Greetings from St. Maarten. I have just finished racing in the first annual Budget Marine Match Race and will start racing in the Heineken Regatta in a few days. The match race was added this year as a spectator event leading up to the Heineken regatta. Six teams, 20 foot Jenneaus, three crew, and sailing inside the Simpson Bay lagoon. It was a great one day event with close racing, big breeze, one mast down (mine unfortunately!), and a great after race party! I had a great crew with Maurice Kurg on main and Ben Beer on the huge jib. We raced Marc Fitzgerald from Antigua in the Finals and managed to win 3-0 and take home the prize. It was a great event and I will do all I can to help them in the coming years to grow the event and help make match racing more popular here in the Caribbean.

I will be racing the Heineken Regatta on a Melges 32 out of Tortola and look forward to sailing for the first time on one of these hot new sport boats. It looks to be a great event this year with over 250 boats and a forcast for huge breeze. The organizers continue to do an incredible job of making this sailing event bigger and better each year. Hopefully with all the other great events in the Caribbean we will continue to grow sailing in the region and attract more boats and visitors to our area and make this one of the best sailing and regatta destinations in the world.