EASTER WEEKEND saw a remarkable achievement for the Grenadine island of  Bequia  and its all-volunteer Sailing Club.  A record-smashing 50 yachts, together with 30 local double-enders, turned out to take part in the weekend’s racing. The yacht attendance marked an increase of over 10% from last year’s record, which not only makes Bequia’s Regatta the biggest meet for yachts in the entire southern Caribbean, but also the only regatta in the region to have seen an increase in their attendance over 2008 figures. Bequia Regatta clearly has a winning formula with wide appeal!
     
  Double-enders brave the winds
     
      The local double-enders that raced for three days the Easter weekend came from Bequia, Canouan and Carriacou and the 30 - boat fleet, ranging from 12ft to 28ft in size, enjoyed a huge following as the fortunes of not one but three new boats were closely observed.  Bequia Pride, built and skippered by Arnold Hazell, was amongst the  favourites after her strong showing in Tobago’s regatta earlier in February, but breakdowns and light winds on Monday challenged not only Bequia Pride, but many of the other boats in the double ender fleet. Overall winner in the 28 ft class was Lightning, another new boat built in Carriacou for Petit Martinique-born Bequia resident Boysie Decouteau, with hotly favoured Confusion coming a close second. Irie, the new boat in the 18ft Class, built by Orbin Ollivierre and owned and skippered by David Taylor, took Overall First in that class, but the result might have been even closer if Tornado had been able to complete the race on Saturday! 

      Brisk winds on Saturday brought difficulties to some in the double-ender fleet, whilst the near dead condition on Monday brought a whole new set of challenges. Some, like 83 year- old sailor and fisherman Delacey Leslie, racing in his 18ft Devine, which was built by him in 1969, relished the lack of wind. Others were unused to the conditions and struggled for long gruelling hours to complete the Monday race – but all who started completed safely, just in time for the Grand Prize Giving at Gingerbread Hotel where Sir James Mitchell and Dr. Godwin Friday gave opening addresses and were on hand to award the prizes.
     
Yachts galore!!
     
      On the yacht side of the Regatta, the fifty entries were this year divided into five Classes, with a new  one-design class for the small “Surprise” boats coming from Martinique being created, to join the existing one-design class for J24s and the other three classes. The 13-boat entry for the J24 Class was another record turnout for Bequia, with Trinidad, Grenada, Barbados, St. Lucia and Dominica all represented.  The highly competitive Esperanza and Fadeaway from Barbados came with a mission to take Bequia by storm, but they did not have it all their own way by any means, with strong competition in all six races and sometimes only 100ths of a second separating the first three boats. Esperanza proved unbeatable though, with four wins out of six, giving them overall first by a wide margin. 

      Virtually no wind on a rainy, airless Easter Monday threw the form book out of the window for the yachts too, giving unfavoured boats a chance to get lucky in rare pockets of wind. But nothing could stop the super-fast Melges 24 Caraibes Greement in Racing Class running away with three wins to take Overall First. In Cruising I Class, Bequia Regatta newcomer Acadia, a Freres 48 from the USA beat out longstanding Bequia champion Petit Careme into overall Second. Cruising II overall honours went to another USA boat, Appleseeds, returning for a second year determined to improve on his overall Second placing in Bequia in 2008.

‘Surprises’
     
      Seven Martiniquan “Surprise” boats- no bigger than 25 feet, but fast, fast fast - made up the new “Surprise” Class especially created for them by the Bequia Sailing Club. If you are looking for a demonstration of skill, commitment and enthusiasm, you need to look no further than to these dedicated French sailors. Not only did they battle fiercely in their own class compete in their three daily races, all seven Surprises also elected to have one of their crew compete in the challenging “Around Bequia” single-handed race on Sunday. To no-one’s surprise, it was rising French star Nicolas Gillet - who first raced in Bequia as a teenager 10 years ago – that emerged as the winner skippering the beautiful pink and black Surprise ONLY.  In the weekend’s three-race series for the Surprises, Padig, skippered by Vianney Saintenoy was the Class Overall winner in the Regatta, with only one point separating him from second-placed ONLY and third placed Clipper’s Ship.