Caribbean Big Boat Series - Sotto Voce Leads CBBS After St Maarten
By Alastair Abrehart
Mar 31, 2003, 19:22 PST

With St Maarten's Heineken Regatta over, Arien van Vemde's Judel/Vrolijk designed 72-footer Sotto Voce is currently leading the racing class of the Caribbean Big Boat Series (CBBS) with four points to Chippewa's eight and Equation's 12 points. Next stop: BVI Spring Regatta, April 4 -6.

Of the four races held in St Maarten, first leg of the fourth CBBS, finishing positions never changed with Sotto Voce bulleting each while Chippewa and Equation were second and third respectively; Sotto Voce won by reasonably convincing margins each time.

Disappointingly, Tom Hill's new 75-foot Reichel-Pugh-designed machine, Titan 12, will not be making a Caribbean appearance until Antigua Sailing Week and too late to compete in the CBBS. "Finally we are looking at a real launch and sea trails. No it is not an April fools joke but that's the day, April 1st. We should have the rig tuned well enough to actually sail on the 5th and 6th in Newport," said project manager Mark Ploch.

Clay Deutsch's Swan 60 Chippewa has returned to do all three regattas in the Series; he suffered a substantial penalty - class plus 1 point for each race - for only competing in two last year and the ever-present Bill Alcott is competing in his new Andrews 70 turb'd sled Equation (ex-Magnitude).

All three of Formula 1 Sailing's Farr 65 "head boats" are competing. Spirit of Diana, skippered by Ross Daniels and which achieved its second line honours in the ARC trans-Atlantic rally last year, is defending its title in the racer/cruiser division introduced for the first time in 2002. However, Diana got off to a slow start and was beaten by both its sisterships in St Maarten - one skippered by Dee Caffari and the other by Formula 1 Sailing owner Alex Thomson.

The racer/cruiser class is comprised of the three "Spirits" - Juno, Minerva and Diana plus Bermudian Farr 72 Starr Trail, back for a second year. Only Minerva is expected in the BVI for the second leg which gives Minerva a huge leg up on the scoreboard for top honours but leaves it wide open for second and third places while he 'BVI-no-shows' will each receive the same number of penalty points.

With little fanfare but blistering speed, Roy E. Disney's Pyewacket dominated the CBBS last year which comprises of Heineken Regatta, St Maarten, the BVI Spring Regatta and Antigua Sailing Week. As Pyewacket went in to the last event of the Series - Antigua Sailing Week - she had bulleted the racing at the first two events and, barring disaster, was assured of overall victory in the three-regatta Series which is open to monohulls sixty feet and over. Although Pyewacket dropped one race in Antigua to UK Swan 60 Spirit Of Jethou, breaking her unbeaten record on her first Caribbean tour, her bullets in the CBBS remained intact against the other two boats in the Racing class - Tom Hill's 'old' Andrews 70 Titan and Bill Alcotts' 'old' Santa Cruz 70 Equation - second and third respectively overall.

Disney hasn't return for 2003 as he'll be competing in the Transpac but plans to be back in 2004 with his new maxZ86.

The CBBS was introduced in 1999. Nine boats participated in the first year with some top names of the racing world competing. Due to millennium races all over the world the Series did not happen in 2000 and was re-introduced on a low-key basis in 2001. Five boats campaigned the Series with only one boat dropping one regatta. In fact the winning boat, Sagamore, competed in all three regattas solely because of the series.

Caribbean Big Boat Series 2003 Points after Leg One

Racing

Sotto Voce 4
Chippewa 8
Equation 12

Racer/Cruiser

Spirit of Juno 7
Spirit of Minerva 8
Starr Trail 9
Spirit of Diana 16