Seven days of sailing. Six race teams. Five race legs. Four flotilla cats. Three racer chaser squads. Two buoy races. One epic week in the BVI. That’s the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series BVI Championship and the countdown ends this weekend as team arrive to the Sunsail and Moorings base in Road Town, Tortola. Once the lines are slipped, blue waters await, and islands and beaches and bars. And plenty of racing miles between. Here’s a look at the fleet and the lucky sailors about to race for glory in the BVI. Follow along on our socials (IG and Facebook) as we take the fleet round the islands, to the Bitter End Yacht Club and back the base from October 31 to November 7.
The Defender
Team Never Alone, DETROIT
In June 2025, Paul Nuechterlein and a band of brothers from the Cal 25 Never Alone, hailing from Detroit’s Crescent Sail YC, earned the BVI Championship berth after schooling the local Cal fleet. Rum-eyed and jubilant at the awards, Nuechterlein and his mates guaranteed they’d show up big-time for the BVI Championship. And did they ever—with a top-notch sailing team and entourage of spouses and friends packed into their Sunsail mothership catamaran. From the moment they arrived in Tortola, Never Alone embraced the whole point of the exercise, striking an impressive balance of fast sailing and late-night revelry. They were as dominant on the water as they were on the dance floors at Foxy’s the Willy T and everywhere else we sailed to.
As the longstanding Sunsail tradition, Never Alone’s BVI victory last November earned them the defender’s berth. Truth be told, we neglected to tell them, and they had no idea they’d been invited back to defend until this summer. The patriarchs pondered the invitation before deciding to pass the golden ticket to their young skipper, Ross Nuechterlein — er, CSYC Vice Commodore Nuechterlein. “We all agreed that it would be impossible to top, or repeat, the awesomeness of last year,” Ross says. So this year, Never Alone is a cat-less squad of close sailing friends and partners. With a crew half the size of 205, they have plenty of hands to get the Sunsail 42-footer around the racecourse, but this time there’s no adult supervision.
The Challengers
Team Fawkes, St. Petersburg
Earning the berth in St. Petersburg were talented Paralympic skipper Kevin Holmberg and his teammates on the Sonar Fawkes. With Holmberg unable to join us in the BVI, crewmember Paul Perry happily took command of the championship berth and wasted little time signing on with Sunsail, the first team to do so. Like the defenders on Never Alone, this Tampa Bay team is a coed boatful of youngsters experiencing their first BVI bareboat week. Every berth on their Sunsail 42 is accounted for, and as BVI first-timers, Perry says, they’re excited for the adventure.
Team Fahrvergnugen, Annapolis
Alyssa (“Lisa” for short) Finney and her partner, Shane Zwingelberg, have been racing their Cal 25 Fahrvergnugen on the Chesapeake Bay for a few years with regulars David, Marco, Chuck and a few others. But it’s not the only boat they race. They distance race on other people’s boats, and Zwingelberg campaigns a pair of Stars, too, which is all to say that this year’s Annapolis challengers should be fast. “We’re definitely serious racers,” Finney says, “but the camaraderie is important.” After earning their berth, Finney says, they knew right away that the raceboat would be too small for their extended families and friends, so they promptly booked a mothership catamaran. “I’m just looking forward to having fun,” says Finney, who has been to the BVI a few times but never to race. “We are serious, and of course we want to win, but our goal is just to get everyone together and have a great time.”
Team Rebel, Detroit
Wherever the S2 7.9 class caravan goes, you can be sure Team Rebel is there leading the charge and winning races, with perennial class champion John Spierling omnipresent. Team Rebel won a NOOD BVI Championship berth way back in 2016. Spierling can’t recall where they finished, and neither can we, as the laminated scoreboard never made it home. “But I think we won the bar,” Spierling says. What would he do differently this year to improve his results? “We’ll have to get a cat to stay on,” he said back in June. Indeed, Team Rebel has a mothership and a team of 12 friends to swap fresh crew onto the raceboat as needed. That leaves only one question: Can they win both the bar and the title this year?
Team Eclipse, Chicago
The lottery-selected challenger from the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta in Chicago may have been J/70 skipper John Heaton, but when Heaton officially forfeited in September, his loss was Peter Nielsen’s gain. Nielsen’s Beneteau 36.7 Eclipse (“Yes, as in Mount Gay Eclipse … wink, wink”) finished third in its division, but he was first in line when the berth’s availability was announced in an email to Chicago’s entire fleet. Nielsen entered and paid in less than 24 hours. “Thanks for the opportunity,” he wrote. “We are going to have a blast.” At press time, he was still recruiting to fill the boat’s remaining cabin, but whether he shows up in Tortola with four crew or six, he’ll be fine. There’s only a mainsheet, a jib sheet and a cooler that need trimming.
Team Merlin, Marblehead
Charlie Garrard’s Merlin, hailing from Marblehead, continues the streak of J/105 teams representing the Regatta Series’ New England stop. In 2025, Greg Tindall’s Texas-based TNT earned the berth, to the chagrin of Team Merlin. For too long, they’ve been winning their division in Marblehead and itching to score the BVI prize. This year, it finally landed in their lap, and there was zero hesitation. “We are so excited,” said Garrard, whose son Jack stood alongside, nodding with a big, thirsty grin. “You don’t know how long we’ve been waiting for this.” With a deep bench of family and close sailing friends to bring along, they, too, promptly booked a mothership catamaran. The elder Garrard has sailed plenty in the BVI, both cruising and racing at the annual BVI Spring Regatta, but this time, he says, “The whole team is coming down, and I can’t wait to race against the others.”
