Local favorites, Devil 3, take home the big prize at the 2008 St. Croix International.

Loads of sunshine with over 20 knots of wind and choppy seas was the weather this year for the 15th St. Croix International Regatta, sponsored by the St. Croix Yacht Club. For only the second time, a St. Croix boat, Devil 3, won the over all prize.

"The 15th Annual St. Croix International Regatta was a smashing success, even though we did have some smashing of inanimate objects, but no competitors were injured." says Julie San Martin, Regatta Director. " David Flaherty of St Thomas lost Ghost, his International Etchell, on the rocks of Teague Point when his mooring let go on Saturday night and our founder, Nick Castuccio, had an unfortunate encounter with Harbor Mark Nine on Saturday. The Mark was in need of repair and is now ready for replacement."

Three Harkoms, Christopher Loyd's modified 445, dominated Spinnaker 1 this year with seven first places. In 2007, they competed in Racer Cruiser, which they also dominated. Ondeck Ocean Racing (winner of the Commodores Award for Best Visiting Boat) brought two Farr 40's from St. Thomas to compete in this class, but they were no match for Robbie Armstrong's Expensive Habit and Dave West's new Melges 32, Jurakan.

Spinnaker 2 was dominated by Devil 3, a Melges 24, with seven first places. Three boats from St. Thomas (Thompson's J Walker, John Foster's Good Bad and the Ugly, and Paul Davis' Mag 7) traded places all weekend for the next 3 positions. This was the largest class, with 11 competitors.

Guy Eldridge of Tortola took his first overall win in his new Beneteau, Luxury Girl, in the Racer Cruiser class. "Guy has been a loyal competitor at our regatta and never placed well before; I have spent many a race day towing him in from the course. We are really pleased that Guy did so well this year, as is Guy!" says San Martin. “All seven of the Racer Cruisers opted to fly spinnakers and the racing was really competitive with Sergio Sagramosa’s Lazy Dog placing second by only 3 points and Peter Haycraft’s Pipedream less than 1 point behind Lazy Dog.”

St. Croix's Jeff Fangman dominated Jib and Main with seven bullets. Measurer Tony Sanpere came second, racing his home Cayenne III, followed by Stan Joines on his venerable Alberg 35, Windflower, crewed by St. Croix Central High students.

Beachcats was a two boat battle between St. Croix's Chris Schreiber and Paul Stoeken from St. Thomas on Hobie 16s. Chris prevailed on his Auto World Express, winning 4 of the five races before both skippers chose to retire rather than breaking any more equipment.

Six IC24s came to the line and five stayed to race. Puerto Rico's Fraito Lugo on Orion and St. Thomas' Chris Curreri on Brand New Second Hand Boat battled it out over seventeen races with Fraito' s Orion prevailing by 10 points.

Meanwhile, nineteen Optis competed in 20 knot plus winds, a daunting undertaking for the age 16 and younger participants. Ivan Aponte from Puerto Rico was the overall winner, with Nikki Barnes of St. Thomas only 4 points behind after 10 races - this girl is good! For the second year, the Opti PRO was Ronnie Ramos from Ponce, bringing his world class expertise to bear on upgrading the action from Club racing to World Qualifying quality. A few grumbles were heard, with little sympathy from the race committee.

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