Rathbun: Winner in St Maarten!
Rathbun, third last year, returned with his same crew of Kevin Wrigley and Nick Cunha and clearly have made a big jump in the improvement curve, but still insisted he and his crew are normal guys with regular day jobs.
"Bouwe Bekking had a lot of pace on the race course, we beat him, but at the same time we learned a lot from him," said Rathbun. "Then you were up against the reputation of David Storrs so it's not an easy thing to win. We are really stoked. I think what did it for us was that we had a very calm and collected approach. No shouting. It's the best we've sailed as a team."
Storrs (67), and his crew of Steph Roble and Maggie Shea, settled for second place while the Russian team skippered by the experienced Eugeny Nikiforov finished in third place.
Bouwe Bekking's team, perhaps the most high profile of the seven teams from Bekking's distinction as a professional ocean racer took fourth place.
All of the teams were confronted with reading the notoriously tricky shifts in the Lagoon, especially at the top mark with winds spilling off the mega yachts.
Local sailor Frits Bus teamed up with Jolyon Ferron and Roel ten Hoopen on Coors Light to finish in fifth place.
Luc Duponteil's team from Guadeloupe finished in sixth place and the Swedish team led by Jonatan Ameln were seventh.
The teams enjoyed sunny and blustery sailing conditions following a downpour at the start of racing. After the initial ten flight round robin, the field was narrowed down to the final four.
Peter Holmberg did not compete after having to change his plans when the yacht he was supposed to race on in the Heineken reportedly cancelled out.
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