The highly competitive IC-24 Class, at the start of Sunday’s second race

BVI sailors catching up to St. Thomas in IC-24 class

BY DEAN GREENAWAY

Besides Tom Hill’s 75-foot Titan XII making an incredible run in the 34th BVI Spring Regatta—winning six of nine races on corrected time—the hottest competition was in the IC-24s class, primarily between British and U.S. Virgin Islands sailors.

In Friday’s opening day, BVI boats occupied the top three positions, led by Robbie and Mike Hirst’s entry Sea Hawk. Lurking in the shadows—just three points behind Andrew Waters Conch-Querer, was St. Thomas’ John Holmberg, brother of Peter Holmberg, the U.S. Virgin Islands’ 1988 Olympic Games silver medalist.

At the end of the second day, Holmberg split the top three BVI positions, vaulted past Waters and pulled within 15 points of Robbie— the last BVI sailor to compete in the Olympic Games—setting up a showdown on Sunday’s closing day.

Holmberg however, couldn’t overcome the Hirst’s on the final day and finished three points ahead of Waters’ Conch-Querer—who got two firsts on the final day—to make it a close 63-66. The Hirsts won the division with 43 points and claimed the Chief Minister’s prize for the Best BVI Boat in the competition.

Holmberg explained that the IC-24s have been in St. Thomas for 3-years and in the BVI a year and a half. He said the learning curve was steep in the beginning. “St. Thomas boats are fairly fast. The BVI, with a lot less time in the boats have been working very hard to come to the same speed,” he said. “The Hirsts are proving that they are there. Andrew Waters was down in the pack last year and this year fighting for second and third with me. This shows that the BVI has been working very hard at their practice as well.”

Robbie said they aimed for consistency—being within the top five in each race—which leads to a good performance overall as there were several good competitors in the field. “We are always concerned about John Holmberg because he’s got a lot of talent and he can always pull off things you think he can’t pull off,” Hirst noted. “There were so many good sailors out there, that different boats were winning today (Sunday). He fell back, but we kept doing what we were doing all weekend—being in the top five and not taking many risks, but being clean and consistent.”

The Hirsts are on their game Holmberg said, nothing that they won in St. Thomas in November, then came back and won Rolex last weekend. “Last year I was fourth at Rolex and won this regatta,” he recalled. “This year I was third in Rolex, so I came here ready to kick some butt again, and my butt is sore,” he joked. “I got kicked.”

Hirst agreed that the BVI standard has risen, noting that last year, St. Thomas teams were beating up on the BVI. “This year, the BVI has a lot of boats in the top five,” he noted, saying the difference is that BVI sailors have been putting more time on the boats. “We sail every week and get experience. The more they do it, the better they get—that’s the key, sailing regularly.”

Waters, who sailed in the IC-24 class for the first time, said BVI sailors do train hard. “Every Saturday we are out there working—helping each other actually—a and like Robbie said, the standard has increased an awful lot and we are just glad to be mixing it up with everyone else,” Waters said.

Holmberg said thing he liked about the class is that it’s very tight. “If you make a mistake, you suffer right away if somebody makes a mistake you gain right away. It’s very competitive,” he pointed out. “We had four and sometimes six boats crossing the line. We did some of out best sailing this regatta and we did some of our worst sailing this regatta too.”

Spring Regatta chairman Bob Phillips, said his aim is to have the IC-24 class become a week long event. “We hope to have it become as a qualifier for the Caribbean and Central American and Pan American Games, that’s our goal for the one design,” Phillips said. “We want to be a qualifier for those games, so that all the top sailors in the Caribbean are here competing to go.”

St. Croix’ Thomas Angier and Scot McChain dominated the Beach Cats division, sailing their Caribbean Auto Mart entry to victory in 13 of 18 races, for 45 points. Douglas Dereu’s Wave Magnet and Bruce Merced’s Rush tied with 45 points, but Dereu finished second after four first place finishes to Merced’s one. “We had to work a whole bunch to keep the boat going fast, but it was great competition,” Angier said. “We want to generate more interest in the Beach Cats class, that’s our interest in coming here. We want to get younger bodies out here because we need some new people. We need young blood.”

Angier described the courses just of Nanny Cay that was shared with Lasers, Laser Radials, and Formula Windsurfers as ‘perfect.’ “They catered to us. They put us in good water, gave us courses that were right for the boats, they don’t send us out to see with all the mono hulls. Sailing with the other classes, by design, we don’t get in each other’s way. We sail at different angles and it works out really well.”

Sean Anderson, 15, led a family sweep in the Formula Windsurfing class to finish with eight points. Father Ewan overcame Alec, 13 on the final day for second with 13 points while Alec amassed 19.

Thomas Barrows on the Laser class with 15 points followed by Doug Stewart and Ron Gurney with 31 and 52. Emma Paull won the Laser Radial with 18 points. St. Croix’ Sydney Jones—who was holed by a Beach Cat and missed three races and won the Bitter End Award for Spirit and Enthusiasm—was second with 42. Clair Burke finished with 59.