Les Voiles de St. Barth Regatta is a big time, well at least lots of really big racing yachts and…the Grateful Red. Wendell, Matt, Lilly, Ken and Kristine had the Grateful Red in racing form – around the island a couple of times, a couple of off-shore races and pretty light winds made a great regatta topped off by a well-attended Grateful Red blender bash!
On day 15 the “Christmas winds” started to decrease by day 18 the wind velocity was zero! The Grateful Red was floating only 300 miles from the finish. With only enough fuel for about 50 miles of motoring and limited amount of cold beer crew morale dipped. Hard to work a midnight shift when the boat speed was two knots with a 1.5 knot current. One full moon night the crew just dropped all the sails and floated. By hook, crook and lots of irritating sailing at two knots by day 20 the Grateful Red was within 50 miles of Rodney Bay marina in St. Lucia – the finish. The last few gallons of fuel was used to motor – the Grateful Red arrived mid day of the 20th day at the finish. Successful crossing!
The Offshore Racing Council was the governing organization for the world offshore regatta in Cres, Croatia. There is not an ORC governing body in the USA so the ORC regattas had never had a USA built boat with a USA flag in their regattas. In Spring of 2010 the Grateful Red was measured by an ORC measurer at Port Napoleon – qualifying the Grateful Red for the ORC worlds in Cres. We had a worldwide crew of Wendell, Ken and Charlie from the USA and team Holland of Leneke, Jeroen and Clarissa from the Netherlands, Trouble…no wind at the regatta. In the 80 mile offshore overnight race the TP52 racing machines with professional crews averaged less than two knots. The Grateful Red had sterring linkage issues and did not participate in the overnight. Team Holland lead by Jeroen and Clarissa, had a part fabricated on site and repaired the linkage. The Grateful Red raced the last day, only regatta day with winds over five knots, and beat a few boats. Success!
See you on the Water
