2005 ST. BARTH'S BUCKET RECAP
DATE: Apr. 11, 2005 CONTACT: editor@megayacht.com
Can you spot the MYC members in this crew?
Freedom Showing the Club Burgee
The 2005 St. Barth's Bucket Regatta, held March 31 - April 3, 2005, was a remarkable event, even by Bucket standards. The fleet was the biggest ever by all measures, with 28 yachts registered and 25 officially sailing. With yachts ranging from 78 to 247 feet, 600 sailors participated in the event. The size of the fleet stretched the capabilities of the Capitainerie when it came to having 24 yachts come and go within the same hour, twice a day.
Bird's eye view of the St. Barth's Bucket
on participating yacht Whisper.
The largest fleet ever brought forward significant challenges to the Race Committee and Jim Teeters, since the fleet was as diverse as it was large, but with the application of Jims increasingly accurate Bucket VPP Formula, the finishes became increasingly close as the week-end progressed, culminating Sunday when there were a large number of finishes between yachts of diverse description, with only seconds between.
The 38-meter (124-foot) Picchiotti Freedom,
overall winner in the St. Barth's Bucket.
For Fridays 24-mile course around St. Barth's, the starting times varied by a full 105 minutes. The race began with Metolius and Freedom breaking free into what appeared to be an unbreakable lead in a great light to medium air race around the Island. If there was a highlight to the days racing that was experienced by everyone in the fleet at one point or another, it was looking over your shoulder to see Ranger, Visionne and Sojana appear on the aft horizon and grow to their awesome life size. At the end of the day they passed all but beautiful Rebecca, who dazzled all with her remarkable speed, even without benefit of a spinnaker.
Overall winner Freedom crossing tacks with
third place overall finisher Sariyah.
Ratings were adjusted from the results of Fridays race on Saturday, wherein although there was reasonably close racing between the boats of like description, the racing committee felt the need to bring the fastest and slowest yachts into the hunt. Although Saturdays 5 minute penalty for Ranger, Visionne, Hyperion and Sojana put them at the back of the pack, they still had close racing at their end of the pack, with only 6 minutes separating the last 7 positions in the fleet. Rogue was the big winner for Saturdays race, beating Perseus, the 50-meter Perini Navi, across the line by only 7 seconds. Another close finish was between Sariyah in 4th place, followed by the Classic Fife, Mariella, then Andromeda La Dea in 6th, all within 40 seconds.
Sunday held the third and final race, a 20 mile romp around St. Barth's, clockwise. Aboard Victoria, their Saturday race was among their worst races ever, with a number of sail set foibles and a costly downwind foul by another yacht. With that extra credit, Sunday was Victorias day in the sun. Their apparent win, however, was scooped by Gitana, enthusiastic Bucket participants in almost every event, and the usual guardians of the back of the fleet. Sunday, her rating credits paid off and she was back at the dock before Victoria even finished. Freedom finished third, followed by the 138-foot Alloy/DuBois sloop, Destination. Three minutes later, Scherazade finished fifth, followed less than a minute later by Avalon, then Gitana S&S only one second later. The close finishes ran through the entire fleet.
For the awards, the fleet was split into two classes - one mast or two. Among the Sloops, Destination Fox Harbor placed second and Metolius was the winner. Among the ketches, S&S Gitana was third, Sariyah placed second and Freedom of Flight was the winner. In the overall results, third place was presented to Sariyah, and second place was won by Metolius. The overall winner of this years St. Barth's Bucket Regatta went to Sam Byrne and his crew of 25 abord the 38-meter S&S ketch Freedom.
Additional trophies were the Wolter Huisman Spirit of the Bucket Award given to Tom Taylor and Avalon, the Perini Navi Cup given to Andromeda La Dea, the Churchill Cornithian Cup given to Zingaro, The UBS Trophy given to Ranger and the Mayors Trophy given to the owner of Athena and crew. The Prize!
In addition, Mayor McGraw presented Bronze, Silver and Gold Medals of St. Barthelemy to the first, second and third place winners.
PHOTO CREDIT: Billly Black
To Home Port in May Trident ________________________________
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