SIMPSON BAY--Richard Wesslund’s J 122 El Ocaso from CSA 3 won the prestigious St. Maarten/St. Martin Cup for Most Worthy Performance Overall at the close of the 36th St. Maarten Heineken Regatta last night.
It was a hat-trick for this top-notch US-based team, having won both class and Most Worthy Performance in 2012, 2014, and 2016.
“We feel so good about it! We love this event,” said owner Wesslund backstage on Kim Sha Beach. “There’s nothing we would ever do to miss it. St. Maarten is a great island, the conditions were great and the race committee and everybody was fantastic.
“Being able to go out in the Anguilla Channel on Saturday and do buoy racing was really nice and the course today to St. Barths was completely different and fun. And the conditions were challenging, because today it was light for us and we really had to work it.”
In other trophy presentations, the Fiji Cup for Fastest Bareboat around the island on Friday went to Baltics from Bareboat 3. The Columbus Cup for Best Bareboat Overall was won by the Kiev Racing Yacht Club.
The Most Rumworthy Performance for the Captain Morgan Cup went to the gunboat Elvis. Captain Morgan and his Morganettes came on stage to throw hats out into the crowd.
It was no surprise that the Phaedo 3 trimaran won the Australian Gold trophy for Fastest Multihull around the island in one hour 19:59 and took the Caribserve Cup for Most Worthy Performance on Friday.
The Sint Maarten Youth Challenge Trophy went to the Kidz at Sea team on Purple Heart from CSA 6 who were racing their newly constructed boat for the first time. They were the highest placed of the youth teams from St. Maarten. The trophy was presented by Yacht Club Commodore Ian Hope Ross.
Bobby Velasquez’s L’Esperance, last year’s Most Worthy Performance winner, continued another flawlessly sailed regatta by winning CSA 5 after a very tight battle with second-placed Robbie Ferron’s Budget Marine Micron 99.
Ross Appleby’s Scarlet Oyster, which came back from being holed on Thursday in the Commodore’s Cup, won class in CSA 2 and the Most Worthy Performance on Sunday. The Sint Maarten Yacht Club Trophy was presented by Ian Hope Ross.
The Windward Islands Bank trophy for the Fastest Monohull around the island went to Highland Fling and the Sol Cup for Fastest Non-Spinnaker around the island was awarded to the Volvo 65 Team Brunel.
The Xerox Obersi Cup for Spirit and Style went to the boat Dingo from Trinidad, which also won Most Worthy Performance on Saturday, receiving the Heineken Cup.
In other awards, the Team Golden Dog Cup for charity went to the boat Palpatine. The crew had raised money for a three-year-old cancer sufferer. Three boats also won prizes in the Bridge Fun category.
The awards ceremony was emceed by Island 92’s Jeffry “Dr. Soc” Sochrin and press writer Louay Habib.
