The newly launched all-carbon racing machine HH66 NALA will turn a few heads at this year's BVI Spring Regatta. Photo: Hudson Yacht Group/Lauren Battaile

Challenger raced across the Atlantic from the Canary Islands with the RORC Transatlantic Race. Photo: James Mitchell

NALA, the carbon rocket ship owned by Jim Vos, a dinghy sailor and long-time boat owner, is seriously fresh out of the yard in Xiamen, China. The brainchild of renown multihull designers Morelli and Melvin, NALA's just been unloaded in Fort Lauderdale and boat captain Collin Marshall, who lives in St John, US Virgin Islands, will be spending the next few weeks completing the commissioning work on her before heading into the Caribbean race circuit, including BVI Spring Regatta.

At 66' (20.11m) long, NALA races with a turbo-charged rig and T-foil rudders that assist stability and reduce pitching in big seas. Curved daggerboards help create lift at higher boat speeds making her faster on all points of sail, Marshall explained. This all-carbon racing machine is super light and as Marshall described, is designed for racing in every condition.

"While we haven't had a chance to really put it through her paces yet, she seems to do pretty well in chop. She's going to love big breeze - being in the Caribbean is going to be fantastic once we figure out the bugs, but she is really designed for both light and heavy air regattas." Marshall expects to race with 10 crew on board who will be coming from all over the east and west coasts of the US. "We had quite a few Kiwis and Aussies working in China on this project so we'll also have a Kiwi or two on board - for good luck," Marshall said, smiling.

Introducing Challenger!

Also new to BVI Spring Regatta this year is Challenger, a modified Whitbread 60 built for the '97 Whitbread Round the World Race but which never made it further than Cape Town due to a financial situation. When Chris Stanmore-Major, owner/founder of Spartan Ocean Racing bought the boat lin ate 2015, she had just 6,000 miles on her, having been kept in storage for years.

"She is the lowest mileage Whitbread 60 in the world. We've since put 20,000 miles on her and she's been modified for the kind of racing we do, with roller furling headsails and a change to the backstays that makes the rig a lot more secure and even to operate for the charter crews," he said.

Challenger will race Spring Regatta with a crew of 12 sailing guests all new to the boat and two Spartan crew. The team will spend a few days in Tortola pre regatta doing sail training aboard Challenger. Stanmore-Major, who lives in Nova Scotia, Canada, said the boat has done well in regattas this year, chalking up first, second and third places. He's confident that with his staff's collective sail training background, they'll be able to put together a competitive team for Spring Regatta, although, oddly enough, it'll be his first time racing in the VI.

Other competitors

Complementing the line-up of new boats and new people are event veterans like Doug Baker, from Long Beach, California. Baker first raced the event in 2000, took a break for a number of years but has been back for the past five events. While he's owned plenty of fast racing boats in his time, these days Baker prefers to charter. This year he will be at the helm of Runaway, an ultralight sled 70 which will be racing Spring Regatta for the first time. From Peru, Runaway was the first across the line at the 2017 Cape2Rio and will do several Caribbean events before Baker meets her in Tortola for Spring Regatta.

"I like the Caribbean, and my crew love coming with me," Baker said, with a big smile. "The weather is always great, 99% of the time you have good wind, lots of competition - we get more competition down there than we do back on the West Coast, the parties are great, it's hard to beat everything that the Caribbean has to offer!"