thus lessening the loads on the farther down sail slides).  So while other boats were taking in second reefs an dramatically reducing sail area, I think we intimidated EVERYONE by actually increasing our main size.  So we struggled a bit, but mad it work…  and managed to hammer our way into the lead before we got around the backside of the island, and never gave it up (even though we blew up two mainsheet blocks and had to perform another quick fix! Awesome job, team!

Here’s the view from the YC.  Some absolutely stunning sailing yachts.

Today we had races 2 and three.   Each was a 10 mile course along the south western shore of the island.  Of course, the sailing conditions were perfect.  And I’m proud to report that our team managed another pair of victories.  So as of now, we are well in the lead of the Division A charterboats with three first places…  just one more race tomorrow, and I am expecting out team to bring their A-Game!

A couple of our J World team members soaking in the Caribbean., holding down the, er, bar?

Simpson Bay at Sunset.  That’s a lot of boats. The Lagoon is even more crowded.

The stage on the beach is set.    The party was in Phillipsburg last
night, but tonight an tomorrow night are right here!

That’s it for now…  more soon!

Wayne Zittel and the J World Team