Puerto Rico
Sixty-two boats with skippers hailing from throughout the Caribbean and U.S. mainland sailed out of Ensenada Bay in search of wind on the first of two days of racing in the 4th annual Culebra Heineken International Regatta.
“We definitely needed more wind,” said ISAF judge, Michael Thompson, of Detroit, who officiated over the racing. “By afternoon, we shortened the course for the bigger boats and the breeze filled in by another two knots. That allowed us to get off a couple of races. The sailors were definitely having fun.”
Racing took place off Culebra’s south shore with the spinnaker classes sailing around-the-buoys and cruising classes navigating among some of the smaller offshore islands.
One of the highlights of this year’s regatta are three large one-design classes – Hobie 16s, J/24s and IC/24s – which collectively made up nearly half of the fleet.
“We didn’t do as well as we would have liked since the wind was so low, but it was great to have such a large class,” says Joliam Berrios, who crewed for Francisco Figueroa aboard the Hobie 16, Heineken.
St. Croix’s Peter Stanton, calling tactics aboard the Melges 24, Devil 3, hopes to defend his class winning title from last year and also wishes there were more Melges to compete against. “There are just two of us here. But, I don’t mind handicap racing because the Melges is such a cool boat to sail.”
While the big boats were sailing offshore, over 20 junior sailors aboard Optimist dinghies and Lasers were enjoying equally hot competition in Ensenada Bay.
“I won every race except the last one,” said Optimist sailor, Addison Hackstaff, of St. Thomas.
The day ended with the fleet in high spirits and sailors enjoying island hospitality at a big block party in downtown Ensenada Honda.
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