Charlie Garrard, a regular at the British Virgin Islands’ annual Spring Regatta, was confident his J/105 team from Marblehead would enjoy a local-knowledge advantage for the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series’ BVI Championship and Racer Chaser Flotilla.
Yet, while the islands and the easterly trades that pump through them are familiar, Garrard and his teammates from Merlin had no idea who they were lining up against for this unique one-design championship in Sunsail bareboats. And therein was the challenge for Team Merlin: five other teams representing St. Petersburg, Detroit, Chicago and Annapolis were each intent on claiming the championship title—and the opportunity to defend it in 2027.
Garrard and his team, however, were prepared for the challenge before they even set foot on Tortola, home of the Sunsail and The Moorings base. Arriving before them from the local hardware store was a shipment of six 10-foot steel conduit tubes that would be crafted into a makeshift whisker pole. Per the rules, teams are required to construct poles using locally sourced materials, and with several engineers in the Merlin squad, theirs was a structural marvel: robust, albeit heavy. Other teams opted for combinations of used PVC pipes and extendable painter’s poles.
Some poles would make the cut; others would not make it past the first downwind leg of the regatta’s opening race, an afternoon circumnavigation of Ginger Island. For this first contest, Team Merlin barely made the start, having had to return to the base to hastily swap a torn mainsail. Despite the harried beginning to the day, Garrard and Co. nailed the start with a precise time-and-distance approach and were off and running, leading wire to wire. The clean start helped, but they were plenty quick in the boatspeed department.
The same was true the following day when the fleet raced north from The Baths to Virgin Gorda Sound. At full speed near the pin end of the reaching start line, Merlin extended promptly, covered the fleet and cruised to its second race win before berthing at Bitter End Yacht Club for the evening’s rum welcome, burgee swap and team dinners.
Bitter End YC, a true sailor’s paradise, with its many bars and watersports options, threw open its doors to the championship fleet’s sailors, families and friends on the Racer Chaser flotilla for the well-timed lay day. While some spent the morning diving, snorkeling or snoozing in beachside hammocks, the relaxation came to a halt with the afternoon’s action-packed Hobie Wave racing. Each team selected its finest pair of small-craft sailors, and BEYC’s waterfront staff fired off five races on the expansive blue Virgin Gorda Sound. Here, the defending champions of Team Never Alone, from Detroit’s Crescent Sail YC, were almost perfect, topping Team Merlin by a single point. Third in the Hobies were the youngsters of Peter Nielsen’s crew from Chicago (Beneteau 36.7 Eclipse). Fourth were Fawkes, the St. Petersburg YC Sonar champs led by skipper Paul Perry. Fifth and sixth went the way of John Spierling’s crew from Rebel (Detroit, S2 7.9 winners) and Alissa Finney and Shane Zwingelberg’s Annapolis-based Cal 25 Fahrvergnugen.
While many were happy to loiter at Bitter End the following morning, the regatta’s race officials, Dick and Barbara Neville, were promptly off the dock at 0800 to set a starting line for the next leg, from Virgin Gorda Sound to Scrub Island, a few hours of racing to the west. It’s a straight shot from the sound’s exit, but the windward/leeward lap beforehand provided just enough action to shake off the cobwebs of the previous night’s Mount Gay Cocktail Recipe Competition (handily won by Team Fawkes with its dessert-worthy concoction).
Merlin and Eclipse had high hopes of a port-tack start, but the rest of the fleet wasn’t about to let that happen. This time, Fawkes was bang on the pin with a perfect start, first around the weather mark and off to the races. Somewhere between the start and finish, however, Merlin made its pass to add another win to the scorecard, making it three in a row.
After a pit stop at Scrub Island Resort to lunch, refresh and regroup, the race committee pulled the fleet around the corner to start the day’s second race, from Guana Island’s Monkey Point to the intended finish off picturesque Sandy Cay. With a downwind start this time, the fleet all approached on port tack and then jibed to point their bows straight to their next destination. It was slow and steady at the front of the fleet for Rebel, which had positioned itself to windward of the group. Yet as they progressed along Tortola’s North Shore, a brief squall brought rainbows and downpours—and then an end to the breeze. Boats were pointing in all directions when the race committee shortened course off Rough Point. Rebel collected its first and only win of the week.
With sails down and motors on, the fleet beelined to Great Harbour on Jost Van Dyke to prep for the evening’s Sunsail “ABC” party (anything but clothing). The teams used their imagination while leaving plenty to the imagination, and the outrageousness of the outfits befitted the caliber of the competition. In the end, the contest’s sole judge, Sunsail’s Amanda Kurland, deemed the winning brown-paper-bag Flintstone outfits of Merlin creatively over the top—if a bit challenging for cutting up the sand-covered dance floor.
For the final leg, the sprint from Sandy Cay to Norman Island, which is normally a straight shot through Thatch Island Cut at Tortola’s West End, the trades played switcheroo, with the breeze shifting to the south/southwest. The shot was no longer exactly straight, but rather an upwind stretch to the Cut’s entrance, a pothole-riddled reach through the passage and then a tight reach to Norman. Never Alone was first to the Cut, but not by much, with Rebel and Merlin hot on its transom. Once again, Merlin had the pace to slip past and take its fourth leg win, followed across the finish by Never Alone and Rebel.
All that remained to decide the champion were two short windward/leeward buoy races. True to their form for the BVI Championship, Merlin tacked on another win in the first, and the defending champions of Never Alone took the second. The difference on the scoresheet after seven races and many blue miles in bareboats: only 3 points. To the victors of Merlin’s crew went next year’s defense. To the runners-up of Never Alone went the regatta’s final night in a 6,000-square-foot villa on private Peter Island. And to the rest: a week full of memories and one final handle of Mount Gay Rum for the delivery back to the Sunsail base.
