Press Release 2024 #4
“If you listen to the weather forecast, you’ll spend your life in the bistro,” as the famous French saying goes. The organizers of the St.Barth Cata Cup once again proved that one shouldn’t depend the previsions. Cautious this morning, they sent out the first race, followed by a second identical one, and finally a third, longer course, in the afternoon, taking the best advantage of every light wind available. Like yesterday, the conditions forced the sailors to display a great deal of concentration and finesse. A little consistency as well, as the rather unstable wind dealt some interesting hands. In this context, Australians Ruben Booth and Joan Costa (Kiton) proved the most constant, taking home “EDEN ROCK VILLA RENTAL” Prize, but in the previsionary standings, Belgians Patrick Demesmaeker and Olivier Gagliani (Les Perles de St-Barth) have the advantage, having sailing to victory in two of the three races.
After narrowly missing the top spot in the first race yesterday, Patrick Demesmaeker et Olivier Gagliani started their day today like they finished it, with a victory, “We are very happy. The day was really great for us. In other words, when we are ahead, it’s always great!,” exclaims the helmsman Les Perles de St-Barth who once again, like the day before, was especially at ease with gaining speed in the light wind. “We sail very well with our spinnaker but petit temps, especially downwind. We sail just as well in the light conditions, but we can never assume it will be easy. There was quite a battle on the water and the boats were well distributed” explains the Belgian, who once again did a good job juggling the small waves and light breezes, even if he made a mistake in the second race. “At the start, we sailed to the left. We never saw the cloud on the right side of the race course. As a result we passed the first buoy in 30th place. That was really dumb on our part! Then we did all we could to catch up by we only made it to 16th place by the finish,” points out Patrick, who nonetheless limited the damage before a quick rebound in the third race of the day.