With a fresh slate of winners the 8th Caribbean Multihull Challenge Race and Rally is a wrap
by Sint Maarten Yacht Club 3 Feb 22:59 GMT
Caribbean Multihull Challenge Race and Rally © Andre Dede Knol
The aftermath of a longstanding regatta provides answers to all the questions that preceded it: What boats or teams would come together in surprising fashion? What would the sailing conditions offer? Who might overcome broken equipment or a racecourse mishap and continue on admirably despite the turmoil? As the 8th running of the annual Caribbean Multihull Challenge Race and Rally comes to a successful conclusion, there are definitive rejoinders to all of the above.
There was no disputing the top boats in all three racing divisions. In CSA 1, Marcos Sirota's well-traveled Nigel Irens-designed trimaran, Sophia, was not only the class champion, it was also deemed the regatta's overall winner when presented with the Most Worthy Performer prize. In CSA 2, a team of former J/111 monohull racers from the British Virgin Islands aboard a new ride—the Rapido 40, Spike—maintained its poise in a division wreaked with havoc, to top the leaderboard. And in the ultra-competitive Diam 24 class of sporty trimarans, Miha Krumpak's Fastnet outlasted the fleet in a tight 12-race series. Not coincidentally, Diam 24 ace Benoit Champanac played a key role in Fastnet's victory, as he has in the winning Diam 24 campaigns the last two years.
Sophia's victory in CSA 1 certainly qualifies as one of the event's unexpected surprises. Skipper Sirota was a familiar competitor in previous CMC regattas, always aboard his 31-foot folding Corsair trimaran, Honey Badger. But when Sirota went shopping for a new boat, he went big. Really big. He briefly considered a 53-foot trimaran, Finn, which was named the CMC's Most Worthy Performer in 2021. But then something much grander and more ambitious presented itself: a Fastnet Race-winning trimaran called Paradox3. Amazingly enough, under the name Shockwave, it competed in the 2020 CMC but was forced to retire midway through the event after breaking its boom.
After buying the boat and changing its name to Sophia last October, Sirota and his crew sailed the tri from Falmouth, England to the islands; the CMC was its very first regatta and is certainly just the opening salvo in this new campaign under Sirota's command. For the CMC, he recruited an all-star crew of professional sailors, and was thrilled by the results. "It's an extremely comfortable, safe and secure boat," said Sirota, before issuing his final verdict: "It's just fantastic."
One observer with a very keen eye in the CSA 1 class who was duly impressed by Sophia was pro racer and multihull legend Brian Thompson from the U.K., who was sailing aboard the Gunboat 72, Layla, which was runner-up in the division. "We won the first race and were pretty happy about that," said Thompson. "Then it got windy. And Sophia was launched." Thompson was right: Once the breeze was on, Sophia was unstoppable.
Still, Thompson said racing in the CMC—this was his third event—is a winning experience in and of itself.
"I really like the sailing waters out here," he said. "The race committee does a great job. Everyone is super friendly and it's all multihull specific. It's right up there with the Multihull Cup in Palma. It's not a cutthroat atmosphere at all. Everyone is trying to help each other, to grow it and have fun. And there are some really well-sailed boats here. The ORC 50, Malolo, is very well-sailed. The Italian 43-foot foiling cat, Falcon, has a great crew, America's Cup sailors. We're just very happy to be here and to be racing with these guys."
In CSA 2, what started out as a very keen, very even 4-boat class soon descended into a war of attrition. Part of the reason for that is also an answer to the opening query on conditions. For this edition of the four-day CMC competition, the opening day had unseasonably light winds hovering around 10 knots, but the trades filled in hard for the ensuing three days, offering up classic Caribbean conditions.
In a breezy, bumpy race on Day 3, Richard Wooldridge's Kelsal 47, Triple Jack, fell hard off a wave and cracked its port beam, ending its regatta. But the resilient crew overcame that mishap and successfully sailed the boat home to the BVI. Likewise, fellow CSA 2 racer Appie Stoutenbeek had a superb outing in the Round-the-Island Race, taking second on his Newick 38, Ninth Charm, but retired after that race with steering issues.
That left the door at the top of CSA 2 wide open, and Spike, the 40-foot trimaran, strode right through it. Skipper Sam Talbot joked about moving up to a trimaran after years of campaigning a monohull J/Boat. "Now we're dabbling in the fast lane," he joked.
Based in the BVI, Talbot said the strong fleet of multihulls sailing out of Tortola played a role in their team's decision to move over to a trimaran. He also said racing in the CMC was a true learning experience. "We had some teething issues at the beginning but we learned a lot in every race," he said. "It was great to have boats like Triple Jack and Malolo to challenge ourselves, to see what works and what's different. Plus, we all just love the CMC, it's more of an organic community than you see in some of the bigger events. It's so nice to catch up with the guys that you're racing against all day afterwards at the bar. Everyone's having a good time."
The Diam 24 class also had a shining example of a team that overcame adversity and successfully soldiered on. In a 30-plus-knot gust on a windswept racecourse on Great Bay, Bradley Winslett's Black Sheep capsized in water shallow enough to impale the carbon-fiber mast into the sandy bottom. The crew was safe but it took repeated efforts to right the boat as it careened upside-down across the Bay. Once it was righted, Winslett and crew simply shook themselves off and completed the day's last two races.
"What an incredible feat of sportsmanship," said Race Director Robbie Ferron, with admiration.
Skipper Ted Reshetiloff of Buzz Team Racing, which finished second to Fastnet in the tightly contested, 12-race Diam 24 series, said that Black Sheep's resilience was in keeping with the close-knit spirit of the class, which was communally based in Kim Sha Beach for the duration of the event.
"Everybody's been having great races," he said. "Everyone in this fleet has the capability of at least winning a race, and maybe even winning the whole regatta. The racing is that close. I've sailed in a lot of one-design classes but there's nothing else like the Diam 24's. The rules are very tight. There's nothing you can change on the boat. You can only buy sails from the builder. Everybody's boat is set up the same and everybody sees each other's boats all the time. It all makes for a great, great community."
Of course, the racing is only part of the CMC's mission. So, too, is the Rally, which this year attracted four boats for a spin around St. Maarten's inviting bays and anchorages, and an overnight visit to St. Barth's. Among the many Rally festivities, one of the best, said skipper Ron Boehm of the 52-foot cat Little Wing, was the Times Trial predicted-time pursuit "race" that was ultimately won by the all-women Team Island Water World squad. To be clear, it's not a "race" at all.
"Back in my home yacht club in California, the pursuit races are the most popular events," said Boehm. "It's super safe, there's no starting line and it's open to everyone. You sort of estimate how much time the rabbit gives to the turtle. Everyone likes to play catch-up. It's a great way to promote more participation, which is really the point of the Rally. It's great to have a non-racing option. But there's still competition. Let's go catch that guy!"
When all was said and done, however, perhaps nobody enjoyed the regatta more than first-timer Thomas Kassberg, the skipper of the ORC 50, Malolo, who wrapped up a solid CSA 1 series with a second in the final race. Kassberg, from the Pacific Northwest region in the U.S., previously sailed Melges 24s and J/105s in Oregon before commissioning his 50-foot cat.
"This is new to me, we're just fairly new to short-course racing," he said. "We're finding out the boat likes a bit more breeze. We wanted something that performs well but also has reasonable cruising comforts, because we want to race and cruise. When we decided to get into multihull sailing, we wanted the speed and excitement but also felt more comfortable with cats than tris. I think we made the right choice. It's been a super fun boat."
Super. Fun. He might just have described the eighth running of the CMC Race and Rally, too. The best part? The 9th CMC is already scheduled for February 4-7, 2027. See you there.
For more information visit www.caribbeanmultihullchallenge.com.