SIMPSON BAY--Regatta participants are now able to officially enter the 2016 St. Maarten Heineken Regatta. Months of planning go into this unique event and the race management is ready to go. The Notice of Race is online and can be downloaded along with the Safety and Bareboat rules. For the 2016 edition there will be two new classes added to the line-up. One will be for Former Volvo/Whitbread boats and the other is for Beach Cats. The online registration is simple and easy to use and can be accessed via the regatta website www.heinekenregatta.com.
The Former Volvo/Whitbread class has been created to attract these magnificently fast racing machines and give them an opportunity to race against each other in a fun way. Courses are currently being designed for this class and will give these boats a longer track they so much prefer.
Another new addition is the comeback of the Beach cat class. It has been over 10 years since the regatta had beach cats participating during the event. This fun and fast group of boats always adds an added excitement to the racing, and in 2016 they will not only have their own race course but additionally, organizers are planning a separate race committee to handle all Beach Cat queries.
Registration is additionally open for all other classes such as CSA, Bareboat and Lottery, giving all yachts that want to race during the event the opportunity to compete against other similar boats. Multihulls are also a large part of the regatta line-up, with the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta having the largest Multihull fleet in the Caribbean. Final class allocation will be done much closer to the event and participants will be able to size up their competition once all registrations are final.
For the 36th St. Maarten Heineken Regatta, the regatta team has paired up with Paul Miller of RegattaGuru. Miller has already been involved for numerous years with the entry and results system. This year the involvement of RegattaGuru has expanded to include assistance with race management, course design, as well as management of the race logistical team.
