Sailing news from the Caribbean, Florida, and California, plus Vendee Globe and Cup reports
by David Schmidt 4 Feb 16:00 UTC
February 4, 2025
Day 2 of the Caribbean Multihull Challenge © Laurens Morel
While February doesn't enjoy the greatest reputation as a fine sailing month for most parts of North America (ahem), the same isn't true for the Caribbean or the Sunshine State. Case in point: the Saint Maarten Yacht Club's 7th Annual Caribbean Multihull Challenge Race and Rally delivered four days of engaging race (January 30-February 2) for the Diam 24 fleet and for the bigger handicap cats that were competing in the CSA division.
In total, the Diam 24 fleet scored 10 races, while the bigger multihulls contested a total of four longer races using nearby geography as turning marks.
After four races, Andrew Anne and his crew aboard LAYLA, his Gunboat 72, took top honors in the five-strong handicap fleet, followed by Adrian Lee and his Lee Overlay Partners III (a H/H 66) squad, and Kimmo Nordstrom and his Calamity crew (a Marsaudon ORC 50).
In the nine-strong Diam 24 fleet, Jan Sotelo and his Anomaly crew were the fastest trimaran in the bunch. They were joined on the winner's podium by Ted Reshetiloff's Buzz Race Team-The Mule, and Altier Pierre's Crybaby team.
While it's clear that the multihull crowd had a great weekend of mid-winter racing, good times were also had on the waters off of St. Thomas, where the St. Thomas Sailing Center, which serves as the St. Thomas Yacht Club's sailing school, held their Open House. This free event gave island residents a chance to try sailing on a fleet of IC24s and Hobie Wave catamarans, with an eye towards attracting more participants.
"Today's Open House gave many of our community members a chance to experience sailing firsthand and learn more about what we have to offer, from beginner sailing to competitive racing," said Robert Brooks, director of the St. Thomas Sailing Center, said in an official event release. "We're excited to welcome more local islanders into our programs, providing an affordable way for adults and families to enjoy these waters we call home. We look forward to seeing many of today's participants back soon to join our growing sailing community."
Meanwhile, and back Stateside, the M32 Miami Winter Series Event 2 (February 2-4) is currently unfurling in the Sunshine State. After five races on Sunday, Ryan McKillen's Surge team is topping the leaderboard with a perfect scorecard, followed by Miles Julien's YoungBlood team, and Bill Ruh's Pursuit squad.
While McKillen seemed pleased about the first day's results, he was even more focused on his team's big-picture goals.
"We've been in this fleet a long time: We want to win the Worlds," said McKillen in an official event communication.
McKillen is being assisted in these efforts by tactician Taylor Canfield, who otherwise spends his time driving the U.S.-flagged F50 on the SailGP circuit.
"This week Ryan did the best I've seen him do yet, which was really cool," Canfield said in an official regatta report. "You can see him growing, and the wheels turning all the time to just be better in his role."
Be sure to get the latest from the M32 Miami Winter Series Event 2, as it breaks.
Jumping to the West Coast, the weekend also saw the Singlehanded Sailing Society's annual Three Bridge Fiasco play out on the waters of San Francisco Bay. The event, which is commonly referred to as the biggest sailboat event west of the Mississippi River, saw 303 starters engage in this pursuit-style race that took the fleet on a Bay tour involving marks that can be rounded in any direction and order (hence, the event's moniker), as well as the Bay three iconic bridges (Golden Gate, Bay Bridge, and the Richmond/San Rafael Bridge).
This year presented light airs, a strong ebb tide, and a firm 1700 cutoff time that resulted in over 200 boats withdrawing from the race.
While these numbers suggest some possible frustration at the conditions, the key thing to remember here is these crews got to enjoy a day on the water while many of us (my hand is waving in the air) spent the weekend piling on layers to ward off abnormally "brisk" temperatures.
Changing time zones to Europe and offshore news, in the last week seven more solo sailors have crossed the finishing line of the nonstop around-the-world Vendée Globe race, which starts and finishes on the waters off of Les Sables d'Olonne, France.
Boris Herrmann, sailing aboard Malizia - Seaexplorer was the 12th slipper to crosss the finishing with a time of 80 days, 10 hours, 16 minutes, and 41 seconds. He was followed by Samantha Davies (80 days, 22 hours, 13 minutes, and 39 seconds), Romain Attanasio (83 days, 22 hours, 48 minutes, and 18 seconds), Damien Sequin (84 days, 20 hours, 31 minutes, and 48 seconds), Benjamin Ferre (84 days, 23 hours, 19 minutes and 39 seconds), Tanguy Le Turquais (84 days, 23 hours, 35 minutes, and 29 seconds), and Alan Roura (84 days, 23 hours, 55 minutes, and 48 seconds).
At the time of this writing (Monday morning, Pacific Standard Time), three other skippers—Isabelle Joschke, Jean Le Cam, and Conrad Colman—are within 100 nautical miles of the finishing line and are all sailing at speeds around 10 knots, meaning that their races should soon be over.
This leaves 11 skippers still on the course, with three poor souls (Manuel Cousin, Fabrice Amedeo, and Denis Van Weynbergh) still looking at over 4,000 nautical miles to go before their first steps ashore in months.
Sail-World congratulates all Vendée finishers (and near finishers), and we have a candle lit that the rest of the fleet enjoys safe passage back to France.
Finally, in Cup news, be sure to get Sail-World New Zealand editor Richard Gladwell's take on latest twists and turns in the America's Cup world, where news broke last week of a divorce of sorts between INEOS Britannia's money and design interests (lead by Sir Jim Ratcliffe) and their sailing team (the Athena Racing Team, led by Sir Ben Ainslie). As Gladwell rightly points out in this long-form read, one of the biggest questions at stake pertains to which faction will represent the Royal Yacht Squadron, which is the official Challenger of Record for the 38th America's Cup.
If it sounds like things in the Cup world might get weird before they get cool, you're unfortunately on the right tack.
May the four winds blow you safely home.
David Schmidt
Sail-World.com North American Editor