SIMPSON BAY--Team Island water World skippered by Frits Bus won the first race of the Grant Thornton Keelboat Series Sunday.
Five boats entered the racing class. In addition to Bus and crew on his Melges 24 were Team Island Water World 2, another Melges 24, sailed by local youth sailors and Arthur Banting, Team IGY on Garth Steyn's new J70 "Franny", Kick em Jenny 2, the Melges 32 skippered by Ian Hope-Ross, and Wanna Be, skippered by Joris van den Eynde.
“With light and shifting winds it was everybody’s game,” said Bus. “Not really favoring any type of yacht, it was about finding pressure and taking the right shifts.”
Team Island Water World with tactics by Benoit Meesemacker , one of the best Laser sailors in the Caribbean and flawless crew work from Olivier Bernaz , Bernard Fourie and Joep Groenendijk dominated the first two races of the day with large leads.
The rest of the fleet seemed to shake off the rust and the cobwebs by race three with teams finishing with with in six to 10 seconds of each other .
Robbie Ferron and Kidz at Sea raced in the Sunfast 20 class which was won by Ferron.
The first race of the Keelboat Series also marked the end of the Golden Rock Regatta. For 14 years keelboats, both racers and cruisers and even a few multi-hulls had raced from St. Maarten to St. Eustatius to compete in the Golden Rock weekend long regatta. The event ended due to lack of sponsorship.
The St. Maarten Yacht Club will host the Stuyvesant Series for dinghies this weekend.
Next regatta will be the Course de L'Alliance, the three island competition runs November 29 to December 1.
