By organisers of the Caribbean Multihull Challenge
What a day Thursday was! Nine 24’ trimarans sailing along the beach in a stadium-like setting with spectators watching from upstairs at Race Headquarters at Dutch Blonde Beach Bar. Five teams competing for prizes in tug of war, volleyball, cornhole and other games in the beach-side sports park on the eastern end of the Boardwalk. Scores of sailors, guests, and passers-by dancing and partying at St. Rose Arcade. Sponsors and other special guests enjoying the hospitality of a beautiful party at Holland House Beach Hotel. And all dazzled and delighted by the 8:00pm fireworks show in the bay produced by our island’s own SXM Fireworks!
What a time we had as we looked around the room at Holland House to see the best of St. Maarten talking, laughing, and enjoying the hotel’s hospitality. We saw Minster of TEATT – Mrs. Grisha Heyliger-Marten chatting with friends, along with many others including Wyb Meijer of SHTA, Bobby Velasquez of Bobby’s Marina, Paul Boetekees of Holland House, and Gaby Eman of Island Water World all enjoying the food and drink. Notable was the gathering of all to watch the fireworks with their smart phones out filming. What a site!
You should have been there to watch the Diams charging around the bay. There were six short races. The big winner for the day was Jan Sotello on Anomaly sailing as a member of the SMYC. Of the six races, Anomaly won three! This first time Stadium Sailing event worked and we will do this again in 2026 for the second annual GBBBJ. At the time of this writing we could not reach Sunil Vaswani – owner of Dutch Blonde for a comment, but we believe that he was happy with the programme we put together. And while we are at it, we want to thank Dr. Soc of Island 92 Radio who cheerfully helped out on a mic narrating the action for the many guests on site. All the while that the Jamboree action was hot in Great Bay, the very cool CMC CSA racing fleet were doing their own racing thing beginning and ending in Simpson Bay. For official results of Day One of the 7th CMC you can go to www.yachtscoring.com/emenu/16790.
The organisers of the CMC at the St Maarten Yacht Club thank all sponsors, government agencies, sailors, and volunteers for making the first GBBBJ a hit!
PHOTO: Eight members of the Island Water World sailing team receiving sports performance awards on the boardwalk. Photo Laurens Morel.
