Saint Barthélemy, Leeward Islands
The USF18 fleet continues to sail well at the St. Barth Catacup. Updates below from fleet members Todd Riccardi and Sam Carter.
From Todd Riccardi:
Two races today, one short race which was almost a trapezoid through the bay off the beach in 15 knots. Riccardi, Bracco, and Ramsey finished 13,14,15.
The round the island race started in 15 knots, but lightened up to 10-12 on the other side of the island. It became quite tactical rounding islands and dodging in and out of coves. Gustavia was very tricky, as always, with lulls of 5 knots and puffs of 15+. Blair Toland was caught off guard by one of these puffs and capsized while having a good race and lost several boats. The race was won by Manu Boulogne. Ramsey/Casey were 5th, and Riccardi was 13th after a huge comeback from being nearly in last after the first beat. Bracco/Burd were having a great race, but tore their spinnaker in Gustavia dropping them to 22nd.
From Sam Carter:
The round the island race went off without a hitch, with a different team from the usual winning. I believe Bundy was 2nd and Cammas 3rd but I’m not sure.
Our port/starboard on day 1 was us minding our business on starboard, working out a strategy to claw our way back after a crash tack and capsize in the top 20 left us DFL around mark 1. we picked up 8 boats by mark 2 then bam, port tracker tried to duck and failed. Took all day Friday to effect a temporary repair which got us on the water for Saturday with a marginal rudder system and an unrelated severely leaking Starboard hull. There are worse problems though, at least we’re in paradise!
Day three video:
