ST. BARTHS—Former Cata Cup winner John Casey and crew Colin Page from the USA on St. Barths Properties won the first race of the 8th St. Barths Cata Cup on Thursday, a counter clockwise circumnavigation of the island for the Design Affairs Cup.
Elke Delnooz and Jeroen van Leeuwen (ODP2) from the Netherlands took second place with France’s Jean Christophe Mourniac and Alexandre Dekyspotter Jouannot (ODP1) placing third.
The race started at 2:45 p.m. under ideal conditions, with medium winds between 8-10 knots. The favourable conditions were followed by sudden rainfall however thereby complicating matters for the fleet.
“We had a good start, passed Gustavia and when we reached Coco Island the wind dropped which made it more complicated to reach the last mark at La Tortue Island,” explained Race Director for the St. Barths Cata Cup, Didier Laflamme. “At La Tortue, we were hit by a big squall which allowed the leaders to finish but after that the wind dropped completely.”
The first boats crossed the finish line after two and a half hours at sea while the last crews took more than four hours to finish the race, the low winds playing against them.
« At 5:05 pm the Americans crossed the finish line. Then the wind speed dropped again making it difficult for the sailors to finish the race. The last crews got in at nightfall», Flamme added.
St. Martin’s Bernard Sillem who is racing with Pierre Altier and finished in 45th place said some 20 boats, including theirs, had to be towed back to Nikki Beach in that race.
“The security and safety is very well organised and they also have GPS tracking so they know exactly where each boat is,” Sillem added.
Also racing from St. Martin are Erik Clement and Wilfried Secher and Joris van den Eynde who has teamed up with Tanguy Kervyn. They finished in 19th place on Thursday.
Some 57 teams from 17 countries registered for the Cata Cup this year. Friday was another good day of racing but results were not available by press time. Racing continues over the weekend with the awards ceremony at Nikki Beach on Sunday evening.
