I recently competed in two events in St. Maarten, Netherland Antilles. The first event was the Budget Marine Match Racing Cup held on March 2^nd. This is the second year for this event which was created as a lead-in demonstration event to the annual Heineken Regatta, held two days later. Sailed in Jenneau 20’s inside the Simpson Bay Lagoon just in front of the St. Maarten Yacht Club, eight teams were invited to sail a round robin, followed by the top two team advancing to the finals, and the next two racing for 3^rd and 4^th place. It’s a great concept as they manage to get some of the celebrity sailors flying in for the Heineken to come a few days early for a fun Match Race event. This year saw some strong teams, including Gavin Brady of New Zealand, Peter Isler of the USA, Colin Rathbun of the BVI, plus teams from Russia, Poland, Antigua, and the USA. We managed to make it to the Finals and then beat Gavin Brady 2-0 to walk away with the top prize for the second year in a row. Big thanks to my team of Maurice Kurg and Ben Beer, and to the sponsor Budget Marine.

My second event was racing in the Heineken regatta on the new Wally 82 HIGHLAND FLING. We had some great boat on boat racing against TITAN and RAMBLER, trading places throughout the 4 days of racing. In the end TITAN claimed the top prize, a TP52 was second, and we captured 3^rd. We were pleased with our performance and look forward to our next event in Europe in a few months. As usual, the Heineken regatta was a very well organized and fantastic event. Hats off to Cary and Robbie Ferron, Heather and her team, and all the people involved that make this great event happen.