Locals Dominate J/22 International Regatta

(CISA): The 6th Annual J/22 International Invitational Regatta was held from 16th to 18th March 2012 on the North Sound and was again hosted by the Cayman Islands Sailing Club (CISC). The event was part of the Race Cayman 2012 regatta which was sponsored by HSBC and the Ministry of Health, Environment, Youth, Sport & Culture. For the first time teams travelled from Germany, Norway, and South Africa to participate, and joined the more regular competitors from the USA, Bahamas, Jamaica and the UK but the local Cayman teams proved to be too strong for the visitors.

The international representatives included from Germany (Peter Karrie), South Africa (Len John Van der Wel), Bahamas (Craig Symonette and Dave Valentina), USA (Marc Fisher and Bill Wiggins), United Kingdom (Olie Dix), Jamaica (Peter Harper) and Norway (Are Huser).

The event was fun-loving and highly competitive and the sailing conditions were simply epic- postcard perfect. The weather was as advertised, with 10-20 knot trade winds blowing all day long all the time, with blue skies, puffy white clouds scudding across the horizonand aquamarine blue waters dotted by white breaking waves when the wind was up.

In the end, the local Cayman teams proved to be too strong for the visitors. Top local sailor Mike Farrington sailing JUST LEAVING from CISC triumphed, and was crowned the 2012 Invite Champion with finishes of five 1sts, two 2nds and two 3rds, tossing a 3rd to win with just 12 points! Not too far off the pace was top local woman sailor, Jane Moon, sailing CIAO! with two 1sts, six 2nds and a 4th (tossing the 4th) to finish with a remarkable 14 pts, not enough to overcome Mike's fast, smart crew.

The perfect sailing conditions challenged the sailors to get off the starting line in clear air, maintain position, get around the marks cleanly with good boat-handling and stay in the battle.  With racing taking place over three days, each day starting at 12 noon, the regatta was exceptionally well managedunder the guidance of race officers Peta Adams and Andrew Moon along with visiting international judges Gilmour Manuel and Harry Keith.

Lying third was Marc Fischer from the USA sailing the great yacht WRECKLESS to a strong 4-1-6-3-3-7-4-3 for 31 points. Rounding out the top five was another local boat, Simon Farrington on SUNSHINE finishing 4th with 41 pts and Craig Symonette sailing CALIMA 5 from Nassau, Bahamas just getting nipped out for 4th with his record of 8-4-3-27-8-6-4 for 42 pts.

The regatta organising committee extended true Caymanian hospitality by arranging social events including a Fish Fry, Heineken and Sol specials, Mount Gay Rum cocktails, live country music & dancing with Dexter Bodden and to top it all a prize giving dinner at Guy Harvey’s. Plans are already underway for Race Cayman 2013 with visiting teams eager to return.

See results table below