The 43rd BVI Spring Regatta will be including a new one design category for the event held at Nanny Cay, starting on March 31, 2014. photo credit: Todd van Sickle/bvispringregatta.org

Now billed as one of the Caribbean’s top three Sailing Events, the BVI Spring Regatta and Sailing Festival has for years had three separate race areas.

However, it has been a signature of the Spring Regatta to give the classes more selection and the race officers more options. Having a race area specifically for one-design boats has worked to great advantage. The one-design was started for the IC24's, (converted J24) and now will include the fast growing J-70 fleet.

“With the one-design area, the Race Committee can set courses that allow these boats to have up to five races a day. The course they can set on the fly with existing wind conditions is fantastic. The sailors can maximize their time on the water and get plenty of tight racing among the one-design boats,” says Robert Phillips, Race Committee Chairman.

Each year the Committee has innovative designs, techniques and ideas that up the game for all the sailors. The past two years the Committee has used a set chart of the race area and surrounding water. Using numbered marks, islands and nautical markers, the Committee can create various races for each class. Checking wind, water and time limits, they can run windward/leeward courses - round islands and marks - to mix up the three days of racing. Another unique feature of the British Virgin Islands are its three bodies of water on which to race: The Atlantic Ocean, the Sir Francis Drake Channel and the Caribbean Sea.

The BVI Spring Regatta slogan of Warm Water - Hot Racing also includes something for everyone.