Sailing Yacht VISIONE Wins the 2015 St Barths Bucket Regatta

By Editorial Team 26 March 2015

Providing thrilling racing from 19 to 22 March, the 2015 St. Barths Bucket Regatta came to a close earlier this week with 45m sailing yacht VISIONE announced as overall winner of the event.

Four classes of yachts took part in the regatta - including Gazelles, Elegantes, Mademoiselles and Grande Dames - with medium winds experienced by the 35 participants testing their sailing skills around a "wrong way around" course by taking a clockwise tour of St. Barthelemy.

This year's St. Barth's Bucket saw 38m Perini Navi charter yacht P2 and runner-up 33m Vitters yacht INOUI provide stiff competition for Baltic Yachts build VISIONE, who has competed in six Buckets since making her debut at the event 11 years ago.

Commenting on the final day of racing, VISIONE's tactician, Jens Christiansen, commented that "The 10-11 knot winds suited us well. We were sailing very fast on the long beat, going farther out because we are that much faster than anybody else and staying clear of other boats in other classes so as not to get entangled in them tacking on each other."

Built before many of the other participants in the regatta in 2002, she continued "We are the fastest, and we always start last. With the old rating, however, we always had to sail more than a perfect race to be able to win. We've been close by finishing second overall once or twice, but never winning. Now with the new rating system (captured within the new ORCsy rule), we can win."

The event came to a close with a laid-back prize-giving ceremony, where S/Y Visione accepted her award for first place in the Gazelles class, 52m Pendennis S/Y Adela and 52m Royal Huisman S/Y Elfje picked up joint first prize in the Elegantes class, 30m Southern Wind S/Y 'Cape Arrow' (charted for the event) took the Mademoiselles class and 37m Palmer Johnson S/Y Axia won in the Grand Dames. The Visione team also celebrated taking overall honours by winning the prestigious 'Bucket.'

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