SIMPSON BAY--Jan van der Eynde skippering Wanna Be took first place on Sunday was second on Saturday and finished the 16th annual La Course de L’Alliance in first place overall.
“We enjoyed some excellent sailing this weekend. On Saturday morning we had to be creative as our halyard broke right before the start and it required going up the mast and some serious skills to fix it,” said van der Eynde. “What was most impressive was that racing was postponed allowing us to make the repair, meaning that the entire fleet had to wait for half an hour. Nobody complained, and that shows the true spirit of this event. It was amazing to see how we improved over the weekend. Coming in as the overall winner was a bit of a surprise, but a pleasant reward after making good tactical decisions and for leaving the parties early.”
Nine teams enjoyed spectacular sailing conditions while they battled for top honours in 3-days of racing that took local and regional sailors from St. Maarten to St. Barts, Anguilla and back to St Maarten.
In the Racing Class the St. Barts boats Speedy Nemo and Maelia left behind the St. Maarten boats and took first and second place on day 1.
Day 2 one of St Maarten’s finest teams, Team Island Water World, led the rest of the fleet to Anguilla. Closely followed by Wanna Be and Kick em Jenny.
On day 3 everything was still up for grabs and so the teams gave it their all. IGY Racing Team, on their new J70, enjoyed their first regatta of the season, despite ending in 6th place, as they learned a lot about the boat throughout the weekend.
Maelia and Speedy Nemo sailed well, but couldn’t get ahead of the fleet on day 2 or 3, taking 5th and 4th place overall.
Frits Bus with Team Island Water World, who saw some amazing starts this weekend, managed to take home 3rd place overall.
Kick em Jenny and Wanna Be showed each other fierce competition all weekend and in the end it came down to mere seconds in corrected time.
Three boats competed in Multihull Class. Spellbound, skippered by Ian Martin, who came in second place last year, wasn’t so fortunate this time. They ripped the spinnaker on Saturday and had to withdraw from racing on Sunday.
Seaduction skippered by Petro Jonker, sailed really well all weekend, but was no match for the fast Enola, who managed to be even faster than the Race Committee on day 2, placing first on all 3 days claiming 1st place overall.
