Jumping ships at the 42nd St. Maarten Heineken Regatta!
Sailors Change Heineken Regatta Volvo Ocean Class Ships to go Even Faster
42nd St. Maarten Heineken Regatta Starts Again!
Just one week to go until the 42nd St. Maarten Heineken Regatta welcomes a fleet of over 100 boats to race March 3-6, 2022. This year, a number of sailors are jumping ships — all are ready to take their racing experiences to the next level!
Competing Teams
While most of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet welcomes back the same teams from the 2020 edition, one team has made a major upgrade in the years since the last Regatta. Canadian team Atlas Ocean Racing has moved from a VO60 to the legendary VO70 Il Mostro.
A single digit brings a lot of change! Not only ten more feet of waterline, but many more performance systems, such as a canting keel, make this a major upgrade for the team. “Going from the Volvo 60 to 70 is offering us a great opportunity to experience the evolution that top racers went through in 2005-8. It also feels tremendous to sail a boat we dreamt about watching on TV for many years,” said Gilles Barbot, Skipper of Il Mostro – Atlas Ocean Racing.
Changes Made
From monohulls to multihulls, there are quite a few shifts going on in the fleet. The newly established Diam 24 fleet has shaken up the multihull class on the island, with local restaurateur Erick Clement leaving his custom Open 40 trimaran, Johnny Be Good, to take on match racing against friends on the Diams.
In the 2015 Regatta, Johnny Be Good won Multihull 2, and now this custom trimaran will have another shot of glory under a new owner and name, Chaud Patate.
Pierre Atlier, former crew member of Clement onboard Johnny Be Good, is now the competition. Atlier races his own Diam 24 and encourages more multihull enthusiasts to join them. “Going to One Design was the only way for our group of friends to settle our post-racing debates.
We know exactly who sailed the best that day, and we become better sailors when your skill, not the boat, makes the difference,” shared Atlier.
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