BVI Spring Regatta - Day Two Sees Some Positions Firming Up

Tortola, British Virgin Islands, April 2, 2005 - Wind picked up a little more for the second day of racing for the 34th annual BVI Spring Regatta & Sailing Festival presented by Nanny Cay Marina. Ten to fourteen knots were seen in the morning but dropped back to eight to ten knots in the afternoon.

On the Norman course which hosts the Performance Cruisers, Multihulls, Jib & Main and Bareboats A and B, the competitors got two races under their belts today. With five courses to choose from competitors, in one permutation or the other, were taken to Norman Island, Pelican Island, Little Thatch, Dead Chest and Flannagan Island.

There was an upset in Bareboat A, with Dot Com, Friday's leader, placing a mere fifth in the first race. Platinum Harken, co-skippered by Gerald Miller and Neil Harvey, moved into first place and Dot Com slipped to second. Justice, sailed by Justin Barton, holds onto third place.

Phil Otis on BVI Yacht Charters/HIHO, continuing his winning form from his Caribbean foray last year, has a tight grip on the lead in Bareboat B. Team Germany, with two-times Star European champion Joerg Moessnang at the helm, has slid from fifth to second place and Bavaria 36 Next Best Thing sits in third place.

Tom Mullen's J/120 Shamrock V, sailing in Performance Cruising, is now six points ahead of second place Diva sailed by Robin Tattersall. Northern Child is third. In the Jib and Main class, Hotel California Too catapulted herself into first place with a first and second whereas Cayennita slithered into seventh place.

BVI multihull Triple Jack is moving up the pack and now is only two points behind the class leader, Free Air Racing Team aka Charis from St Croix.

On the other side of the Sir Francis Drake Channel on the windward leeward Cooper Course, Titan XII continues to dominate Class B but by a slim three points. She saw a little points slippage with a third place today and Temptress, Richard Shulman's IMX 45, is still close enough to cause trouble - corrected times are close. Edgar Cato's Hissar is third.

Peter Isler, Titan's tactician for this year's Caribbean circuit believes that "the boat is being sailed as well as any maxi boat I have ever sailed on". "In terms of getting it around the corners and not giving away the boat lengths that you usually see in a big boat by taking the spinnaker down early or being conservative because the boat's so big, the boys are handling the sails around the corners really hard," said Isler.

"I challenged them and myself to take it to the next level and in some ways we're sailing the boat like an IC24 or a Laser and others ways we're still pretending it's a maxi boat and not hiking as hard as we could. So the challenge for us is to keep sailing the boat even harder and it's the little things right now because the big things are taken care of."

In Class C, Swan 44 Crescendo has broken the tie with Cosmic Warlord and will start tomorrow's racing five points ahead. Magnificent 7 holds onto the top position in Racing D but Mistress Quickly swapped spots with Lost Horizon and now sits in third place.

In the Racer/Cruiser class, Peter Haycraft’s Pipe Dream is comfortably in first place leading Myett’s Balaju II by seven points having racked up four bullets today. Pat Nolan’s Boomerang is third.

Once again, the IC24s squeezed in six scoring races. Even though Seahawk finished one race in fifth place, Robbie and Michael Hirst have stretched their lead over the rest of the fleet. Stinger has moved from fourth to second breaking the BVI's hold on the first three places.

On the One Design course, Laser Radial sailor Emma Paull stretches her lead with four firsts and a second. Visiting from St Croix, Sydney Jones, 15, was holed by a beach cat this morning and fleet footwork by regatta volunteers and yacht club members saw her back on the water this afternoon with a new boat. Despite receiving three DNCs during her absence - and the subsequent seven points per race - she is still in second place. Fourth placer Clair Burke, abandoned by crew, decided to take part at the last minute and plans to break into the top three tomorrow. "It's great. This was the only way I could enter the regatta. I was a bit apprehensive about doing a whole regatta by myself but it's been a lot of fun. Hopefully there will be lots of breeze tomorrow and I will get there and get a third place," she said.

Thomas Barrows is still unbeaten in the Laser fleet. Caribbean Auto Mart holds onto the lead in the Beach Cat class and fifteen year old Sean Anderson keeps his lead in the Formula Windsurfing class. His brother Alec is four points behind and dad, Ewan, trails by another one point.

For full details on the 2005 BVI Spring Regatta & Sailing Festival including daily news, photos and results, visit the official web site: http://www.bvispringregatta.org.

For more information on the British Virgin Islands visit: http://www.bvitourism.com. For more information on Nanny Cay Marina visit: http://www.nannycay.com.

The BVI Spring Regatta is jointly owned by the Royal BVI Yacht Club and the BVI Chamber of Commerce and Hotel Association. The 2005 BVI Spring Regatta & Sailing Festival is presented by Nanny Cay Marina. The BVI Tourist Board is a platinum sponsor. The Moorings, FirstCaribbean International Bank, Heineken Beer, Mount Gay Rum, the Bitter End Yacht Club and CCT are gold sponsors.