Thanks guys! What a spectacular event with amazing organizers! This was my second year yet every aspect of this event still amazes me. Sailing F18s in paradise without having to worry about any logistics of hotel, car rental, boat shipping or etc really creates the ultimate week in paradise.
I couldn't have been happier with our performance, getting good starts with some upwind runway was enough to get us into the top 10 and we felt great downwind. It was really surreal getting up on the podium twice, the French take these events to a whole different level. I got kisses from Miss St. Barths on the cheek both times! Oh and a bottle of rum and a bottle of champaign from Nikki Beach (our event sponsor). All I could think about was Ding would have died a happy man if he could have been in my shoes.
Just saw the final results for the first time and realized we were only 3 points out of 5th. We were in 4th in the first race on the last day and made several stupid mistakes, this fleet was very unforgiving! We also had a great match race with Enrique for half the round the island race for 2nd and 3rd then we passed the first place boat at the same time and were just behind him to windward going into the last gate when we caught a personal puff and gained 500 yards on us and it was over.
Great sailing by Jaccopo and Tripp (We tied with them for 8th but they won tiebreaker by winning the last race!) Great sailing by JC and amazing he was still able to place second even with some bad luck.
Mischa was cursed the entire event and broke something every race but one, which he won. He was still in good spirits though, somehow I have a feeling that he's feeling pretty accomplished for this year anyways.
Carolijn did the honorable thing by retiring from the race for missing the gate, really a bummer. She had some more bad luck in the round the island with spin halyard issues but still placed 6th overall!