Back on the course at St. Barts

St. Barthelemy, FWI (April 19, 2019) – After yesterday’s layday, the breeze freshened back up to 18-21 knots for today’s racing at the 10th edition of Les Voiles de St. Barth Richard Mille.

Race organizers sent the Maxi and Multihull classes on a 34-nautical mile course to battle it out for the 2019 Richard Mille Record Trophy while in the Maxi class, SHK Scallywag skippered by David Witt took line honors in 2hr 33min 53sec, and Greg Slyngstad’s Fujin finished less than three minutes behind in 2hrs 36min 33sec for the Multihull Record.

For 2019, the Richard Mille Record Trophy race was a 34 nm course to Saint Martin and back to St. Barth, a perfect race track for the 100’ Maxi formerly known as Ragamuffin to stretch her legs.

“We are obviously delighted that SHK Scallywag is named this year’s Trophy winner,” said Phil Harmer, two-time Volvo Ocean Race winner who sails on board SHK Scallywag. “SHK Scallywag is made for long-distance races and she is obviously more comfortable when the course gets a little longer.”

Skipper David Witt agreed. In his first time sailing Les Voiles, he was pleased to learn he helped earn the Richard Mille Record Trophy for the team and owner Sung Huang Lee, who was here driving the boat earlier this week.

“The last three days have been beautiful sailing in a beautiful place – it doesn’t get much better. It sure beats going around the world,” Witt said with a laugh. “For us, this event is great practice to help us work toward our goal at the end of the year to race in the Sydney to Hobart Race.”

Today’s distance race also doubles toward points in the overall Maxi 1 series and Peter Harrison’s Sorcha, skippered by Les Voiles de St. Barth Richard Mille’s Regatta Ambassador Pierre Casiraghi, won the day on corrected time to continue their perfect scoreline. Ambersail rounds out the three-boat class in 3rd.

In Maxi 2, Sir Peter Harrison’s Sojana cracked the top spot today to beat Michael Cotter’s Windfall.

“This has been our best day,” Harrison said. “Earlier in the week we had a third, two seconds and now today we earned a first. We’ve been battling with Windfall all week and have been within seconds of each other all the time. Now we sit just two points behind. While I don’t think we can win, but it has been a good racing week with lovely winds.”

Hallucine earned the win today in Multihull IMHRR. Régis Guillemot is pleased with how the team has recovered from its disqualification Tuesday after a pre-start foul. “That was an expensive mistake, because otherwise we have won almost every other race. But that is the game.”

Hallucine (12 points) currently sits in 2nd overall behind Guyador Gastronomie (6 points), and ahead of Arawak-Team Spellbound (16 points), who is tied on points with Rayon Vert in 4th place.

In ORCmh, Stephen Cucchiaro’s Flow, a Gunboat 60, returned to action today with a first-place finish (retired from the race on April 17 with a ripped mainsail), followed by the 2019 Richard Mille Record Trophy winner Fujin, who placed second on corrected time. R-SIX finished third today, and sits in 2nd place overall.

The leaders of CSA 2 (Andrew Berdon’s Summer Storm), CSA 3 (Sergio Sagramoso’s Lazy Dog) and CSA 5 (Claude Granel and Marc Emig’s Credit Mutuel – SGS ) will carry their perfect 1st place scorelines heading into tomorrow, the last day of the 10th edition of Les Voiles de St. Barth Richard Mille.

CSA 1 through 5 had two races today between 12 and 14 nm, and while the overall podium positions are solidifying across the fleets, the results do not necessarily reflect the close competition.

Touch2Play Racing finished the second race today with a 2nd place, “by just one second!” said Larry Huiber. “Every race we are all finishing within moments of each other. It makes you keep sailing hard all the time, especially with all of the different ratings within your class because you can’t be content to just get in front and cover your competitors.”

He credited Touch2Play’s competition for challenging them constantly. “The Liquid team is sailing really well, and Holding Pattern has such great talent on board. Any chance we have to be close to them we know we are in rarified air.”

Current standings for CSA 4: Pamela Baldwin’s Liquid has a solid hold on first place with six points overall; followed by Holding Pattern in 2nd with 15 points; and Touch2Play Racing in 3rd place with 16 points.

The 10th edition of Les Voiles de St. Barth is on April 15-20, 2019.

Event Details – Results – Facebook

Source: Laura Muma