Two days of intense racing at the Caribbean Sailing Association Caribbean Dinghy Championships over the weekend ended with a team victory for Antigua. Race manager Karl James was delighted with the weekends racing. ‘I was pleased and relieved that we managed to get so many races in as the light airs on Saturday were extremely challenging. It was great to see such fierce competition between some of the Caribbean’s top sailors.”
Held on Saturday, October 27 and Sunday, October 28, five teams from the region raced including Barbados, St. Maarten, St. Barths, Trinidad and Tobago and host team Antigua. The CDC event is unique in that it provides the opportunity for teams of sailors to compete in a variety of one-design ‘small-boat’ dinghy sailing classes. For 2018, these classes of equipment included the Optimist, the Laser (Radial and Standard) and a new class, the 2-person RS Feva.
Three classes had outstanding performances from youths scoring 8 straight bullets (excluding discard). They were 12 years old Theodore Spencer of Antigua winning Junior Optimist, Lorenzo Meyer from St. Barths winning Optimist Youth and 16 year old Daniel Smit of Antigua winning Laser Radial.
In Laser Standard, the battle for first place was on between Jules Mitchell of Antigua and Andrew Lewis of Trinidad and Tobago. Lewis placed first in 4 races with Mitchell placing first in only 3 races, however, Mitchell consistently achieved second in all the other races (after discard) resulting in a net point advantage and the winner of the Laser Standard Class. Bajan Jason Tindale held off Benoit Meesemaecker from St. Barths to win third place also in Laser Standard.
In the double-handed RS Feva class, the St.Barths Team of Antonin Sciou and Tristan Greaux dominated from the beginning and ensured they walked away with the win. The battle for second and third place was however hotly contested between Trinidad and Tobago and Antigua who both achieved the same net score, however, Trinidad won the second race which gave them the extra advantage to walk away in second place.
Of the event, CSA President Alison Sly-Adams said, ‘The weekend was very successful. The event is a great opportunity for Caribbean sailors to compete with their regional counterparts and gain much needed experience before moving onto larger international events outside of the region. At the recent CSA Annual Conference, we agreed that for the 2019 edition there will be further changes made to the format to ensure we can include more nations into this great event.
The CSA would like to thank sponsors Budget Marine, Gill, Marlow Ropes, National Sailing Academy, Club Sushi, Frank Wall (Antigua) Ltd., and the Antigua Yacht Club Marina for their support and Antigua Yacht Club and it’s race committee and volunteers for organising a great weekend.
For full results please click here.