50th Edition of the BVI Spring Regatta First Day

The Cape 31 Flying Jenny took first in Class and won the Nanny Cay Cup recording the fastest corrected time of 4:19:17 in the race around Tortola on the first day of the British Virgin Islands Spring Regatta and Sailing Festival.

“We have an amazing team around Sandy. Sandy has pulled together a cool race team. She is using the Caribbean as our winter training and then we will go back to the United Kingdom with the boat where there is a fleet of about twenty Cape 31s, and then we will do a full season in the UK,” shared Josie Giddon, navigator for the Cape 31 owned and skippered by Sandy Askew, on the regatta’s web page.

It was the first time the Nanny Cay Cup race took place in the territory since the 2019 regatta.

The British sailor added:  “Today was amazing, we’re sailing in paradise. It was long and a lot of concentration was needed; a long upwind then around the back of the island. The typology of the island was really interesting as was the weather – the clouds which played into the game – and we just kept on pushing. We were over at the start, well we thought we were over, and cleared, the other Cape Adrenalin was in front of us at the beginning, but we kept on eating away using the land and the typology.”

Nemo, the HH66 owned and skippered by Todd Slyngstad from California, United States was first across the line with the fastest elapsed time of 2:58:05, corrected to 4:28:53. The standing Round Tortola record is owned by Slyngstad’s brother Greg, owner and skipper of Fujin, a Bieker 53 catamaran, with a fastest elapsed time of 1:57:16 won in 2019.

“We had fun, it was a great day, although we did break the mainsheet just before the finish,” Todd Slyngstad commented. “It exploded and it’s not an easy fix, we’ll be on it all day. Our container with spares is in St Marten, but lucky we have a very nice neighbour – Mach Schnell’s container is here and they have helped us out which is really great. I’m going to owe them a really nice bottle of wine.”

General Manager of Nanny Cay, host sponsor of the BVI Spring Regatta & Sailing Festival, welcomed all sailors and spectators, adding: “I’d like to welcome all those coming to Nanny Cay for the first time, and those who are returning, welcome back – it’s great to see everyone. We really love hosting this event so thank you for coming. Conditions looked ideal today and the racing looked great, so I hope you all had a wonderful time out there racing.”

A total of 70 boats from around the world are competing in the BVI Spring Regatta and Sailing Festival 50th Anniversary between March 27 – April 2.

Information taken from the bvispringregatta.org