'They came, they raced and they conquered'
Fraito Lugo once again proved that he and his evergreen crew are the team to beat in the IC24 world by convincingly winning the ‘Quantum International’. Jose Santiago sailing PUR65 sailed a very consistent regatta to place second by a comfortable margin. The only BVI team to get a look in on the podium was third placed Alec Anderson, who at the age of 17 is now making a habit of showing his transom to the more seasoned BVI helms. There were no USVI entries this year which was a shame. Thanksgiving and a very tight November calendar ruled the regulars out but Kevin Wrigley of Quantum BVI is poised to shift the regatta back to early Summer for 2009.
Saturday morning saw a shifty Northeaster battling with new pressure from the East. Just off Nanny Cay this meant that there was breeze on the left and on the right but the middle was treacherous. The first race saw the hard left pay dividends with Andrew Waters leading Richard Wooldridge around the first windward mark. Several teams fell foul in the middle with wind lines tantalizingly close but never quite reaching their sails. This was to be the story all morning with everyone finding hard to get any consistency going, apart from Fraito that is! The afternoon saw the breeze freshening and settling more into the East. The fleet of 8 tightened up and enjoyed some picture perfect racing. At the end of the day Fraito had already established a convincing lead, Jose second and Richard Wooldridge in third.
Sunday morning’s forecast called for a strong wind surge with ships reporting sustained wind up to 30kts in the Anegada Passage. It never got that windy but strong gusts and a very choppy Sir Francis Drake Channel had all crews struggling to sail upright. Race Officer Guy Eldridge kept the purple ‘no spinnaker’ flag firmly furled and there was some fine downwind surfing on display. Fraito Lugo rounded off his masterclass by winning the final 3 rounder by a country mile. Jose had done more than enough to confirm his second place.
At the prizegiving it pained Kevin Wrigley to present the winners check to Fraito who runs a Quantum Loft himself. Sam Childs(6) was given a gold star for being the youngest competitor. Ryan Wooldridge (9) joined young Sam on windy Sunday morning to help Alec Anderson snatch third place from his father Richard W. Ryan and Sam when asked how it was replied together “it was awesome”. This was not the word used by Chris Haycraft to describe his performance for the weekend. Kevin presented the hapless Haycraft with a large frozen Turkey for winning the battle to sew up last place!
The photographs were taken by Guy on the committee boat. He handed out 10x8 high quality prints to each competitor which was a nice touch. Mike Kirk singlehandedly ran the mark boat all weekend. A big vote of thanks to Guy, Mike, the RBVYC staff and commodore Clare for making the regatta such a success, at RIP we know how hard this can be!
