The Royal BVI Yacht Club Youth Sailors traveled to St Thomas to compete in the Columbus Day Regatta hosted by the St. Thomas Yacht Club, on Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 October.
The BVI team sailed well in difficult conditions, very light winds, bringing home first place in 3 classes. Nathan Haycraft came first in Optimist White Fleet, Rayne Duff came first in Optimist Blue Fleet with Sam Morrell and Danny Petrovic first in 420 class.
The Optimist Championship Fleet was won by Teddy Nicolosi (STYC) with BVI’s Rayne Duff only 4 points behind in 2nd. Thad Lettsome finished overall in 5th, Nathan Haycraft 8th, Amelie Clark was 15th, with Kyle Roose, Max Reshetiloff and Olivia Messum finishing their first Optimist event 17th, 18th and 19th respectively. The lack of wind on both days meant that only 7 races could be completed over the two day event.
There were also 4 BVI sailors competing in the Optimist Green Fleet, which is for beginner racers. Anya Reshetiloff, Ryan Lettsome, Noah George and Nicolas Haycraft who all sailed extremely well in the challenging conditions doing the BVI’s very proud.
In the Laser Radial class, Jason Putley and Matthew Oliver represented the BVI’s with Jason finishing 2nd and Matthew finishing 3rd. The 420 class was won by BVI’s own Sam Morrell and Danny Petrovic who finished 2 points ahead of 2nd place.
The weekend could not have happened without the support of our corporate sponsors; Moorings who provided us with two Catamarans which were used to transport boats and competitors as well as to accommodate them; Nanny Cay for the use of the fuel dock to load our boats and for overnight dockage and Nagico Insurance for their continued support of our Youth Sailing Program.
Thank you to the St Thomas Yacht Club for hosting such a great event, our Race Coach Rob Lind and our Instructor Katelyn Woodman for coordinating the team. We had 15 BVI sailors which is the largest showing the BVI has had at an International event for a long time.
Sailing Classes are offered all day on Saturday as well as after school at Nanny Cay. Contact the Royal BVI Yacht Club office on 494 3286 to get out on the water.
