From Sint Maarten Yacht Club
Photo by Laurens Morel, Salty Colours.
Sailors from the Sint Maarten Yacht Club Sailing School participated in the 2023 St. Maarten Heineken Regatta in multiple teams. We have asked three of them to share their individual experiences.
In this second article, Jordan Pieterse is sharing her Regatta experience, helming a J70.
I’ve been racing a Laser 4.7 at the Sint Maarten Yacht Club for the last four years. Two years ago, I got into small keelboat racing with two of my friends, and competed in the 42nd St. Maarten Heineken Regatta on a Sunfast 20. This year, I was looking to try something new, and Garth Steyn from the Maritime School of the West Indies offered me an amazing opportunity – helming his J-70, Franny, for the Regatta. I was more than eager to take it.
I was pretty worried about the light wind forecasted for the Regatta, but it turned out we had nothing to worry about, getting a good 15 to 20 knots throughout the majority of the races. We struggled a bit on the first day with our asymmetric spinnaker – and actually ended up tearing our brand new golden one – but did better than expected, scoring straight 6’s and a sixth place overall.
Day two brought us to Marigot and back in similar wind conditions as the day before, providing us with lovely wind and waves that we surfed all the way from our mark in Marigot to Plum Rock. It was definitely one of the best moments of the Regatta.
The Round the Island course was set for Saturday, when the wind was forecasted to be the strongest. I was very excited for this course; I hadn’t done it before, and I was looking forward to the challenge.
We had a great start, and rounded our windward mark well. I think there was some confusion over the sailing instructions, causing a large portion of our CSA 7 to head off on a reach to the wrong mark, and putting us ahead of the fleet. It’s an image I don’t think I’ll ever forget; sailing towards Plum Rock, as a wall of nearly 100 colourful spinnakers and winged jibs bore down on us. In Grand Case, we caught some unlucky wind which pushed us back a bit, but had another great spinnaker run past Point Blanche and towards Simpson Bay.
The final day brought light wind and a single short course up past Point Blanche and back to Simpson Bay. We caught some favourable gusts and lifts that kept us in a good position on the upwind. We finished in 6th, placing sixth overall.
I’m very happy with our performance, and I learnt a lot from the other people on board. Looking forward to the next St. Maarten Heineken Regatta!
