| Local
Knowledge Good Times A little report on the Virgin Islands sailing efforts at the OCR. It's not always about the win...  For
the first time in the history of the Virgin Islands
Sailing scene, eight sailors traveled to Miami
to compete with the world’s best. Over 50
countries were represented by over 840 plus sailors
in both Olympic and Paralympic classes.
The buzz around the boat park was that all eyes were on the “Double CAC Games Gold Medal Team of Anthony Kotoun and Cy Thompson. As this was their first “big” regatta in the Olympic Class 49’er. Class experts expected them to sail well and smart, but not be as fast as they later proved to be. With each race they improved and finished higher than expected. Michael Compton, sailing in the RS-X board class, met his goal of finishing in the “30’s”. With current and former world champion board sailors from Australia, Israel, France and Portugal, finishing in the top 75% was quite a feat for a part time windsurfer. Laser Radial sailors Sydney Jones and Mauymi Roller found themselves finishing together within 5 boats for most of their races. With the lighter air condition on Wednesday’s race they both had finishes in the “teens”. However the two high school junior’s found themselves undersized and underweight when Thursday’s cold front came through like a freight train churning up the seas to 4-6 ft and the wind to a steady 18-20 knots with gusts reported up to 30 knots. Thomas
Barrows led the VI sailors in the Laser fleet
with a 1st place finish, However disaster struck
in the form of an oncoming boat at full speed that
T-boned Barrow’s Laser hull creating a hole
the size of a small watermelon. Team mate Ben Beer,
immediately addressed the Race officials and requested
to
“switch” hulls with Barrows, allowing Barrows
to continue competing without a flawed boat, while
Beer, raced with the duct tape repaired hull to finish
the next two races in the top ten. Tim Pitts sailed
consistently and finished in the top level of the Silver
fleet. |
