I bumped into a very upbeat Chris Watters at the RBVIYC yesterday evening. Chris, who is the YC coach sailed 'INTAC' to second place beating Peter Homberg, Ben Ainslie...this was poached from Scuttlebutt's newsletter. More details as we get them.
SCUTTLEBUTT OFFSHORE CHAMPIONSHIP
Keith Musto showed both his small boat skills and his tenacity to win the
Annual Scuttlebutt Offshore Championship held this week in conjunction with
the Bitter End Yacht Club’s Pro-Am Regatta in the British Virgin Islands.
Sailing an IC 24, the former British Olympic medallist corrected to 4-1 on
the two-legged race from Virgin Gorda’s North Sound to The Baths and back to
take the championship. Interestingly, second place was taken by the Youth
Sailing Team from the Royal BVI Yacht Club, who gave the invited pro skippers
sailing in the event an impressive lesson in local knowledge. Another local,
pro sailor Peter Holmberg, placed third overall.
The Curmudgeon, aka Tom Leweck, surprised almost everyone, including himself,
by winning the cruising boat division of the championship. In a charter boat
fleet of identical Beneteau 39s, Leweck and his energetic crew of small boat
sailors won both legs of the series for an overall win over Ed Baird, with
Bruce Kirby taking third place.
The Pro-Am Regatta begins now, with guests at the Bitter End YC crewing for
the 10 invited pro skippers in a series of fleet and match races in IC 24s.
Competing skippers include Ben Ainslie, Ed Baird, Ken Read, Peter Holmberg,
Dawn Riley, Rod Johnstone, Bruce Kirby, Keith Musto, Lowell North, and Butch
Ulmer.
Nov 1st
Chatted to Chris some more...they were 5th finishing at the baths and then 3rd back into N.Sound.
Of course I asked 'how on earth did that add up to being second overall? '
It seems that the overalls were corrected out. At the Baths all the IC's finished within a few seconds of eachother...the lead was swapping all the time and it was very close racing. On the way back there was a bigger spread with boats taking inshore and offshore options. Chris, Alec Anderson, Elsa Myers, Sam Woods and Dontae Hodge finished so far ahead of Ben, Butch, Rod...that they squeaked second overall.
Chris and the kids were well looked after by Mikail S and the BEYC who let them have a room. 'Who was the standout pro?' I asked...'Peter Holmberg' Chris replied, 'he gave us tips like using the twingers for the jib sheets on the reaches and he was generally easy to talk to and interested'.
Would just like to make a correction to this article: The actual crew for the RBVIYC youth team were Chris Watters(coach), Alec Anderson, Elsa Myers, Sam Woods and Dontae Hodge.
Posted by: Sam Woods | November 13, 2007 at 06:12 PM