Winners decided

St Maarten Heineken Regatta concludes

The final day of the 32nd St Maarten Heineken Regatta closed in outstanding fashion last evening at the traditional prizegiving ceremony, followed by an evening of world-class musical entertainment, headlined by Jamaican reggae legend Beres Hammond on Kim Sha Beach.

The evening’s top prize - the St Maarten Cup - for the regatta’s Most Worthy Performance Overall went to Richard Wesslund’s J/120 El Ocaso, winner of the event’s most competitive class, CSA 4.

“This is our sixth year racing at the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta,” said Wesslund. “We've won our division twice but never this prize. I ultimately want to thank my great team for all their hard work over the years. We’ll be back!”

The Caribserve-NTG Cup for Most Worthy Performance on Friday went to Frits Bus and Peter Houtzager aboard the Melges 24 Coors Light. The Heineken Cup for Most Worthy Performance on Saturday was presented to Jordan Mindich’s Sun Odyssey 44 Aunt Jessie in the CSA 4 class. Tom Goebel and Neil Harvey’s Dufour 425 Chillin’ The Most took the Sint Maarten Yacht Club Cup for Sunday’s Most Worthy Performance.

The Overall Bareboat winner was the all women crew aboard Something Hot, Marieke Poulie’s Sun Odyssey 44i, which also received the Goldendog Cup for the team’s contribution to charity, a goal for many individual yachts that compete in the St Maarten Heineken Regatta.

The Panama Jack Cup for Fastest Multihull Around the Island on Friday’s opening race was the Irens 63 trimaran, Peter Aschenbrenner’s Paradox. The Fastest Monohull (Spinnaker classes) was Ernesto Cortina’s VO70 Gran Jotiti, which earned the Windward Islands Bank Cup in honour of the feat.

Frederick Walters’ Team Kincsem-Zourite, a 50ft Beneteau, was presented the Bliss Cup awarded to the Fastest Bareboat Around the Island. Virago, the Swan 100 sailed by Bill and Carolyn Titus and their crew, received the Sol Cup for the Fastest Non-Spinnaker Yacht to circle St Maarten.

Finally, the Xerox Obersi Cup, also known as the Spirit & Style Award, went to Michael Emmert and Richard Emmert’s lovely Rhodes design, Golden-Eye, a competitor in the Lottery Class.

With that, the 2012 event came to a close. The 33rd annual St. Maarten Heineken Regatta will take place from 28 February-3 March 2013. It’s never too early to start planning!