In CSA Racing 2, Chris Haycraft (VI) racing on Pipedream took first in class by just half a point, beating Tony Mack (GBR) on Team McFly who has won the division for the past four years. Photo: Provided

Extremely light air made for very shifty and challenging conditions in the 46th edition of the BVI Spring Regatta on Sunday April 2, 2017. Photo: Provided

Peter Corr took first in CSA Racing 1 on his new boat Blitz, a King 40. Photo: Provided

Extremely light air made for very shifty and challenging conditions and the lack of breeze translated to a very hot day so a swim and a cold beer was the perfect race substitute for most of the 86-strong fleet.

32-year-old Pipedream pushed to the wire

Final results in several classes came down to the wire in the last race: in CSA Racing 2, Chris Haycraft (VI) racing on Pipedream took first in class by just half a point, beating Tony Mack (GBR) on Team McFly who has won the division for the past four years.

Haycraft, Commodore of the Royal BVI Yacht Club said, "The beauty of this Regatta is that you are racing against boats you don't know, so you don't know how they are going to perform which makes it all the more interesting. I love meeting all the new people who come to BVI Spring Regatta; it's just a great atmosphere. It's also been enjoyable to see more of our local ex-pats visiting the event village to see what it is all about."

Pipedream is a 32-year old boat so Haycraft is only too happy that it is still holding together to be able to win races, especially today's race in which they took line honours in CSA Racing 2. "Not bad for the slowest and probably the oldest boat in the fleet," Haycraft joked. "Today was about the wind clocking back to the left so it's where we wanted to go. We found clean air, the boat likes light air so it was our conditions."

His crew did mention that five of them had to go below to sit on the keel for a while to manage weight...which of course was like sitting in a sauna in the heat.

Tie breaker

In the IC 24 class, Frits Bus and Chuck Pessler racing on Island Water World Racing prevailed in a tie breaker with Aeropost.com skippered by Colin Rathbun.

"Colin (Rathbun) is a very well-known match racer and we were battling the entire week; it was like our own match race," Bus said, "Our boat speeds were about the same, we were constantly changing leads and were right next to each other at all the finishes - it was nerve wracking! Today was a bit light but we still had fun playing the shifts."

A Melges 24 sailor from St Maarten, Bus said he always enjoys the competition at Spring Regatta.

Racing results

In racing results, Peter Corr took first in CSA Racing 1 on his new boat Blitz, a King 40.

The relatively new and very exciting C&C 30 class racing in a small but very competitive fleet saw Don't Panic, owned and skippered by Julian Mann from San Francisco racing just his fourth regatta, took first in class. 

Avanti, the Hanse 43 skippered by Jeremi Jablonksi (USA) took first in Jib and Main.

Racing their second BVI Spring Regatta, In Bareboat 1, Subversive-JogFund, skippered by Warwick Dunnett (USA) took first, finishing with eight points.

Eight times great!

Bob Beltrano has done BVI Spring Regatta eight times and still considers it his favourite regatta. He previously raced the event on his former Swan 53 Naia and this year for the first time chartered a boat winning CSA Bareboat 2 on the Sunsail 44i Pinel.

In CSA Bareboat 3, Team Horizon racing their first Spring Regatta on Jitterbug, a Bavaria 37, took first in class. Skippered by Frank Rowsell from Devon, UK.

In the IC 24 class, Frits Bus & Chuck Pessler from Island Water World Racing noted the competition was incredibly close, especially between his team and Aeropost.com

Piglet, the Teegall 2300 owned and skippered by Joe St Martin from St Croix, took first in CSA Multihull division.

The Offshore Trimaran division was won by local VI team on Triple Jack, the Kelsall 47 skippered by Richard Wooldridge.

In the Offshore Multihull Division, the Gunboat 62 owned by Jason Carroll (USA) took first.