St. Barth Bucket: Everything but Wind
April 5 - St. Barth, FWI
Over the weekend, 22 of the world's finest
megayachts gathered in St. Barth in the Eastern Caribbean for
the biggest Bucket ever. What's a Bucket? It's when owners of
megayachts not designed for racing get together for fun and games
with their boats. This mostly takes the form of several fun races.
Because of the tremendous differences in style and age of these
sailing yachts - everything from the new 138-ft J Class yacht
Ranger, built to a pre-World War II design, to the 172-ft
cruising ketch Salperton, also new - it's almost impossible
to handicap these boats fairly. As such, after the first race,
the boats that do really well are given a bigger handicap. So
while the results don't really count for much, it's still great
to watch these boats compete, especially since rabbit starts
are employed, meaning the boats take their handicaps at the start,
and the first boat across the finish line wins. This means lots
of boats get passed during the race.
Ranger, the newest and fastest of the J Class boats, which
were once used in the America's Cup.
The Bucket concept was started 18 years
ago in Newport by Tommy Taylor and Nelson Doubleday. Usually
there are just a handful of boats. The 22 boats this year in
St. Barth was the largest group ever, and the quality was superb.
It rivaled the megayacht regatta in New Zealand prior to the
last America's Cup. Given the ever reliable trades of the Eastern
Caribbean, everybody was expecting a terrific Bucket. Alas, the
trades weren't so reliable, so both races had to be sailed in
5-10 knots of wind. It was very frustrating, as these boats are
quite heavy, and because they aren't nimble - many have to furl
headsails in order to tack because of staysail stays - they can't
take advantage of any but the most extreme windshifts.
Nonetheless, the Bucket made for tremendous
spectating. The first race was the approximately 22-mile around-the-island
race. The biggest suspense was whether Hasso Plattner, sometime
resident of Northern California, and his new R/P 147 Visione
could catch the other boats, some of which had been given a head
start of more than 90 minutes. The extremely light air was just
what they needed, and after passing J Class yachts Ranger
and the spectacular Cambria, which, if we're not mistaken,
was built in 1928, on the last weather leg, they took honors.
It was only 15 miles away and just a month ago that Plattner,
again with Novato's Dee Smith aboard, sailed to victory in the
Heineken Regatta, except then it was with Plattner's also new
MaxZ86 Morning Glory.
Visione, the modern 147-footer to leeward, and easily
the fastest boat in the fleet, takes the J Class Cambria,
arguably the most beautiful boat in the fleet, to leeward on
the last leg of the first race.
Cambria sails with three headsails one of which
is so high up you can't even see it in this photo. She looks
spectacular.
With the wind as light or even lighter
the second day, Visione was a favorite to win again. But
then the course was shortened, then changed entirely. Finally,
due to some kind of committee error, what was to be a 14-mile
course turned out to be under 10 miles, and Visione's
chances to catch up with what was in effect a greatly increased
handicap were nil. As a result, the winner of the two-day Bucket
was Carlo Falcone's 80-ft Fife-designed Mariella, which
was built early in the last century. It wasn't an easy victory,
for 'executive skipper' Antonio des Mortes, the wild and crazy
former captain of Latitude 38's Ocean 71 Big O, had
brought along Pablo, his 18-month old son. In the hot and slow
going, Pablo was restless and kept calling for "Papa,"
reportedly driving Carlo halfway to crazy. With Pablo and his
mother safely aboard Profligate for the second race, Mariella
triumphed in one of the most exciting three boat finishes we've
ever seen. With two bigger and faster boats only feet behind,
and unable to lay the finish line, she dropped her headsail to
sail under main alone to be able to point just a little higher
for the last few yards. Spectators whooped and hollered.
Carlo Falcone, owner of Mariella, winner of the Bucket,
stands at right with a bottle of champagne, while Antonio des
Mortes holds one of the trophies.
Second place honors went to Unfurled,
a previous winner of the Bucket. Skipper Greg Perkins looked
familiar, and after talking, we learned that we'd raced with
him aboard the maxi Ondine in Hawaii way back in 1987
when he was a lowly deckhand just getting started. It's great
to see that Perkins, now married and a father, has done so well
for himself.
Third place honors went to Plattner's Visione.
"She's no Mari-Cha IV," says Smith, referring
to Bob Miller's 144-ft all out race boat, "but she's really
fast."
Not quite as fast, but correcting out second in the last race
was Bucket co-founder Tommy Taylor's 106-ft Avalon. It
was a popular near-the-top finish, for Taylor, who had previously
owned the boat for many years.
Visione is one fast - and long - yacht.
The size of Ipanema's cockpit and aft deck demonstrate
why these are called megayachts.
Victoria of Strathearn, her crew decked out in pink shirts,
took honors in the second race.
Destination Fox Harbor and the Aussie-based Kokomo,
a couple of similar looking 130-footers, would sail the second
race like a couple of Melges 24s, taking each other up higher
and higher in a private battle.
The quay at St. Barth was filled with the Bucket boats. The 147-ft
Visione is the second front right. That little black dot
on the unfurled jib is a human.
Photos Latitude/Richard
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