St Thomas Rolex Regatta
PASSEPARTOUT
Christopher & Nirit Slaney
Tue 27 Mar 2012 11:35
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Back in Nanny Cay, Tortola after a weekend at the St
Thomas Yacht Club where we were crew on board MADRUGADA (Spanish - Dawn) a Pacer
42 during the annual Rolex Regatta which has been hosted by the STYC for thirty
nine years. This all came about by our being acquainted with Steve Black,
the boat's previous owner and instigator of the 'Caribbean 1500' race.
Steve sold the boat on Wednesday March 21st, the following day new
owner Rich Corbett crossed to St Thomas and on the Friday was ready on the
start line for the first race. Nobody on board had ever sailed Madrugada before
apart from this short delivery trip between the islands, nobody had hoisted a
spinnaker and there was no time for a practice session.
With seven of us on board we got off to a good start and
boat bounded along in a great breeze towards a downwind mark in the bay at
the main harbor of Charlotte Amalie. Along the way we saw what looked to be a
brand new TP52 'Highland Fling XII' dismasted. With hardly enough time between
heats for a sandwich nor drink we were jostling at the start line for the
return leg. The wind picked up a few knots and Rich was determined to get the
most out of the boat but there was a sudden crack, a lurch and a flapping
sail, the mainsail had come apart at the outhaul. Around this time it
also became impossible to ignore the amount of water below decks, it was
definitely above the floorboards. If it was up to me I think I would have called
it a day right there and then, nursed the boat back to shore and
myself to the yacht club bar. But Rich Corbett is not a quitter, we reefed in
the main to overcome the blown outhaul, Richard Hlavik with Bernard
Lakemaker located the source of the steady ingress of water - a
failed thru-hull - and started bailing. We were soon sailing again and
going close hauled up the course all the time receiving buckets of water
from below to jettison over the side. Rich called for the leech-line on the
headsail to be tightened but it would not budge, how many equipment failures can
you have in one day? Never mind, we were soon sailing again and going close
hauled up the course. All this paid off and we came placed eighth on
corrected time.
Back at St Thomas Yacht Club a repair was effected on
the failed thru-hull, the bilges thoroughly pumped and both sails stripped for
delivery to a local sail loft who were eager to take Mr. Corbett's money
and work through the night on the repairs. Days two and three of the
regatta were raced in ideal conditions with a good variety of upwind -
downwind courses around and between islands ensuring navigational challenges
and a breeze which behaved at times as if some unseen hand was hitting the
in-off switch on the ventilator.
On the final day Madrugada's ranking climbed a
notch due to the disqualification of a boat involved in a start-line collision,
but all told Rich Corbett was satisfied that he had fulfilled his
'Two Rules' as announced before the first start: Rule One - have fun,
Rule Two - don't get hurt. The STYC were wonderful hosts and are
promising a bigger, better event in 2013 to celebrate the regatta's 40th
anniversary.
Madrugada crew
Richard Corbett - skipper and helm
Dr Bernard Lakemaker
Herbert Philbrick III
Richard Hlavik
Mike Poling
Nirit Slaney
Christopher Slaney
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