St-Barth Cata Cup 2016 : St-Barth Assurances Allianz Grand Prize Day 1

Belgians Patrick Demesmaeker and Olivier Gagliani win the day !

The second day of racing was somewhat more challenging for the crews. In the end, it was Belgians Patrick Demesmaeker and Olivier Gagliani who came out winners of the St-Barth Assurances Allianz Grand Prize.

« It was an overall difficult day, the wind was very shifty so the starts were difficult but twice we managed to go in the right direction to pass the first mark. It was a difficult day psychologically and physically but we would sign again for a day like this anytime ! », said helmsman of Les Perles de St Barth Patrick Demesmaeker. The Belgians also had to battle hard in the first race of the day with Jean-Christophe Mourniac / Erik Maris and again, after Pain de Sucre, with the winners of the Round the Island race Gurvan Bontemps / Benjamin Amiot. « It was really close at the beginning of the race with Jean-Christophe but we managed to stay first until Pain de Sucre. We then had to battle with Gurvan and Benjamin who caught up to us, even crossing us in the boat’s transom but we stayed the course and reached the finish line first. »

For their part, Pierre Le Claiche and Antoine Joubert won the afternoon round with a successful strategy. « It was more like a match race format since we were only 2 boats in front of the fleet, with Patrick and Olivier, because the wind was so shifty. We got a good exit at the first mark just like we had planned », said Pierre Le Claiche, helmsman for Moh’s Places.com. « The conditions were very complicated, this afternoon with less than 10 knots and big shifts in the wind but we had a good start to take the lead », added Antoine Joubert, crewman.

The day’s racing formats

For the day’s first round, the race committee decided to go with a longer format since the announced conditions were less favorable in the afternoon. « This morning we left with an upwind downwind, which means the racers had to reach the first buoy, the buoy of release, make their way back to the committee boat and then go back to the first buoy at which point they headed out to the open sea. The boats then had to pass between Chevreau and Fregate islands, leaving Boulanger island to port, make their way to Fourchue also leaving to port, head back to Bœuf again to port, then head to the spare buoy in Colombier which they then had to leave to starboard to make their way back to St-Jean Bay », explaine Didier Flamme, president of the race committee.

In the afternoon, a shorter race format awaited the crews. « We had a first mark to circumvent in the wind’s axis, then the crews proceeded towards Tortue Island where there was a gate between Tortue and Grenadin islands. The crews then had to go around a buoy in Toiny Bay, come back towards St-Jean and go through the Tortue-Grenadin gate before crossing the finish line. »

The day’s results

1- BEL 1 (Les Perles de St Barth) Patrick Demesmaeker / Olivier Gagliani

2- FRA 13 (Moh’s Places.com) Pierre Le Claiche / Antoine Joubert

3- USA 11 (Auberge de la Petite Anse) Jérémy Wilmot / Tripp Burd

4- GRE 7 (Christopher Hotel) Iordanis Paschalidis / Gustaf Dryssen

5- FRA 151 (Eden Rock St Barth) Gurvan Bontemps / Benjamin Amiot

6-FRA 007 (Olivier Dain Perspectives) Erik Maris / Jean-Christophe Mourniac

7- SWE 12 (Budget) Rasmus Rosengren / Tomas Westergren

8- ARG 1901 (Chef’s Market) Cruz Gonzales Smith / Mariano Heuser

9- ARG 2304 (Guanahani) Christian Vilate / Lucas Gonzales Smith

10- 1899 (Olivier Dain Perspectives 2) Charles Tomeo / Dalton Tebo

St-Barth Assurance Allianz : Major Partner

St-Barth Assurances Allianz is a longstanding partner of the St-Barth Cata Cup, in fact dating back to 1992 when it all started. Unfortunately, the event was held for three years only before it was interrupted by hurricane Luis. When in 2008, the current organizing committee decided to bring the regatta back to life, they naturally turned to Anibal Dacuna, founder and manager of St-Barth Assurances Allianz. Anibal has always made a point of honor to take part in the organizational life of the island and so he partnered with the organisation. Today, Henry-David Grossard heads this long-term partnership.

Besides being the race partner on Friday and Saturday, the sails of 4 boats will proudly display the St-Barth Assurances/Allianz logo.