The Sint Maarten Yacht Club, the organizer of the 14th Annual Sol St. Maarten Optimist Championship, is excited to announce that more than thirty youth sailors will participate in coming weekend’s race. According to Reinier Calkhoven: “This year’s regatta is looking to become the highest-level regional Optimist Regatta in the Caribbean, other than the Opti Worlds. We have an exceptional number of competitors that race on a high level. More than twenty blue class or advanced sailors will participate and around six to ten Orange Class or intermediate sailors will join the race. It is going to be highly competitive!”
The event is taking place this weekend Saturday and Sunday November 9 and 10, 2019. Approximately thirty young sailors from St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Barths, Antigua, Curacao and St. Martin will be travelling to St. Maarten to sail in the 14th edition of this sailing event sponsored by Sol Petroleum. Six countries in total will compete against each other on the beautiful waters of St. Maarten.
Scott Doyle, racing coach of the SMYC: “The stakes are high. The Sol Optimist Championship is a qualifier for the Optimist World Championship and the overall winner will go home with the newest GoPro camera”.
Many local and regional businesses have pitched in to make this event grow in quality and size. Budget Marine has sponsored equipment drybags for the orange class prizes and Bob Hilbert has made special Sol Optimist Championship long sleeve UV-shirts for all the competitors and coaches to wear during the event. Volunteers are providing the competitors a Healthy potluck meal on Saturday after racing.
“This event is a regional jewel for all the young competitors. We couldn’t have done it with all the help from our sponsors that contribute yearly to this event” says Leonde Vermeulen, event manager of the SMYC.
“This year we want to thank our main sponsor Sol Petroleum, Divico Distributors and Cash & Carry, Intertoys, Rainforest Adventures, Van Dorp, Fiji, Remax island properties, Timeless Spirits, Budget Marine, Realfoods, Domino’s, N.V., Bob Hilbert and The Scuba Shop.
