J/121 eclipses Round Barbados Race
by J/Boats 28 Jan 2023 23:15 GMT
18-23 January 2023
Round Barbados Race © roundbarbados.com
The Barbados Cruising Club hosted its famous, long-running regatta, Barbados Sailing Week, from January 18th to 23rd, 2023.
The event is comprised of a few days of random leg racing around fixed buoys and drop marks along the south/ southeastern shores of the mountainous island. Then, on the final day is the pre-eminent event of the week- the famous Round Barbados Race.
Round Barbados Race
The Mount Gay Round Barbados Race is about 60 miles "as the crow flies". It's generally a quick circumnavigation because of the constant trade winds and incredible sailing conditions around the mostly reaching race track.
Starting at the Barbados Cruising Club, the boats sail through the historic Carlisle Bay, and past the Bridgetown deep water harbor to starboard.
Then, begins a 20-mile tight reach in calm water up the West Coast (leeward side) of Barbados, past the homes of the rich and famous passing Holetown and Speightstown.
After rounding the northern tip of the island, the boats will encounter the full force of the Atlantic on the East Coast (windward side) of Barbados with nothing between their yachts and Africa.
They will then face a good 10-mile plus beat in tricky currents, wind shifts, and some big waves. Follow this with a 20-mile fetch/ reach, riding those same waves beam on, trying to maximize speed without losing height to clear Bathsheba and later East Point.
For the final blast home, the fleet bears away and hoists the big spinnakers to ride the huge Atlantic rollers for a fantastic 18-mile downwind slide along the South Coast of Barbados passing Oistens, Rockley, and Worthing. Thereafter, at the island's southwest corner, drop the kites and skate around to finish back in Carlisle Bay.
It's no coincidence that J/Boats holds the record for the Fastest CSA Handicap time for the Round Barbados Race: Peter Lewis' J/105 WHISTLER accomplished that in 2018 in the time of 6 hours, 11 minutes, 40 seconds (corrected time).
Guess what?! This year, Peter Lewis' latest WHISTLER, his fast-reaching offshore speedster- the J/121- was hoping to eclipse his past record again! However, they came up just shy of achieving that amazing goal! While they won the Round Barbados Race by over 7 minutes on CSA handicap, finishing in 6 hrs 12 minutes, they missed their CSA record by just 30 seconds!!! Peter now has the TWO fastest CSA corrected time records for the Round Barbados Race!
More information at www.roundbarbados.com