The Second Annual Carlos Aguilar Match Race was held December 3-6 in the main harbor in downtown St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. This is a truly great event for the sailors, the sport, and the people of St. Thomas. The event is held in our main harbor, just feet from the waterfront apron, so it brings sailing like no other event to the general public. We have bleachers set up so anyone can watch, and commentators calling the play by play action. Eight IC 24’s were used, with a crew of four. And the weather for the regatta was great, with winds ranging from 5-20 knots.

The event consists of a men’s division and a woman’s division, each with eight teams, and each having two round robins, then a semi and a finals. The women’s division was extremely strong, with the world #1 Claire Leroy from France, Genny Tulloch from the USA, plus other teams from the USA, Brazil and Portugal. The men’s group had Jes Gram Hansen from Denmark, Dave Perry from the USA, plus teams from the VI, BVI, St. Maarten, and El Salvador.

After helping organize the inaugural event last year, I decided this year to continue helping the organizers, but also to step in and compete. Not having done much match racing in the past two years, there would be some rust to come off to find my stride. To help me do this I recruited my trusty crew from many years back here in the VI- Maurice Kurg on main, Morgan Avery on trim, and Ben Beer on bow.

In the end we made it to the Semi’s and faced Jes from Denmark. We had a great duel with him, finally getting the win with a 3-1 score line. Taylor Canfield, last year’s winner from here in St. Thomas, beat Colin Rathbun from the BVI in the other semi. So we faced Taylor in the Finals, which would be a best of 3. Taylor is attending Boston College and has really focused on match racing the past two years, and is maturing into a great match racer. He is attending all the events he can in the US and has been wining his fair share. So, would it be the youth, or the experience, that would still be standing in the end?

Age and experience paid off and we beat Taylor 2-0 in the Finals. Great event, and I really must thank my crew who did an excellent job all week.

Also a big thank-you to all the sponsors- Ulysse Nardin, Trident Jewels & Time, VI Tourism, Hooters, Bellows International, etc. Great group, who also really enjoyed getting amongst it themselves. Thanks everyone for helping us run a great sailing event in the VI.