Mainstream teams aim for St. Thomas

While the maxi crowd point their bows toward Superyacht Challenge Antigua and St. Barths Bucket Regatta, the 2024 St. Thomas International Regatta (STIR) is where mainstream yachting will be on March 29-31 in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.

With its focus on delivering world-class racing with round-the-island and round-the-buoy courses, the event’s 50th anniversary has a entry lineup of One-Design and CSA-handicap race teams. In the former is the Cape 31 class which is beginning to gain momentum in North America.

“We raced the boat last year in the UK and will return to the UK in 2024, but the St. Thomas International Regatta is a perfect place for us to do some racing and training,” noted USA’s Sandra Askew. “The event is well run and everyone there makes us feel so welcome. I most enjoy the breeze, sunshine, and the landscape. We have an international crew, and they are magnificent.”

Askew’s Cape 31 team on Flying Jenny will have Rob Greenhalgh, Sean O’Rouck, Alex Gouff, Josie Gideon, Buddah, Drew Barnes, and Dave Askew.

Apollo, the USA’s Donald Nicholson’s J/121, will be back and race in the CSA Spinnaker 2 Class with nearly a dozen other boats. She is hull #2 and raced mostly out of her homeport in Newport, Rhode Island.

Her inaugural ocean race was the 2018 Newport Bermuda Race where she won the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse Division and finished 6th overall. Apollo’s first STIR regatta was also in 2018, a few months before the Newport-Bermuda win, which provided Nicholson and his crew to break in the new vessel. Apollo returned to STIR 2022 and is now back with much pent-up enthusiasm.

“The team hails from the East Coast of both the U.S. and Canada and some of us have raced together for over 20 years. Given our geographic dispersion, we generally do regatta racing or distance races,” says Nicholson, who is Apollo’s owner and driver.

“In addition to our love for regatta racing, we enjoy coming back to STIR for the beautiful Caribbean surroundings, the consistent breeze, stiff competition, and the camaraderie of the event. “We especially love point-to-point course racing and despise the monotony of windward-leewards.”

Racing against Apollo in CSA 2 will be Puerto Rico’s Enrique ‘Keki’ Figueroa, and his team on the Melges 24, Exodus.

“Our team has been attending St. Thomas regatta since 1997,” shared Figueroa. “We have sailed J/24s, Hobie Cats, and IC24s in the past years. We now bought a Melges 24 to be able to compete in other major Caribbean regattas, because it’s a lot of fun to sail and tow with my other sailboat. Our crew is my sailing family. Very tight group, we have too much fun.”

Before STIR, the Round the Rocks Race (RTR) is on March 28 and circumnavigate the neighboring island of St. John.

General information – RTR – STIR