16 November Press Release:
After a day spent assembling the boats, confirming registrations, and final training exercises, the 57 teams racing in the 14th edition of the St. Barth Cata Cup are ready to hit the waves. That will be on Thursday starting on 9:30am, when they set sail for the first race of the regatta. A race that promises to be challenging with between 15 and 20 knots of wind from the northwest sector expected throughout the week. This should make the regatta high-octane, which is good news for the top guns in the race, starting with the title holders, Argentineans Cruz Gonzales Smith and Mariano Heuser (SDBE) who as we know love the breeze. They will be facing such sharp competition as American Ravi Parent (Maxwell & Co for man and woman), 2022 F18 world champion, Belgians Patrick Demesmaeker and Olivier Gagliani (Les Perles de Saint-Barth – Bativrd), as well as Frenchmen Gurvan Bontemps and Benjamin Amiot (Pix Sail), Tim Mourniac and Pierre-Yves Jorand (Segeco), Emmanuel Boulogne and Mathieu Marfaing (PNF), and Pierre Le Clainche and Antoine Joubert (Wood Stekke), to name just a few.