Sunfish line up for a start of the 2007 Caribbean Dinghy Championship.

It took a tiebreaker to decide this year’s Caribbean Dinghy Champion. August 4 – 5, the 22nd annual Caribbean Dinghy Championship was held in 10 – 15 knots of breeze and Puerto Rico took home the top honors with the USVI a very close second. Without a 420 team, a strong BVI team was able to secure third place. This year’s event was hosted by St. Croix Yacht Club with Barbados, Puerto Rico, USVI, BVI and St. Maarten competing in Optis, Lasers radial, Laser standard rig , 420’s and Sunfish.

The Opti fleets were dominated by young sailors from BVI, Puerto Rico and the USVI. Taking third in the Green Fleet (under age11), with 49 points, was Jason Putley from the BVI. Puerto Rico’s Manuel Gonzalez sailed a strong regatta finishing in second place with 31 points. Way ahead, of the pack was Mack Bryan, who finished in all but five of the sixteen races in first place and took the overall top prize.

In the 12- 15 year old group, Puerto Rico’s Victor Aponte dominated the racing with fifteen first place finishes. It’s not very often that a sailor uses a second as a throw out. Dontae Hodge (BVI) was second finishing with 43 points and Challis Diaz (USVI) finished in third with 49 points.

Andrew and Lyn Rapley, sailing for their first time in the 420, ended the regatta in third place with 28.3 points, Marco Texidore (PR) was a distant second with 14 points and winning by just two points, Jae Tonachel (USVI) finished the ten race series in first place.

Taking ten firsts, Peter Stanton, the Caribbean sailors that just placed fouth in the PanAm Games, finished first this weekend in the Sun Fish class. He was followed by Charles Gloumeau of Barbados who placed second every race but one. Third was the BVI coach, Chris Watters finishing with 28 points.

Puerto Ricans took the top honors in both the Laser Radial class and the Laser Standard Rig. Angela Alberla won eight of the ten races and finished the regatta with fifteen points. BVI’s Elsa Myers, just back from the Volvo Youth Worlds, was not too far behind, scoring a total of 21 points and finished in second place. USVI’s Krista Slina was third with 29 points.

In the closest point spread of any of the classes, only six points separated first through fourth place in the Laser Standard class. Puerto Rico’s Francisco Medina took top honors finishing the regatta with 22 points. St. Croix’s own Beecher Higby III, who is older than the combined ages of the first and third place finishers, was only three points behind the leader and two points ahead of fellow Cruzan third place Chris Stanton. Jason Tindale was a very close fourth finishing the ten race series with 28 points.

This event was raced by a number of eminent Caribbean racing personalities whom we usually see working hard organizing regatta’s rather than sailing them. Robbie Ferron, past CSA (Caribbean Sailing Association) President and organizers of the St. Maartin Heineken Regatta sailed a Laser Standard rig. Barbados’ Renatta Goodridge, a CSA measurer, raced a Laser Radial. Earnst Looser, from North Sails in St, Maartin, brought his own children to race in the Opti’s and donned a PFD to race the Sun Fish and Andrew Rapley, who has been the race officer for a number of events, raced with his wife Lynn in the 420 class.

Throughout the weekend, St. Croix Yacht Club not only ran a total of 26 races on two courses, they fed the sailors breakfast, lunch and dinner and many of the visiting competitors were housed by club members. As the event wound up on Sunday afternoon, event chair, Julie San Martin said, “St. Croix is really thrilled to host this event. We are out of the sailing loop and this gives us a chance to compete with our sailing neighbors and return the hospitality so often shown to us.”

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