Belgium wins St. Barth Cata Cup

Forty-six F18 teams competed in the 11th edition of the St. Barth Cata Cup, held November 15-18 on Saint-Barthélemy. 2018 World Champions Iordanis Paschalidis and Konstantinos Trigonis (GRE), who were well on their way to a fifth straight race win, and first place in the overall rankings, were forced to retire from the sixth and final race when making a course error. This dropped them to fourth overall, one point off a three way tie for first broken by Belgians Patrick Demesmaeker and Olivier Gagliani.

They have now joined Misha Heemskerk and Eduard Zanen in the very small circle of double winners for this event.

What an improbable scenario, a little crazy even, for the fourth and final day of racing at the St. Barth Cata Cup. In fact, it was hard to imagine what could keep Greeks Iordanis Paschalidis and Konstantinos Trigonis from victory as they had dominated the races so completely.

But finally it was the Belgians who triumphed. Here’s why: an unthinkable error by the world champions during the final section of the daily race, after they were head and shoulders above the others up to that point.

“After the tour around the island, arriving in the bay of Saint Jean, before heading toward Public, we went around the marker in the wrong direction, with the buoy on the starboard side rather than portside,” explained Trigonis. “That cost us the race, and it was definitely a big error on our part. It’s tough because that ruined our race, and it’s all the more infuriating for us as it’s the second time that happened this week—we had already made an error on the routing of the first race. It’s regrettable, but that’s how it is.”

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About the St. Barth Cata Cup
The St. Barth Cata-Cup is a high-caliber sporting event where catamaran enthusiasts of various nationalities, from world champions to locals, come together under the Caribbean sun. After three editions in 1992, 1993 and 1994, the event was relaunched in 2008 by Vincent Jordil, Jeff Ledee and Thierry Linares. A year after hurricane Irma, the St. Barth Cata-Cup is one of the first event to open the tourist season in St Barth.

Source: Event Media