By Royal BVI Yacht Club
Winners of the 2017 BVI Dinghy Championships. Photo: © Royal BVI Yacht Club / Clair Burke
The 2017 BVI Dinghy Champions were crowned this weekend with 53 boats racing across four fleets. Hosted at Nanny Cay, visitors were welcomed from Antigua, St Croix, St Thomas and Puerto Rico and treated to two days of spectacular BVI sailing.
Optimist Championship Fleet
29 boats in the Championship fleet sailed twelve races out in the Sir Francis Drake Channel and it was Rayne Duff (IVB911) who took the overall win. Not once did Duff finish a race outside the top four and he finished the regatta with seventeen points, a whopping fourteen points ahead of second place finisher Mia Nicolosi (ISV624).
After receiving a Black Flag penalty in race two, Nicolosi took three straight bullets but could not find the consistency of Duff over the weekend. A reversal of fortunes from 2016, Duff was delighted to take the title as this will be his last Dinghy Championships racing in the Optimist class.
In third was Caroline Sibilly, from St Thomas Yacht Club and this also gave her the win in the blue fleet in which Nathan Haycraft took second and Winn Majette third, finishing sixth and seventh respectively.
In the white fleet, Tanner Krygsveld from St Thomas was the winner, finishing an impressive twelfth place overall. Robert Richards also from St Thomas was second and the BVI’s Kael Chalwell third.
Also racing for the BVI were Ryan Lettsome who finished in 20th place, Samuel Allen who finished 24th and Antonio Cisneros. Competing in just his second regatta in the Championship fleet, Cisneros rounded out the weekend with an exceptional sixth place finish in the final race.
Optimist Green
Twelve green fleet sailors had a fantastic weekend, completing a total of 16 races. For some of these sailors it was their first ever regatta and they all did an outstanding job, returning to the beach with lots of smiles and asking for more racing!
Sebastian Medina from Puerto Rico was first overall with Gian Marco Piovanetti taking second and Ben Thill from St Thomas third.
Top BVI boat was Amanda Plaxton who claimed her first ever regatta race win and finished just three points behind Thill in fourth. Next up for the BVI was Victoria Rowlette in sixth, Wil Seddon in seventh and De’Sani Thomas in eighth.
Racing for the first time were Aidan Catterall, Jayde Fanord and the youngest competitor in the event, Xavier Johnston.
Laser Radial
Six competitors raced in the Laser Radial fleet and it was an intense duel for first and second place throughout the weekend. Daniel Smit from Antigua and Mateo di Blasi from St Thomas exchanged first and second place in every race but it was eventually Smit who prevailed and took the overall win by just one point.
Stephon Ganga finished in third overall to take the BVI title and he was followed by Alex Rambarose, Jerome Parkins and Noah George.
The RBVIYC thanks its partners and host for the weekend Nanny Cay Hotel and Marina, West End Yacht Club, Sol, Clearwater, CBN and the BVI Tourist Board. and acknowledges the hard work and dedication of the club’s volunteers..
The next BVI Dinghy Champioships will take place May 18-20, 2018.
Results (Top Three)
Red Fleet (age 13 and over)
1. Rayne Duff (IVB911) – 1st overall
2. Mia Nicolosi (ISV 642) – 2nd overall
3. Jose Arturo Diaz (PUR 1207) – 4th overall
Blue Fleet (age 11 and 12)
1. Caroline Sibilly (ISV715) – 3rd overall
2. Nathan Haycraft (IVB864) – 6th overall
3. Winn Majette (ISV94) – 7th overall
White Fleet (age 10 and under)
1. Tanner Krygsveld (ISV 1955) – 12th overall
2. Robert Richards (ISV 14) – 16th overall
3. Kael Chalwell (IVB 91) – 21st overall
Green Fleet
1. Sebastian Medina (PUR 1404)
2. Gian Marco Piovanetti (PUR 1408)
3. Ben Thill (ISV 8008)
Laser Radial
1. Daniel Smit (ANT 165456)
2. Mateo di Blasi (ISV 199123)
3. Stephon Ganga (IVB 183771)
IC24
1. RIP, Richard Wooldridge (IVB 37)
2. Latitude 18, Colin Rathbun (IVB 35)
3. INTAC, Graeme Maccallum (IVB 39)
Click here for full results.
VIODA Triple Crown
The 2017 VIODA Triple Crown also wrapped up this weekend with the results added to those from the Crucian Open in February and the VIODA regatta in April.
Leading going into the weekend was Caroline Sibilly and she kept control of the leaderboard to take the title with 93 points from the three regattas. In second place was Jose Arturo Diaz from Puerto Rico and third place was Katherine Majette from St Thomas.
With 31 races sailed, the scores from each race are added together and a discard applied after every six races so they don’t count their worst scores.
Top BVI finisheres were: Rayne Duff in fifth, Nathan Haycraft in seventh and Samuel Allen in 18th place.
