Over this past weekend, the St Lucia Yacht Club held the "J24 St Lucia Open" with two visiting teams from Barbados joining four local teams. The event was held in the island's six J24s with a series of twelve races over Saturday and Sunday. Light and shifty winds made for some very close racing and exciting gains and losses. Boats were changed after each session of races with no owners sailing their own boats which made it fairer to the visitors and fun for owners to see how their boats did with other crews on board.

The local team of Michael Green, Gerard Bergasse, Duncan Ince and Chris Pilgrim took charge of the event after the first day with seven firsts and one second and other than a few hiccups on Sunday morning finished the regatta with nine firsts and four seconds. Behind there was a tight race between the Bajans entry of "Fade Away" having many close finishes against Nick Fosberg although in the end the team from Barbados took second with Nick and his crew third.

Mike Green of St. Lucia said, "The visiting teams really enjoyed the event and have agreed to run a similar event in Barbados, inviting the St Lucia crews up to participate. Next year this event is planned to get bigger with invitations going out to all the other Caribbean Islands and the event is to be sponsored by BMW 'Prestige Motors' who are keenly on-board to ensure it becomes a premier Caribbean sailing event."

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