The mid-February day started out like so many other sailing events I’ve enjoyed over the years: meeting up with a new crew, scoping out the particulars of a boat I’d never sailed, reviewing the sailing instructions and forecast for the day’s race, and then dropping the dock lines and heading out. Such is the life of an itinerant sailing writer, and I’ve never taken any of it for granted. 

Little did I know, however, that before this day was done, I’d hear something bordering on the profound. 

It was the opening day of the St. Petersburg, Florida, edition of the Sailing World Regatta Series, sponsored by Cruising World’s sister publication. As he often does, my longtime J/24 mate Dave Reed, the editor of Sailing World, threw me an assignment: Go racing with a team of seasoned homeboys from the St. Petersburg Yacht Club on the day’s distance race, a relatively new element of the regatta for the cruiser/racer set. I was more than happy to oblige. 

Which is how I made the acquaintance of Tim Landt and his close pal Doug Jones, who attended high school in the same prehistoric era that I did, and who have been racing sailboats together ever since. The pair were in the same class as a couple of other St. Pete luminaries, Ed Baird and Allison Jolley, who each rose to the pinnacle of the sport—the former as a winning America’s Cup skipper, the latter as an Olympic gold medalist. “Doug and I were different,” Landt said, laughing. “We had to go to work.”

Landt grew up racing Optimists and Lasers, moved into crewed boats with a Columbia 24 and a Cal 40, and even owned a couple of big Ted Irwin-designed cruising boats. But he seemed proudest of his current ride, a relatively rare Nightwind 35, a centerboard sloop designed by his friend and hero, the late Bruce Kirby, who also created the ubiquitous Laser. “I’d been looking for one for years,” Landt said. “They never come up for sale.” This past October, one did, and he pounced. 

This was only the third race aboard his new Charisma, but he downplayed it. “I got all my old buddies together,” he said. “We’re just out here to have fun.”

But Landt was—how shall we put this?—an aggressive and vocal racer, and he wasn’t there to fool around. He nailed a port-tack start; was on the foredeck for a sail change as the breeze built; called out spinnaker trim early and often; and was more or less a cyclone the entire race, in which Charisma scored a respectable fourth in the 13-boat Cruising division. A very good sailor, Landt’s enthusiasm and exuberance were infectious; it’s always great to sail with a dude who just bloody loves it, and it was clear he did.  

Back at the dock, Landt shared a cool story about naming Charisma: As a kid, he landed a gig as a gofer for a wealthy captain of industry in the days of the great Southern Ocean Racing Conference series. The guy had a boat by the same name. “He was so humble,” Landt said. “I always said if I got a nice race boat, I’d call it Charisma.”

And then, he added: “You’re a writer, you might appreciate this. An old commodore, who was also my coach, once told me that the key to sailing is recreation. That’s what you have to turn it into. Now take that word apart, it’s re-creation. You always have to re-create yourself through your recreation. And that’s what sailing does for me.”

In the moment, I laughed and thanked him for a fine day. Only later did it occur to me that Landt had put into simple terms something I’ve always felt about sailing. I’m sure that a ­truly manic surfer or alpinist would say the same thing. That time away from the daily grind, laser-focused on the natural world, is priceless. Every time I’m on the water, whether on a daysail or after crossing an ocean, I come away refreshed and renewed. A new man. Hopefully a better one. Re-created. 

It always keeps me coming back for more.

Herb McCormick is a CW editor-at-large.

The post The Re-creation: My Day at the St. Pete Regatta appeared first on Cruising World.

If you’re ever looking for a good dose of humility, try joining the French crew on a French-built performance catamaran in a sporty breeze on Rhode Island’s Newport Harbor.

I was nursing a cold one with my longtime yacht broker pal and sailing buddy, El Jefe (yes, that’s actually what he goes by), at the Black Pearl on Bannister’s Wharf, comparing notes on a sweet Nautitech we had just sailed. The breeze was stiff on the sound in the wake of a front that had ripped through, and, as anticipated, the ride was a thrill.

What I hadn’t expected was to feel so utterly useless. To be honest, I got my ass handed to me out there. I spent most of the ride trying to stay out of the way as the crew made the catamaran fly.

I’d been raised in a family who sailed monohulls, so opportunities to sail cats had been few and far between, save for the occasional charter or sea trial, which usually tends to err on the milquetoast side of sailing. My lack of experience showed that day. I consider myself a pretty darn good sailor, but put me on a fast-paced multihull machine, and I’m about as useful as a putter in a sand trap.

So, when Steve Burzon, co-founder and organizer of the Caribbean Multihull Challenge, hit me up to join this year’s rally, I leapt at the opportunity. I signed on to help crew a Sunsail 424 charter cat for four days in the Leeward Islands.

To be clear, I’m not a racing guy. Dave Reed, editor of our sister publication, Sailing World, is a racing guy. That dude can carve circles around me on a course. And, for many a monohuller, an event with the words “multihull” and “challenge” in the title might conjure feelings of inadequacy. I get that. But for me, the idea of steering a little outside my lane, challenging myself to become a better multihull sailor, had a lot of appeal.

And so I joined the ranks of scores of other casual sailors who decided to take a new tack in their cruising careers, pushing their boats—or even just themselves—a little bit further. Around the water cooler, I’ve started referring to this as competitive cruising.

Competitive cruising can be different things for different sailors. It can be racing, to some—the regatta scene is robust and a great opportunity to test your competitive spirit in a controlled environment with other like-minded cruisers. For others, it might be joining a rally to somewhere over the horizon, as I did. And for the scant few who become skilled and confident enough, maybe it means chasing adventure way off the grid.

This spring, 29-year-old sailor Cole Brauer just became the first American woman to sail solo nonstop around the world, finishing in second place in the Global Solo Challenge aboard her 40-foot racing boat, First Light. Brauer, who captured worldwide attention through her Instagram posts chronicling the treacherous 30,000-mile journey, said that she hopes young girls in and out of the sport can draw inspiration from her experience. She has received hundreds of comments from people saying that although they’d never sailed before, they were amazed by her bravery, tenacity and positive outlook.

Her milestone is more than a physical triumph; it’s a testament to her courage. She faced a challenge head-on as she persevered through rough seas and navigated the complexities on board for 130 days. That’s the sort of indomitable spirit we should all celebrate as adventurers of the sea. She may not have won the race, but she’s a champion all the way.

Competitive cruising is about the fact that the allure of sailing lies not just in the destinations we reach, but also in our journey of continual learning and growth.

As I navigated the tumultuous waters of the Newport Bay, grappling with the complexities of an unfamiliar catamaran, I realized that the true sport of sailing transcends vessel types. It’s about embracing the unknown, embracing the challenges, and embracing the exhilarating feeling of sailing into uncharted territory. With that as our compass, our learning never ends.

The post Competitive Cruising: It’s a Rally, Not a Race appeared first on Cruising World.

Cantiere del Pardo is bringing back the Grand Soleil Cup, which is scheduled to take place from June 21 to June 23 off the coast of Costa Smeralda, Sardinia, in the Western Mediterranean.

This sailing event is organized in collaboration with the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda for the community of owners and enthusiasts of the Italian brand Grand Soleil Yachts. This will be the 22nd edition of the event.

Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, founded in 1967, is renowned all around the world. It has reciprocal agreements with the Monaco Yacht Club, the New York Yacht Club, the United Kingdom’s Royal Yacht Squadron and Germany’s Norddeutscher Regatta Verein. Yacht Club Costa Smeralda has long been known for its regattas, and is a major supporter of competitive offshore sailing in Italy. The Sardinia Cup is held in alternate years to the Admiral’s Cup race in the Solent, and since 1980, regattas have also included the Maxi Yacht World Championship and the Swan World Cup.

According to the organizers of the Grand Soleil Cup, all participants are welcome to moor in the Marina di Porto Cervo from Thursday, June 20, to Monday, June 24, but the first 40 registered boats will have the added benefit of a complimentary berth.

Festivities will begin on Thursday with a welcome for participants at the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda. Friday will be dedicated to registrations, followed by the crew briefing and cocktails on the terrace. Saturday and Sunday will be all about sailing, with a gala dinner on Saturday night.

Among the boats already registered, two Grand Soleil 72s and two Grand Soleil 65s stand out, the newest models in the line above 60 feet curated by Franco Corazza.

Other models that may participate, built by Grand Soleil Yachts, include Performance models from 40 to 80 feet long, and Long Cruise models from 42 to 72 feet long. The builder has been turning out yachts since 1973.

This past January, Grand Soleil announced its Blue concept, a 33-foot weekender conceived for sustainability and efficiency underway. Conceived by Cantiere del Pardo, Grand Soleil Blue gets its exterior and interior design by Nauta Design, with naval architecture by Matteo Polli. The boat is capable of accommodating as many as four guests overnight, promises zero environmental impact during sailing, and is marketed as having complete recyclability at the culmination of its life cycle.

Are registrations open now for the Grand Soleil Cup? Yes. Competitors must register by June 12 at www.yccs.com.

For more information: visit www.grandsoleil.net.

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The sun, the warm spray, the thrill of driving fast boats all day and then partying hard every night deep in the Caribbean—it’s an awesome trifecta. 

If you’re a cruising sailor who wants to give racing a try, there’s good news: You no longer have to fly into Antigua’s English Harbour, walk the docks, crew aboard a large schooner, and then pass out on sail bags on deck for the night. Today, there are many more options for getting in on the action during the Caribbean regatta season. 

The 2024 season began in January with the RORC Transatlantic Race. In February, there was the Caribbean Multihull Challenge, the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta and the RORC Caribbean 600. The season winds down starting in April with the BVI Spring Regatta, Antigua Classic Regatta and Antigua Sailing Week. 

If you’re on your own boat, then you can enter a cruising division using white sails (no black carbon fiber and no spinnaker). There are bareboat divisions for cruisers too. 

Don’t have your own cruising boat or bareboat? Each regatta website has a “crew board” where skippers post openings. Or do it the old-fashioned way: Walk the docks, hang out at the yacht club bar, and introduce yourself. Bring your sailing résumé with you. 

Tricked-out racing machines are available from a number of chartering outfits, usually at a higher price than cruising bareboats. Chris and Lucy Jackson run LV Yachting, a racing-boat charter agency in the UK. Chris brought Pata Negra, an IRC 46, to Antigua for a group of British sailors to charter. LV Charters also has a half-dozen retired Volvo Ocean 65s available for charter. 

Global Yacht Racing in the UK brings its Beneteau 47.7s into the Caribbean each season and offers berths for singles and couples—including sailors who are racing for the first time. 

“We take them out for a few days before the races to get them familiar with the positions and maneuvers, then it’s full-on racing,” says Andy Middleton, director of Global Yacht Racing. 

On Deck, based in English Harbour, offers a race-training program aboard a Farr 65, Spirit of Juno, and rents bunks aboard for regattas. 

Even people who are used to sailing faster typically enjoy racing charters. San Francisco-based racing skipper Bratz Schneider is among them. He chartered a Beneteau Oceanis 46 from The Moorings for a vacation with his regular racing team, and told me that they couldn’t get enough, even at a slower pace than they usually hit. “We were all having a blast,” he says. For more information about these events and all of the ones in between, check out caribbean-sailing.com/calendar.

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Spinnakers popped up on the horizon like Easter bonnets on parade during the third and final day of racing in the 50th St. Thomas International Regatta (STIR). The breeze, blowing 10 to 17 knots, gave a glimpse of its traditional easterly trade winds direction on the final day of racing, a change from the unusual westerly winds that gave sailors a tactical run for their money during the regatta’s first two days. While the IC24 Class raced round-the-buoys in Great Bay, the rest of the fleet sailed a nearly 14 nm course that wove round-the-rocks across Pillsbury Sound to the north and south of St. John and back. In the end, Flying Jenny, Apollo, Exodus, Wild T’ing, Bill T and OT the App were the class winners.

The winner of the CSA 1 Class, filled with One-Design Cape 31s, wasn’t decided until the last leg of the one race of the day and the last of the regatta.

“We knew whoever won would win the regatta,” said Rob Greenhalgh, tactician aboard class champ and US-based Flying Jenny. “There was a hard fight at the start, and we won it by being at the pin end. That was the key for us. However, it was still a battle as the wind changed halfway through the course from off Moravian Point up to Henly Cay. But we crossed the finish line a minute before the other boats in our class.”

Michael Wilson’s ShotGunn, a UK entry, placed second, with the US-flagged Marc McMorris on M2, third.

The third time sailing STIR proved a charm for Donald Nicholson’s J121 (US), Apollo, in the CSA 2 Class.

“We had a well-prepared boat, fabulous crew, fair winds, good luck, and the magic of the STIR regatta,” said Nicholson, as to the secret to Apollo’s success. “We’ll be back.”Trinity IV, a J42 with crew from Tennessee, finished second, and the UK-based race charter Beneteau First 40.7, Escapado, took third.

In CSA 3, it was Puerto Rico’s Keki Figueroa driving his Melges 24, Exodus, which capped the class. It was a podium position in which Figueroa was familiar.

“I won the Hobie class here twenty years ago,” said Figueroa. “We sailed an IC24 for a while and now the Melges. My crew and I have been together for a long time. Between that and constantly watching the wind is what gave us the advantage.”

Team St. Maarten Island Water World, another Melges 24, with Jan Bus at the helm, ended the regatta as class runner-up. Puerto Rico’s Julio Reguero’s J35, Umakau, finished third.

St. Thomas sailor, Lawrence Aqui, raced his Dufour 40, Wild T’ing, to the top of the CSA Non-Spinnaker Class.

“Our team has been sailing together over a decade,” said Aqui. “That means we know the boat well, what it can and can’t do well to go fast. Local knowledge definitely helped, especially avoiding the shallows around the islands.”

In second place was Hotel California Too, US-based Steve Schmidt’s Santa Cruz 70, while Trinity VI, US-based David McDonough’s J40, finished third.

The One-Design IC24 Class was the largest grouping, totalling 15 boats. It was also the class that competed in the most races: 13 starts and finishes over three days. St. Thomas’ two-time Olympian, Cy Thompson, on Bill T, successfully defended his class-winning title.

“We had conditions this weekend that no one had seen before, but we had many of the same crew, so our team was spot on for the transitions,” said Thompson, whose crew included Maurice Kurg, Eric Cusin, Spencer LeGrande and Emma Walters.

PJ’s Magic Coffee Bus, chartered to race STIR by Guy Williams from New Orleans, placed second. In third was St. Croix-based Peter Stanton’s Big Island.

St. Thomas Sailing Center, the racing arm of the STIR host, St. Thomas Yacht Club, chartered out its Hobie Waves for STIR in addition to IC24s. Nine Waves teams raced over two days with St. Thomas’ Chris Curreri first on OT the App.

“I liked the heavier breeze today and capitalized on it,” said Curreri, past winner of the STIR IC24 Class. “It was a tough class, but a lot of fun.” 

St. Thomas’ double-handers, 12-year-old Will Zimmerman and 11-year-old Finn Hodgins, finished as runners-up with US-based Mike Compton’s Mike’s Windsurfing grabbing out third.

STIR is a Sailors for the Sea Clean Regatta featuring green initiatives such as paperless event management and a water refill station. For more information, click over to stthomasinternationalregatta.com.

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St. Petersburg Yacht Club has announced “last call” to register for the 52nd sailing of the Regata del Sol al Sol, an open yacht race from St. Petersburg to Isla Mujeres, Mexico.

The open-water race across the Gulf of Mexico will feature sailboats, a minimum of 30 feet long with either ORC or West Florida PHRF handicaps. Events begin April 25, 2024, in St. Petersburg with seminars and a street party send-off.

Racing starts Friday, April 26, 2024, in the vicinity of the St. Petersburg Pier. The fleet races 456 nautical miles to the island of Isla Mujeres, off the coast of Cancun, in Quintana Roo, Mexico. Arriving racers may be greeted as early as Sunday and a week of events are planned in Mexico. The top three finishers in each class, an overall champion and other honors will be celebrated with awards at a dinner scheduled for May 3, 2024, in Isla Mujeres.

The historic race began as a challenge for open-water sailors after the St. Petersburg-to-Havana race could no longer be sailed to Fidel Castro’s Cuba. In its five-decade history, the race has recorded seconds-tight finishes and harrowing crossings. Today, it features GPS tracking devices to ensure boats arrive and return safely. The race was sailed annually until 2018, when it became a bi-annual event.

For more information about the race or to register, see the Notice of Race on yachtscoring.com. Other information can be found on the regatta website. The race can also be followed on Facebook.

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Solo sailor Cole Brauer has become the first American woman to race solo, nonstop and unassisted around the world, finishing the Global Solo Challenge March 7, at 8:23am CET after 130 days at sea. 

She finished in second place, setting a new Class40 around-the-world speed record and amassing 450,000 followers on Instagram in the process. At just 29 years old, Brauer was both the youngest skipper and the only female sailor in the fleet of 16 boats.

Brauer, 29, arrived Thursday in A Coruna, Spain, after departing from the city on Oct. 29. She took part in the Global Solo Challenge, along with more than a dozen other sailors, several of whom didn’t complete the competition. Brauer sailed around the globe on the First Light, a 2008 OCD Class40, and traveled about 30,000 miles. 

“It hasn’t really hit me yet. Everyone’s so excited, but for me it hasn’t really sunk in that I now hold these records,” says Brauer. ”It just feels like I went for a little sail, and now I’m back.”

The Boothbay, Maine woman said her purpose in pursuing the challenge was to show how the male-dominated sport can “become more open and less ‘traditional.’”

Brauer was introduced to sailing after moving to Hawaii for college. She said she didn’t have opportunities to sail as a child, but growing up on a nature reserve cemented her love of nature. She joined Hawaii’s sailing community, who she said took her under their wings. 

The goal of solo-racing around the world became Brauer’s dream after a 2018 dinner with her mentor Tim Fetsch, who later sent her solo sailor Ellen MacArthur’s book. She said on Instagram that she wanted to accomplish the feat of being the first American woman to race solo around the world before turning 30. She is also preparing for the 2028 Vendée Globe. 

“The race was for me,” she said. “It was this amazing experience that I got to have, so I feel like the celebration at the finish is almost for everyone else who was involved with this. I already had the amazing experience, I already had the experience I went out there looking for. So this celebration at the end is for the team and the supporters.”

While Brauer is the first American woman to race around the globe alone by sea, she is not the first woman to sail around the world. Polish sailor Krystina Chojnowska-Liskiewicz sailed single-handed around the world in 1978 during a 401-day voyage, The Associated Press reported. Kay Cottee of Australia was the first woman to complete the venture nonstop in 1987. 

Brauer said to the media that being away from loved ones for 130 days was the most difficult part of the journey. 

Brauer left A Coruña, Spain, on October 29 with six other skippers. She led the group to the Equator and began picking off the competitors from previous starts. As she turned east and headed for Cape Horn, she began having autopilot issues, one of which led to a broach that tossed her across the boat and injured her ribs. There was concern that she would have to pull into port, but despite the injury, she was able to make the necessary repairs and continue sailing. 

In the South Pacific, Brauer also began having trouble with her hydrogenerator, which supplies much of her power onboard, keeping her steering instruments, autopilot, watermaker, and Starlink going. Even with a back up system and regular maintenance, her power rationing lasted through the end of the race. 

While her expert seamanship and technical know-how made her one of the top competitors of the race, another hallmark of Brauer’s campaign was her social media presence, which inspired the admiration of hundreds of thousands of followers. Brauer used Instagram to keep followers updated on her journey, providing glimpses of what life at sea looks like when you’re a one-woman show. Between exhilarating shots of ocean waves and painstakingly chartering her journey, Brauer showed peeks into how she spent her downtime, such as watching Formula One and working out.

Her honest, chipper updates brought followers along for the ups and downs of four months on the seas. She received hundreds of comments from people saying that although they’d never sailed before, they were so amazed by her bravery, tenacity, and positive outlook. 

“This whole experience has been really awesome, and thank you guys so much for participating,” she said in an Instagram video to the nearly 500,000 people who followed her journey on the social media platform.

“This monumental milestone is not just a physical triumph, but a testament to her courage in facing challenges head-on,” says Project Manager Brendon Scanlon, about her rounding of Cape Horn, and turning northwards towards the finish. “As she sails the rough seas and navigates life’s complexities onboard, we celebrate the indomitable spirit that defines her remarkable journey.”

After completing the Global Solo Challenge, Brauer hopes to campaign for the 2028 Vendée Globe—the highest level of solo circumnavigational races. Her updates can be best followed at colebraueroceanracing on Instagram.

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MerConcept, a French high-performance hub for offshore sailing and sustainable technologies, has launched a racing program to give female sailors experience in offshore multihull racing. 

Applications are now open, with a deadline of March 24 to apply.

UpWind by MerConcept will recruit, train and support a squad of six female sailors as they compete in the Ocean Fifty offshore sailing circuit, with the ambition to have a female skipper on the starting line in a multihull for the 2026 Route du Rhum. 

The all-new team will also be entered into the 2024 Ocean Fifty multihull circuit, led by the only Italian to win The Ocean Race, Francesca Clapcich.

Backed by founding sponsor 11th Hour Racing, UpWind by MerConcept’s overarching goal is to be a driving force in the transformation of offshore sailing. UpWind’s vision is for a more inclusive and diverse racing community, with equal opportunities for everyone. 

Also part of the vision is creating a larger pool of female talent available for selection to join mixed multihull crews for record-setting challenges like the Jules Verne Trophy.

MerConcept was founded by François Gabart, the fastest person to sail around the world. In a press release, Gabart stated, “Our mission at UpWind is to support and empower female sailors to excel in high-performance, multihull offshore racing, breaking down barriers, and creating a welcoming and safe space for everyone.

“Teams perform at their best when they comprise diverse talent,” Gabart added. “A first step to achieving this is to support the growth in the critical mass of talented female sailors with offshore multihull experience so that all teams taking on challenges like the Jules Verne Trophy will have mixed crews in the future.”

Female sailors from anywhere in the world can apply. Cécile Andrieu, MerConcept’s director of racing, says the project is open to a wide range of profiles and backgrounds. 

“Ideally, our applicants will have some good racing experience, whether it is offshore, inshore, match-racing, or Olympics, and have a genuine desire to get involved and bring this new racing team to life,” Andrieu stated in the press release. “At the end of selection week, we hope to have recruited two groups: a performance-focused squad to take part in the Grand Prix and trans-Atlantic races, and a second, which will support in the training and on deliveries, with a view to gaining valuable sailing experience and miles for their CV.”

What is the race schedule for the 2024 Ocean Fifty circuit? It’s yet to be officially announced, but is expected to include four events between June and October, including a trans-Atlantic race from west to east.

Where to apply: go to upwindbymerconcept.com. 

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Yes, of course, Cruising World is a magazine dedicated to the glorious pastime of cruising. But, from time to time, it’s worthwhile to examine this basic truism: Racing sailboats will make you a better cruising sailor. Tacking and jibing at full speed, paying extra attention to windshifts and currents, trimming sails to get every last tenth of a knot of performance from them—these are all things you can apply to cruising that will make your life on the water a little more fulfilling. 

And there’s another, perhaps even greater, benefit as well. With the right crew on a sweet boat on a beautiful day, racing is also just a ton of fun.

This, I discovered, yet again, on a lovely Saturday in February when my colleagues at sister magazine Sailing World wrangled me aboard the Beneteau 40 Liquid Time for the North Sails Rally Race during the St. Petersburg, Florida, stop on the nationwide tour of six events that comprise the Helly Hansen Sailing World 2022 Regatta series. The 40-foot racer/cruiser is owned by a trio of pals who sail out of nearby Davis Islands: Pemmy and Ed Roarke, who set and trim the sails, and champion Sunfish sailor Gail Haeusler, whom I’d soon witness was one heck of a helmswoman. 

The name has two origins: Liquid Time is the title of a favorite tune by the progressive rock band Phish, with these appropriate opening lyrics: “The sea is so wide, and the boat is so small.” The name is also a running joke with the tight, nine-person crew, one of whom always pops the same question before a race: “What time is it?” To which the collective answer is, well, always the same: “Liquid Time!” It’s a joke that never gets old. 

My time on Liquid ­unfolded over a 20-mile course in a shifty northerly breeze around government marks on busy Tampa Bay, with plenty of visual treats to spice up the proceedings: the ever-­expanding St. Pete skyline; the weird, lopsided arena known as Tropicana Field, home to baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays; and the distinctive Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which replaced an earlier span that a freighter creamed in a 1980 storm. 

The starting line for our Racer/Cruiser division was a busy place, indeed; we shared it with a fleet of maniacs sailing light, twitchy L30 one-designs. Plus, unusually, it was a downwind start in about 8 knots of fluctuating wind, which meant a spinnaker set right off the bat. The Liquid team flowed through the maneuver like water running downhill (sorry). Haeusler timed it all perfectly. Off we went. 

It was pretty obvious right from the get-go that it was going to come down to a head-to-head match race with a Sarasota-based O’Day 40 called Mother Ocean, a name I assumed was borrowed from the opening line of Jimmy Buffett’s A Pirate Looks at Forty. (Also, what’s up with these Florida folks, their boat handles and their beloved recording artists?) 

In the early going, Mother was definitely a mutha, and we had a wonderful view of her transom as she assumed the lead. But all that changed when the kites were doused about two-thirds of the way through the race; the northerly ratcheted up to 14 knots, kicking up whitecaps as the skies cleared to reveal a spectacular sailing day. We hardened up for the closehauled beat back to the finish. Thanks in large part to Haeusler’s skilled driving, Liquid Time was both higher and faster, and before long, it was Mother Ocean in arrears. Which is how everything concluded, with Liquid Time the overall class winner. 

“We won that race in the second half,” said Ed Roarke, who then invoked another name, that of a recent Tampa Bay arrival—yet another cliched snowbird from New England—whose prowess has won over the local populace. “It was a Tom Brady special.”

The tunes came on, and, in the time-honored tradition of nearly all competitive sailing, the icy-cold beers were cracked and passed around. 

So, hey, what time was it again? 

Herb McCormick is a CW editor-at-large.

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If you blinked hard, and quickly, a fairly concise history of multihull sailing on the blue waters of the Caribbean was right there in front of you, for all of the sailing world to see. Glancing to port, as graceful as a soaring bird in flight, was the bright-red trimaran Tryst, having just turned a nice round 50, but still pretty as the proverbial picture. Her legendary designer, Dick Newick, had his very own style every bit as distinctive as anyone named Herreshoff, and Tryst‘s fluid lines have aged extremely well. If anything, despite the years and the savage hurricanes that tried so hard to destroy her, she’s lovelier than ever.

But what was that, to starboard, screaming through the slight chop on a tight reach, faster than a speedboat with an open throttle? Oh, yes: Fujin. Designed by an America’s Cup hotshot near Seattle but built in the relatively nearby Virgin Island of St. Croix, with her striking, aggressive bows, Fujin had the no-nonsense mien of a racecourse badass. It was hard to believe that just a short year ago she was upside down off the island of Saba, her crew treading water, having capsized in an ocean race. Now, she looked like a world beater.

Tryst and Fujin. Trimaran vs. catamaran. Wood vs. carbon. Old vs. new. Different. But the same. Multihulls. In a watery class of sailboats all by themselves, deserving of a showcase that highlights everything that stands them apart and brings them together.

Which leads us to the event that did just that—last spring’s first running of the Caribbean Multihull Challenge, in the sparkling seas off the isle of St. Maarten.

Paying Homage

It was 1979 when a young sailor named Robbie Ferron washed up on the shores of St. Maarten with a keen eye for everything around him. And one of the very first things he noticed was a driven designer and builder named Peter Spronk, carving his own niche by knocking out beautiful, singular cats right on the beach.

“He was a stubborn Dutchman,” Robbie said. “He was grandly stubborn. If you wanted a Spronk boat that didn’t match his concept, you were out of luck. But that made others become even more enthused about getting a boat from him. His boats were amazing, they were about simplicity and manageability. They were great sailing boats, and they did a lot of things well. They’re still very good and usable. Nothing straddles the decades like Spronks.”

Spronk was a visionary and a pioneer, but he was also on the crest of a wave that has risen steadily in the intervening decades. While cats were at one time a curiosity, a sideshow, they’ve become ubiquitous in charter fleets, offshore races and distant anchorages all around the world. “When you look at new-boat arrivals in the Caribbean now, they’re dominating,” said Robbie, who, as the founder of the Caribbean chandlery Budget Marine, knows whereof he speaks. “The percentage of multihulls is constantly increasing.”

With a couple of like-minded localsailors—Petro Jonkers, who sails a Leopard 47 cat, and Stephen Burton, a cruiser who skippers a Swan 411 and enjoys nothing more than promoting his pastime—Robbie decided to do something to acknowledge that fact, to pay homage to Spronk, St. Maarten, multihulls, and the happy maniacs who love and sail them. An annual regatta celebrating all things multihull seemed appropriate and the busy, forward-thinking St. Maarten Yacht Club, the host for nearly four decades of the wildly popular St. Maarten Heineken Regatta (and the club where Robbie, Petro and Steve were all members), proved to be a willing accomplice.

Fifteen boats signed up for the ­inaugural edition, which took place early last February with three days of racing and shore-side celebrations. And an eclectic fleet it was.

In addition to Tryst, there was a trio of trimarans: Liquid Spirit, a Neel 45 cruising tri built in France with a Dutch crew at the outset of an extended cruise; Ineffable, a rare Melvin & Morelli-designed tri skippered by Stephen Glyn Bourne with a homeport of Hong Kong (which would ultimately be honored as the yacht that traveled the farthest to participate); and Le Tri, like Tryst a St. Maarten boat with a talented island crew.

Fujin was the scratch boat among the racing cats, but it had plenty of heady company, especially the HH66 R-Six—built in China and sailed by a wild Polish crew—and several one-off local cats, including the 60-footer Arawak, the M&M-designed 50-footer Shooting Star, the doublehanded 28-footer Enola and Guimamalou, a 40-footer.

And of course, no multihull event would be replete without a good showing of production cats, the fastest-growing segment in the contemporary sailboat market. The South African builder Robertson & Caine was well-represented by a pair of St. Maarten-based Leopards, Petro’s Seaduction and a 45-footer, Spellbound. Finally, and fittingly, there were several cats with a French pedigree: Hey Jude (Lagoon 410), Primula (Fountaine Pajot Belize 43) and Think Good Thoughts (Outremer 49) for the Caribbean Multihull Challenge.

With regards to the field, as far as a cross section of the multihull world was concerned, it was a fine one.

God of Wind

One boat, however, stood out among all the others, in both appearance and performance. That yacht was the cutting-edge 53-footer called Fujin.

After years working for Microsoft, Greg Slyngstad settled into a comfortable retirement as a self-professed “sailing bum.” He competed in several St. Maarten Heineken Regattas aboard a series of monohulls before commissioning Pacific Northwest naval architect Paul Bieker—who at the time was working with the Team Oracle USA America’s Cup campaign—to design a quick, light cat. And thus, Fujin was born. During his Microsoft days, Slyngstad spent some time in Japan and became immersed in the country’s culture, and named his boat after the Japanese god of wind.

“I was looking for a name that was different, and I liked the sound of Fujin,” he said. “It’s a very fast boat. We’ve topped off at over 32 knots. It doesn’t have a very big rig compared to most of the big multihulls we race against, so in light air we struggle a bit. But once the wind gets to about 15 knots Fujin is one of the fastest cats out there. It’s been a lot of fun.”

Weighing in at around 7 tons (less than half the weight of a Gunboat 55), the all-carbon cat was built in St. Croix by Gold Coast Yachts. While extremely light, she still sports a full cruising interior and is a true dual-purpose racer/cruiser. She’s also a handsome boat with a unique profile that Slyngstad describes as “a unique Polynesian look.”

Designer Bieker had concrete reasons, beyond appearances, for creating those striking bows. Slyngstad said that when Fujin is fully powered up, there’s a tendency for the transom to lift, so Bieker added volume and floatation forward to keep the bows from punching into waves and to prevent any chance of pitchpoling.

“That was one of the driving forces,” Slyngstad said. “The other was to cut away the shape behind the actual useful part of the bow to reduce windage. For any boat going upwind, the biggest component of drag is from the windage above the water.” By eliminating a portion of the topsides and replacing it with a sweeping curve just aft of the leading edges of the bows, Bieker created a more efficient hull form and a quite lovely one at that. It was a perfect marriage of form and function.

After Fujin was launched several years ago, it competed in a couple of St. Maarten Heineken Regattas and was also campaigned in New England during New York Yacht Club race weeks and other events. Then came last year’s Caribbean 600, a winding ocean race through the islands that starts and concludes in Antigua.

Fujin was just emerging from the lee of Saba in the early going when she was belted by a strong lifting puff—the breeze had been a steady 25 to 35 knots with gusts in the 40s—and, said Slyngstad, “went right over.” After about 10 seconds, the spar broke and the hull inverted, and the entire crew went into the water. Within minutes, everyone had safely scampered aboard the upside-down hull and signals from the personal AIS beacons worn by each crewman were picked up by other yachts. Soon after, a lobster boat from Saba arrived, took the crew aboard and towed Fujin into the island.

It took nearly a year, but Fujin ­underwent a long refit and emerged from her trials and tribulations as good as new. She arrived in St. Maarten just in time to compete in the first Caribbean Multihull Challenge.

Where she proceeded to take names and kick butt.

Timeless Tryst

If you wanted to make a movie about a boat with nine lives; a lithe, beautiful and timeless design from a storied designer that’s become a Caribbean treasure; one that has survived multiple hurricanes and continues to defy the odds and sail onward, you’d be hard pressed to find a better leading star than the 36-foot trimaran, Tryst.

These days, Tryst is owned and sailed by a couple of familiar islanders, Bernard “Appie” Stoutenbeek and Arthur Banting. When they hoisted her sails at the outset of the Caribbean Multihull Challenge, they were in turn celebrating the boat’s 50th birthday. Considering her rich history, it was quite a milestone.

Tryst‘s remarkable journey began in a New England shipyard a half-century ago. Her main hull and amas were built in Maine of cold-molded mahogany. The parts of the Newick design were then shipped to St. Croix, along with the identical hulls and amas for another set of boats, all of which were members of Newick’s Trice class.

There, in 1969, Tryst was assembled and began life as a day-charter boat, taking tourists out for short sails and snorkeling trips. A decade later, the Turner brothers of St. Maarten acquired her and sailed her to the island where she began offering similar outings from the sibling’s beach bar. Some five years later, the Stoutenbeek family arrived in St. Maarten—including the impressionable young son, Appie—and acquired another Newick tri called TP II. By now, in the mid-1980s, there was a quartet of Newick tris racing against each other in the neighboring islands. Appie called the group “the Newick fanatics.”

Pat Turner was the boat’s loving ­caretaker for over three decades, nursing and repairing her after many a tropical storm. But when Hurricane Gonzalo ripped through the islands in 2014, and Tryst suffered major damage, it was time to move on. That’s when his friend Arthur Banting took over, and along with his pal, Appie, they made Tryst whole again.

A year later, the boat was back on the water but not yet racing, which is when Appie said to Arthur, “Dude, we need to get her out on the circuit again.”

Soon after, Hurricane Irma arrived.

As the manager of the Lagoon Marina, and knowing Tryst suffered major damage in Gonzalo because her mast was up, Appie pulled the spar and towed the boat into a shallow, protected cove. He placed hundreds of gallons of water in tanks to sink the waterline and reduce windage on the hulls, crossed his fingers and left Tryst to her own devices.

When he returned after the storm, he couldn’t believe his eyes: Tryst was upside down. A witness vacationing at a nearby resort saw what happened. Apparently, Tryst was doing fine until a localized tornado rolled through the anchorage. Appie said, “The guest came down and said, ‘Oh my god, is that your boat?’ He said Tryst went right up in the air, nose down, stern up, still attached to her mooring, doing twists in the tornado. When we found her capsized, there must’ve been 20 turns on the mooring lines!”

Tryst was righted, then went back into the shed and eventually reemerged once again strong and whole…just in time for the Caribbean Multihull Challenge.

“This boat is something special,” said Appie. “For a multihull to survive all these hurricanes, there’s got to be something special with this girl. She doesn’t want to go.” Nope, Tryst wasn’t going anywhere, not just yet. And yes, 50 years along, she was ready for her close up.

Vision Realized

With the exception of an early, passing squall on day two of the three-day event, conditions were ideal, with steady northeast trades in the midteens, occasionally gusting higher. Multihull weather.

The undisputed star of the show was Fujin. Sailing with an all-star crew that ­included two-time Olympic sailing medalist Jonathan McKee, the 53-footer easily won Class A, topping off a stellar performance with a 2-hour, 25-minute lap of St. Maarten in the round-the-island race on the final day of competition. For her considerable efforts, Fujin was recognized for the regatta’s Most Outstanding Performance and owner Slyngstad received a sweet dive watch from Oris Watches, the event’s official timekeeper.

The Class B winner was Arawak, sailed by a crew of ringers from St. Maarten’s Island Water World. The Class C victor was the Leopard cat Spellbound (renamed Kidz at Sea for the event), sailed by Garth Steyn and Ian Martin, who narrowly edged out their old friend and rival Petro Jonkers on his Leopard. And Tryst, appropriately, also brought home some hardware, earning the regatta’s Style & Grace prize.

“It was the best multihull fleet I’ve ever seen in the Caribbean,” race director Robbie Ferron said. “Our vision of a multihull regatta out of St. Maarten has been solidified.”

Now, having proven the point, the Caribbean Multihull Regatta has announced that the second running of the event will take place beginning on Valentine’s Day in 2020. The event is timed perfectly to be a warm up regatta for the Caribbean 600; in 2019, Fujin used that formula by prepping in St. Maarten for the longer ocean race, where the boat finished second in the multihull class. Either way, if you sail a boat with more than one hull, you might seriously consider getting down there. It seems like a celebration whose time has come.

Herb McCormick is CW_’s executive editor_.

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