Nauticat at the Heinekin Regatta, March 2009

Nauticat competed in the Heineken Regatta in St Martin again this year. We entered in the Cruising Multihull division which had a total of 10 entries, but only 7 showed for the start of the first race. The competition was a very well sailed and prepared Nautitech 43 cat who won last year by a large margin, a Lagoon 55 who had raced the other two previous years, 2 Lagoon 410’s from the charter fleet, and an extended seawind 1000 that had hull extensions making it 36 ft long. It was very well equipped and outfitted for cruising and racing, and lastly, a very quick, nice open Geminga 28 that had entered last year.

                                              Nauticat at the Heineken Regatta 2009


I had a good crew this year, Mike Nusbaum again from Victoria. Paul Nicholson from Victoria, Maureen Fenner from Rossland sailing in her first sailboat race, and Nigel Martin and Heather Brazier, also RVYC members and from Victoria. I sometimes race with them back home on their very well sailed Olson 911, Magic Bullet.

                                            2009 crew,  Paul , Maureen Mike, David, Nigel,  Heather

The winds for the first race were not as expected. The prevailing easterly winds shifted to NNE and blew quite strong. The first course was supposed to be a windward leeward course of 11 miles along the south coast of St Martin. It turned out to be a close reach upwind that all the multihulls could point on one tack and a reach to broad reach on the other leg. The winds were strong, steadily over 25 kn and mostly around 30 with gusts to 35 kn. We started with a reef in the main but just after the start the reef line broke so we had to sail with a full main for the race. After getting a good start and then recovering from the broken reef line we found ourselves in 5th place with the larger Lagoon 55 moving fast with its long waterline. We did some good sailing and trimming to keep the other boats close. It was a very fast race and we hit speeds of 13.5 knots without surfing or wave assistance. It took us 66 minutes to cover the 11 miles, a very fast race. Close to the finish line we got hit by a strong gust entering Philipsburg Bay and the main tore right down a panel. Consequently we limped into the finish line under headsail alone but still finished 3rd across the line. We were close to the 2 boats ahead of us but lost too much time with our problems to catch them on corrected time. The little Geminga cat was also caught in the gust and did some damage and didn’t show up for the next day racing.

                                          The largest boat in the regatta,  beautiful isnt it

The lagoon 55 had a good rating and we actually owed him time, about 6 minutes a mile. And he is the fastest boat in the division. Not fair to the rest of us but that’s the way racing goes.
It was a tough windy day for all the boats. Only 2 of the 5 gunboats managed to finish their race and there was major carnage in the bareboat fleet with a lot of damage and boats not finishing. A few boat had collisions and one boat was holed and almost sank. Lots of damaged sails. The winds and seas were bad enough that the charter companies required all their boats to have a reef in the main the next day and from then on. Having finished early we were the first boat into the sail loft and they repaired my main by 5:00 that night so I was ready to go again in the morning

                                          One of the Gunboats from the racing division


Day 2 had the same wind conditions as the previous day. The course this time was changed from the original plan to sail to Marigot as the seas were too big to have the fleet anchor in Marigot Bay so we sailed around the western tip of St Martin and to a mark off of Anguilla. It was a short windward leg with a close reach along the south coast of St Martin and then a beat up to the mark off Anguilla. The seas were big and short and steep with winds between 25 and 35 Kn. Very tough sailing. Lots of water over the boat. Some hatches were left unlocked so some people had very wet bunks but everything got dried out when we got back. Got a bit buried at the start and had to play catch up. Did a good job on the windward leg but did a poor job of picking the last lay line to the mark and had to throw in an extra 2 tacks. That was the difference between 3rd and 4th place. We finished in 4th. A good race and we didn’t do any damage. Sailed with a reefed main and a reef in the headsail for the upwind legs and unfurled the headsail for the downwind. Finished 2 minutes behind the 3rd place boat. The seawind 1000 Cover Shot beat us for 3rd place. they did fly their screacher again even though the division rules dont allow screachers and spinakers.

                                Nauticat in the lee of St Martin before the wind blew up to 35k



Day 3 started with lighter winds but still from the NE. But they were gusty going from 10 kn to 28 kn at the start. We started with full sails and had a good start and were close to the leaders at the windward mark but got rolled by the lagoon 55 and ended up trailing the fleet. Cover Shot got the best start and were first to the windward mark. The reach to Plum Point was a drag race with the longer boats going faster. Cover Shot flew a screecher which wasn’t allowed in our division and managed to stay up with the leaders. The beat to the windward mark was in big seas and 23 to 28 kn of wind. We hung in with our full sails and gained back a couple of boats and had a good rounding at the windward mark. It was a good windward leg for us. On the downwind run Cover Shot flew a spinaker, again not allowed under the rules, but it allowed them to stay with the leaders. They finished in 2nd place and we finished in 4th. But the 2 leaders protested Cover Shot for using illegal sails and won the protest. Cover Shot was accessed a penalty and we ended up in 3rd place for the regatta. It was a fun regatta with good heavy wind sailing, the toughest I’ve been in for racing and we sailed well. We had very good crew work this year.

                                          Paul and the Nozone crew shirts

1st place in the division went to the Lagoon 55 , Dreamcatcher and they sailed well. it’s a fast boat and likes the heavy weather. 2nd place went to the Nautitech 43 Polo and he always sails well. He is very hard to beat. We got 3rd place again this year.

          Nigel, Heather, Mike, Maureen



On the 3rd day all the bareboat divisions raced the same course as the multihulls and it’s the first chance we had to compare their times around the course with our own. I would have finished at the bottom of bareboat 1, the fastest of the bareboats and comprised mainly of Beneteau and Jeuneau 51 ft boats. All the bareboat fleet comprising mainly of Beneteau 473’s were faster around the course than we were but we were very close in time to the slowest of them. Bareboat 4 consisting of beneteau and jeauneau 43’s were also faster but we would have beat the slowest of them on elapsed time. We did catch up to the slowest bareboat fleet that had the new Jeauneau 393’s in it and pass most of them even though they are a nice performance cruiser/racer boat. But a few of the faster ones beat us around the course. I love my multihull.