Saint Barthélemy, Leeward Islands
The USF18 fleet has a strong group racing in the tropical paradise of St. Barths this week for the annual Catacup. With a competitive international fleet and a mixture of distance and buoy racing, the Catacup is a bucket list regatta for many in the F18 world. Competing from the United States and Canada are:
- Jessica Teunis and Sam Carter
- Jacopo Bracco and Tripp Burd
- Greg Retkowski and Cherie Sogsti
- Blair Toland and Maxime Loiselle
- Todd Riccardi and Dalton Tebo
- Luke Ramsay and John Casey
- Annie Gardner and Eric Witte
- Anthony Boueilh and Patrick LaRoche
- Mike Krantz and Dave Lennard
Following the racing here: http://www.stbarthcatacup.com/en/pages/Bienvenue/1/
Day one report from Blair Toland on Team Eagle and Moose:
One race yesterday in 12-14 knots, cloudy skies. Local and US racers had some ups and downs, Tripp and Jacopo broke a rudder and flipped, still finished 32 or so, but were in 4th at the time of the damage. Todd started out deep, ended up 13th after clawing his way back. We got a great start, rounded top mark in 10th. Lost a few boats on some downwinds, ended up 17th. Sam and Jess had the worst day of all, got hit on a port/starboard cross, major damage to port hull, definitely out for today. Today’s race is sunny 12-14 again and two, maybe even three races! Keep ya posted! Team Eagle & Moose reporting from Paradise 😉
Day one report from Tripp Burd:
Trouble in paradise during the first day of racing for the US teams. One race sailed today in maybe 12-18, with some good ground swell to play with. Sam and Jess got clipped in a port/starboard duck gone wrong, and may be out for a day while undergoing repairs. Tony went for a swim after the start when his trap line let go. Enrique broke a board and retired after two marks. The SF guys had a rough one, though not sure of the cause. The Ronstan rocket was having a good one for most of the race, until a flip when a rudder folded, towards the bottom of a rippin’ downwind. Dropped from the top 5 to somewhere near the back…
Plenty of racing left to go. Hope everyone can patch up and get out there again tomorrow.
Photos from Blair Toland and Tripp Burd
Day One Video:
