West Coast Boats Excel in Heineken Regatta
Boats from Seattle and Long Beach, as well as one owned by a former San Francisco Yacht Club member, and one tangentially from the West Coast, kicked booty in last week’s massive 188-boat 35th annual St. Maarten Heineken Regatta.
King of them all was Seattle’s Greg Slyngstad, a vet of the Rolex Big Boat Series and races to Hawaii, who blitzed a strong class with his J/125 Hamachi to not only win the Gill Commodore Cup warm-up race in 30 knots of wind and breaking seas, but all five races of the Heineken. Greg’s final victory of the week came on his birthday. For some reason the final news update on the regatta hasn’t been released, but with Hamachi having zapped three of the top local boats — Lazy Dog, Soca and Kick ‘em Jenny 2, all well sailed Melges 32s — we think she probably got ‘Most Worthy Boat of the Week’ honors. Or should have.
If this wasn’t enough, Greg’s wild looking Paul Bieker-designed all-carbon 53-ft fast cruising cat should about be done at Gold Coast Yachts in St. Croix. It would be interesting to see how she would match up against the various Gunboats, which had their own division this year.
Also highly worthy of notice was Doug Baker’s Kernan 47 True from Long Beach, which took all four bullets in CSA 1, besting, among others, a TP52 and Volvo 60s and 70s, and a Swan 100 run by Mill Valley’s Patrick Adams. As we understand it, True started life as an ID35, and got an additional 12 feet — ! — thanks to Tim Kernan. Well done, particularly after a disappointing showing in the Caribbean 600.
Rick Wesslund, formerly of SFYC, stumbled badly in the first race with his J/122 El Ocaso with an 8th, but came back strong to finish second in CSA 4. Now a Florida resident, Wesslund had previously won ‘Most Worthy’ honors.
We’re going to claim Lloyd Thornburg’s brand new-to-him MOD70 Phaedo3 as a West Coast boat because: 1) He went to school on the West Coast, 2) His Gunboat 66 Phaedo has been based on the West Coast recently, and 3) He’s a friend of ours. In any event, the lime green Phaedo3 set a new around-the-island record. The trimaran averaged 20.7 knots while taking 2 hours, 7 minutes, and 24 seconds to sail the 35-mile course, hitting a top speed of 36 knots. This was the first time the race was sailed counterclockwise around the island.
Slyngstad’s Hamachi and Baker’s True are both vets of the St. Barth Voiles, and will be racing in this year’s version on April 13-18, as will Thornburg and Phaedo3.
If someone is looking to race keelboats at the highest level in the world’s best conditions, it would be hard to beat the trio of the Caribbean 600, the Heineken and the Voiles de St. Barth.