Six years ago, Robbie Ferron, a founder of the Sint Maarten Yacht Club and the Heineken Regatta, met with fellow club members about the concept of a regatta exclusive to multihull sailing yachts in the area. The idea sailed through the yacht-club board, and the Caribbean Multihull Challenge was born.

The CMC was the first of its kind among competitive racing events, specific to multihull enthusiasts. It continues to attract a steadily growing number of catamarans and trimarans, some chartered and others owned. Just last year, the CMC introduced a rally component in addition to hardcore racing. Based on my personal experience, I’m happy to attest that this rally moves at a nice, manageable pace for the Cruising World crowd.

I was there as a guest of yacht-club member Stephen Burzon, who helped Ferron create the event and now helps to organize it. I signed on to help crew a Sunsail 424 charter catamaran during the four-day rally that included St. Barts, with a touch of nonserious racing thrown in for good measure. As we cruised, I had a great time—but I realized that I had joined more than just the rally. I’d become one among scores of boaters worldwide who seek to venture beyond their comfort zones in search of an adventure.  

Competitive cruising, as I started calling it, is many things. Sure, the challenge of racing might be involved, but it’s more about pushing your boat or yourself a little further beyond the reef. It’s about finding new ways to use your boat and have even more fun on the water, whether that means a race or rally, a new destination, or trying something else new. For a cat-curious monohull sailor like me, participating in the CMC certainly fit that description.    

On the Sunsail 424 Midsixty, our traditional charter rig of a modest mainsail and a self-tacking jib wasn’t going to win us any races, but that wasn’t the point. In a fun rally atmosphere, it’s more about winning the party—which is exactly what all 16 rally entrants set out to do, even as the sailing gods mocked us with dead-bleeping-calm in a place and time typically known for steady trade winds and sporty sailing conditions.

We could have pouted, but we instead soldiered on with smiles, with all of us feeling grateful for the chance to be there at all. As we set out on the first leg, on a course from Simpson Bay to a snug lunchtime anchorage at Orient Bay, less than 5 knots of breeze tested the entire fleet. 

It was a staggered start, with yachts setting forth in two-minute intervals, but in the light airs, the entire fleet was soon packed like a scrum at a kids’ soccer game. The colorfully painted Alibi 65 Surprise was an early front-runner. The TradeWinds Experience all-electric TW6e Aurora, an innovative Fountaine Pajot Samana 59, held its own. A trio of formidable Balance cats—Umoya, Zephyr and Golden Hour—surged to the front. The Leopard 50 La Novia started passing one boat after another. It may have been a rally, but it sure felt like a race, albeit a slow one.

Back aboard our Midsixty, tired of flopping around for the first hour trying to notch positive speed over ground, our Dutch captain, Hans Huele, made the call to fire up the D-sail. Sure, we disqualified ourselves from contention (yes, on Day One) when we switched on the diesel, but we had priorities, namely a crystal-­clear anchorage and a cold beer. We traded glory for ­groundspeed. Don’t judge.

Now under power and in the (illegal) lead, we enjoyed the unique vantage point of looking back at the fleet. It had rounded the southeast point of Saint-Martin and finally was able to bear away, heading north up the eastern shoreline. One after another, the multihulls hoisted their spinnakers. The colorful kites dotted the horizon in our wake. It was a beautiful sight. 

Once we were safely on the hook in Orient Bay, our crew aboard Midsixty was treated to a fun finish as spectators—again, not the kind of thing that you’d ever see competitive racers do but which, in a rally, doesn’t even raise an eyebrow. We watched the last jibe into Orient Bay as the two leaders, Little Wing and CMC co-founder Petro Jonker’s Seaduction, which had been swapping positions on the downwind leg, were suddenly headed by a windshift and dropped their chutes. Little Wing arrived in the anchorage just ahead in an exciting finish, despite the light breeze. It was, at the same time, a battle royale and a battle of who could care less.

The rally fleet then dropped anchor and assembled in the protected waters of Orient Bay to get down to the serious business of having fun. It was time to win the party. Beers were cracked, snorkels were donned, sandwiches were devoured, stories were told, and friendships were forged. In the days ahead, the movable feast would enjoy stops at Anse Marcel, Ile Fourchue and St. Barts before the eventual return to Simpson Bay. Along with the sailing and nightly parties ashore, rally participants enjoyed other fun challenges along the way, including scavenger-hunt bingo and selfie photo contests. 

The sailing gods were kinder to us toward the end, as some morning squalls returned the wind to us for a few hours at the start of Friday’s leg. It would take us back around the west end of the island and around the north to the quaint French village of Anse Marcel. For a few hours aboard Midsixty, we enjoyed a rousing sail with gusts up to 20 knots. I worked the lines and quickly got a feel for the Sunsail 424’s sweet spots. After a while, the captain handed me the helm, which I kept for the rest of the passage.

Wind in my face, tacking our way back and forth for hours, restored a carefree sense from my youth and plastered the kind of smile on my face that I hadn’t felt in ages. We didn’t win the race portion of the rally—in fact, we came in dead last—but in my mind, we definitely won the party.

I wasn’t bothered when the wind died again overnight, forcing our fleet to motor onward to St. Barts. Really, how could I be upset? We made a pit stop for lunch and took a dip in the gin-clear water. We got to do some water aerobics with sea turtles at Ile Fourchue. It was the kind of stuff that made you remember why we all love to be out on boats, sharing the most memorable moments with nature. 

We returned to Simpson Bay on Sunday as part of the final leg. Spinnakers were flying, and spirits were running high. I’m told by the racing segment of the CMC that the sight of flying spinnakers heading back caused quite the commotion in the bay. The rally fleet was led that day by Seaduction, flying its multicolored chute. 

The moment was a fine ­reminder that there’s more than one way to enjoy an event like the Caribbean Multihull Challenge. Winning a trophy can be great, but it doesn’t always have to be the goal. There’s also great reward to be found in simply pressing forward, casting your gaze just a little bit farther over the horizon, and trying ­something new.

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After a challenging four days of unusual light Caribbean weather, close competition on the race course—and an adventurous island tour of St.Maarten/St. Martin and St. Barth’s for the cruising set—the 6th running of the Caribbean Multihull Challenge Race and Rally concluded with a prizegiving ceremony on the grounds of the hosting St. Maarten Yacht Club. 

The “Most Worthy Performer” prize went to Alexis de Boucaud’s Diam 24 Merlin, which strung together eight victories in a 12-race series to win the 10-boat class of sprightly trimarans. In presenting the award, CMC steering committee member Robbie Ferron had high praise for the popular, growing fleet of one-design multihulls, which are taking the island by storm. 

“The Caribbean has never seen a fleet of this quality with racing this close and competitive,” he said. “It was very, very impressive.”     

In accepting the award, de Boucaud gave high praise to his close-knit crew comprised of tactician Benoit Champanhac and floater Ivan Skobtsoy. 

“We weighed in at 257 kilos (the minimum weight in the class is 220 kilos) and we were definitely the heaviest of all the Diams,” said de Boucaud. “We were worried in the light air that we’d be hammered.” Instead, they dominated the class, finishing the regatta by winning three of the last four races. “We spent two days prepping the boat beforehand, and then practiced for a day-and-a-half,” he continued. “Teamwork was the key. We had really good, aggressive, excellent starts. We quickly saw that Erick Clement’s Karibuni was going to be our main competition, so we had our eyes on them like hawks. We covered them on every tack and jibe, it was like match racing. Anticipate, anticipate, anticipate, that’s what we tried to do. In the end, it was really about flawless maneuvering more than anything else.”  

There was no shortage of rock-star talent in the CSA 1 class, with a pair of 66-foot heavyweights trading punches throughout the eight-race series. Aboard Ricardo Pavoncelli’s Gunboat 66 Mana, the crew included two offshore legends: Brit Brian Thompson and Frenchman Loick Peyron. But American Todd Slynstad’s squad on Nemo was no slouch, and included pro sailors Ryan Breymaier, Mat Bryant and Jan Majer. It was a winning combination, as Nemo registered three bullets on the final day of racing to seal the CSA 1 championship.  

“I always worry about coming here to St. Maarten with Nemo because the trade winds typically blow much more than what we had, but this time they didn’t,” said Slyngstad. “The whole regatta kind of fell right into our wheelhouse and played to our strengths. We were able to utilize all of our tools. It was fun and not too stressful.”

For Slyngstad’s Nemo, the regatta was a swan song of sorts. The owner plans to move up to a MOD 70 trimaran and hopes to also move up a notch in boat speed and have some more fun.  

With the usual easterly trades on hiatus, the conditions were unlike what the Caribbean generally dashes up. With no breeze whatsoever on the event’s third day with high pressure settled atop St. Maarten, principal race officer Chris Mansfield was forced to cancel the day’s competition. Still, the field took what the weather gods offered, and was able to conduct three fine days of competition.

The weather presented few issues for the 16 multis in the Rally portion of the event, which visited Great Bay, Orient Bay, Anse Marcel and St. Barth’s over the course of their travels, a movable feast which featured shoreside parties, music and food all along the way. When all was over, a pair of Rally entries scored awards at the prizegiving ceremony: Pierre Yves-Legris’s Alibi 65 Surprise won the time trials in which boats were challenged to predict their expected times of each leg of the Rally. And Ron Boehm’s Antrim Perry 52 Little Wing took home a pair of prizes, for both the Navigational Challenge and the Bingo Card Challenge, in which the Rally boats were charged with completing a host of tasks along the way.

For Cruising World Editor-in-Chief Andrew Parkinson, who hopped a ride aboard the Sunsail 424 charter boat Midsixty, his first experience participating in the Rally portion of the event was an eye-opener. 

“With the participation rate in multihull cruising having experienced exponential growth over the last several years, the timing of an annual event like the Caribbean Multihull Challenge couldn’t be better,” Parkinson said. “The racing component was a natural entry point for competitive multihull sailors. With the addition of a fun, ‘no-pressure’ Cruising Rally component—not to mention being in this idyllic Caribbean setting—the CMC has again raised the bar in terms of inclusivity of the cruising set, which is a slam dunk for the Cruising World crowd. Parallel to the ongoing growth of the multihull market, I fully expect participation in the CMC to continue to grow by leaps and bounds.”       

Long-time sponsor and CMC supporter Chris Marshall of F.K.G. Rigging summed up this year’s edition well, noting: “CMC VI was another wonderful, very successful event. The light air meant they couldn’t run the big distance races like the FKG 60 Mile Sprint sponsored by our firm, but that’s sailboat racing. The organizers certainly think this year was an outlier, so they’ll be back stronger than ever in 2025 with a full slate of inshore and offshore racing, the Cruising Rally, and the great shoreside activities at the St. Maarten Yacht Club and other venues. We will be there and we will try again for the Sprint. See you then.”

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With a building southerly breeze coursing down the alluring east coast of the isle of St. Maarten, aboard Californian Ron Boehm’s Bob Perry-designed Antrim 52, Little Wing, and the island’s own Petro Jonker’s Leopard 47, Seaduction, the action was fast and furious. The two Caribbean Multihull Challenge veterans may have been sailing in the event’s supposedly laid-back Rally segment for cruising catamarans and trimarans, but their crews were trimming their kites in a tight jibing duel as if competing for the America’s Cup. Aboard Little Wing, as the breeze rose into the low teens, in a nice puff the speedo topped 8 knots, not bad for a cruising cat. The Rally was fully underway, and the sailing was sweet and cool. Which was somewhat of a surprise, as the day certainly did not commence with such excitement.

In light winds of just 5-6 knots, the 6th edition of the Caribbean Multihull Race and Rally set forth Thursday, with a full slate of racing on tap for the 9-boat CSA 1 division; the ten entrants in the one-design Diam 24 class; and the 16 entrants in the Rally fleet. The race committee sent the CSA boats on a round-the-island course, while the Diam’s conducted a trio of races off the island’s southern coast. With a pair of victories, Alexis de Boucaud’s Merlin topped the Diam 24 leaderboard at day’s end. Only two CSA yachts completed the course around St. Maarten, with Todd Slyngstad’s HH66, Nemo, topping Riccardo Pavoncelli’s Gunboat 66, Mana.

Meanwhile, the Rally boats set forth on a course from Simpson Bay to a taut anchorage at Orient Bay. And at the outset, the light-air conditions were challenging indeed. It was a staggered start, with yachts setting forth in two-minute intervals beginning at 10 a.m. sharp. St. Maarten Yacht Club commodore Frits Bus’s Lagoon 380, IWW, was first over the starting line, but with the light airs, it wasn’t long before the entire fleet was tightly packed, and the supposedly mellow cruisers displayed their competitive natures. It was a vibrant scene, with Pierre-Yves Legris’s colorfully painted Alibi 65, Surprise, an early frontrunner. TradeWinds Experience all-electric Aurora, an innovative TW6e from event sponsor TradeWinds, glided across the line. A trio of notable Balance cats – Dave Newman’s Umoya, Scott Hawthorne’s Zephyr, and Kevin Hutton’s Golden Hour – all surged into the leading group. Georges Coutu’s well-sailed Leopard 50, La Novia, which has been a force in the CMC’s racing fleet in previous editions, was soon passing one boat after another. It may have been a Rally, but it sure felt like a race.

It was an upwind beat past Great Bay but once Philipsburg was astern and the fleet could bear away, one after another, the jibs were furled and the spinnakers were hoisted. Harry Fugate’s quick HH50, Off-Piste, was unsurprisingly one of the top boats at the front of pack. Multi-colored kites dotted the horizon. Swapping positions, on the last jibe into Orient Bay, both Little Wing and Seaduction were headed by a massive wind shift and dropped their chutes. Little Wing arrived in the anchorage just ahead of its rival.  Dropping anchors, the Rally boats assembled in the protected waters. Beers were cracked, snorkels donned, sandwiches assembled. Let the cruising begin.

It was the first of four full days for the cruisers, who moved to Great Bay later in the afternoon for a party ashore. In the days ahead, the movable feast will visit Anse Marcel and St. Barth’s before a return to Simpson Bay on Sunday. Along with the sailing and parties ashore, the Rally participants have other fun challenges, including a Rally Bingo Card with a host of tasks to be completed: Take a swim with the crew; a picture of Creole Rock; tie a bowline in under 5 seconds; take a selfie with a Rally official. And so on. The woman’s team aboard Imagine A, a Voyage 44 coached by St. Maarten’s Garth Steyn which has been sponsored by the popular jewelry maker FOPE Fine Italian Jewelry, currently holds the lead in the Bingo challenge. In other words, it was time to get down to the serious business of having fun.

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This week, a record-setting fleet of 35 racing and cruising catamarans and trimarans embarks on the 6th annual running of the Caribbean Multihull Challenge Race and Rally, which runs from February 1-4. Organized by the forward-thinking St. Maarten Yacht Club, for the first time ever the event will take place over four days, with dedicated races for the two competitive CSA racing classes, and an island-hopping rally for the cruising fleet.  

For racing sailors, the challenging schedule will include three Distance Races: the St. Barth’s Sprint sponsored by FKG Rigging; the highly anticipated Circle Race around the island sponsored by Amstel Bright Beer, and a series of buoy races along the island’s beautiful southern shoreline.  

There are several heavyweights vying for the Trifecta Award for the offshore contests, including CMC veterans Todd Slyngstad on the HH66 Nemo and Richard Pavoncelli’s crew on the Gunboat 66 Mana. Both teams will be keeping a watchful eye on newcomer Marc Guillemot’s 52-foot MG5 catamaran Windrift. Guillemot, a professional sailor from France, is a legend in his country, having competed in the Vendee Globe solo round-the-world race, and multiple editions of both the Transat Jacques Vabre and the Route du Rhum.

Meanwhile, as the big boats duel on the distance races, a highly competitive fleet of 10 Diam 24 trimarans, another record number for the CMC, will be jousting for top honors in the growing one-design fleet.  

The CMC is not only about competitive racing, but competitive “cruising” as well. For the second year it will conduct a Rally for the cruising contingent, which is represented by some of the biggest and best brands in the world, including Catana, Balance, Lagoon, Fountaine-Pajot, Voyage and HH. The Rally will set forth from Simpson Bay and include stops on the uninhabited French isle of Tintemarre; an overnight in Great Bay on the island’s Dutch side; another overnight in the lovely marina at Anse Marcel; and a power reach to Gustavia on St. Barth’s before wrapping up the action back in Simpson Bay.  

This year, the CMC organizers will be introducing a Time Trial for cruising multihulls for skippers who wish to test their speed and skill in a non-racing format. These trials will take place with destination courses for each Rally layover. 

About the Caribbean Multihull Challenge

The St Maarten Yacht Club will host the sixth annual Caribbean Multihull Challenge Race and Rally from February 1-4, 2024. The event is open to all multihull sailors on racing catamarans and trimarans as well as chartered cats and cruising multis. For more information visit caribbeanmultihullchallenge.com.

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