Travel agency sending
500 sailors for regatta
SIMPSON BAY--Record numbers of bare-boats have entered the 2008 St. Maarten Heineken Regatta with one travel agency in Schiphol, Holland, sending more than five hundred sailors to the Friendly Island.
Majolein van der Valk of Advanced Travel Partners (ATP), a Dutch company involved in corporate travel, has been organising bareboat packages since 1995. This year she put together a package of 64 boats for 500 people and even got an international airline to make an extra stop in St. Maarten to ensure the crews made it in time.
“We have been sending people to the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta for 15-years and there is still growing interest in this great event,” notes Majolein. “Fifteen years ago we sent three boats.”
The Heineken Regatta, now in its 28th year, plays host to more than 250 competing boats sailing in several different classes. In the early days, there were no bare-boats, and the only way to take part in the event was with your own boat or as part of a friend’s crew.
The rise of the bareboat altered the Caribbean racing scene forever and the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta led the charge. For the first few years, the cruising and racing classes looked down on the bareboat as a bit of a joke, that is until they began to realise that not only were the latest bare-boats fast and highly competitive, they were sailed by top class sailors who, aboard their own boats and in their own countries, competed in some of the most prestigious and arduous races around.
Bare-boats are thrilling for competitors and spectators because they all are virtually the same and that means match racing on a grand scale. All boats sail under the CSA rating rule, with tiny adjustments made for things like two or three bladed props, but the difference is minor and stimulates great competition.
Bare-boating is now the heart of the world-wide club racing scene, offering everyone thrilling competition in the best sailing grounds in the world.
The St. Maarten Heineken Regatta takes place from March 6-9, 200
