Christopher Marshall, manager of Budget Marine St.Maarten in Cole Bay states, ‘We met with some tough competition. We were up against the Le Fort Clim team who won the Voiles de Saint Barth earlier this year, and we were also up against Carib Marine who won the Heineken Regatta many years ago when we first started racing.
With 3 races on Sunday, 2 bullets and a 2nd, our team had 4 points and GFA Caraibes had 5 points putting all the pressure on the final day of racing. On Monday we had 2 races, we came 2nd in the first after a bad start and won the second tying us with 6 points overall with one race to go. The last race was the final to win the regatta. We had a great start and got to the windward mark first, but then two boats called out that we touched the mark. Although we passed very closely, we didn’t think we touched.We were not taking any chances though, so we did the required 360. We lost our prime position andhad to settle for 2nd overall. It was very tight racing!’
The Budget Marine/Gill Team standing next to the Winning Boat of the Route de Rhum skipper by Loick Peyron, a 103ft Trimaran.
