Uncategorized St. Barths Bucket Regatta

St. Barths Bucket Regatta

Gorgeous yachts, an island paradise — no wonder an invitation to the hard-racing, hard-playing St. Barths Bucket Regatta is every yachtsman’s dream.

By Yachting Staff

November 4, 2010

St. Barths Bucket Regatta

There’s a secret to the success of the St. Barths Bucket Regatta and it’s probably not what you think. Stunning yachts? Yes. Gorgeous scenery? True. Fiercely competitive sailing? An understatement. Yet what makes the St. Barths Bucket Regatta the most highly coveted invitation in sailing circles are the demands it places some Type-As with pockets deep enough to always get their way. The mandate: Bring your multimillion-dollar yacht, and your handpicked sailors, but if you’re not coming to have a great time, stay home! Setting the stage for all future Bucket endeavors, the first regatta came about after a night of inebriated celebration in Nantucket, Massachusetts, in August 1986. Roger Janes, captain of the 82- foot Huisman ketch Volordor, Peter Goldstein, owner and captain of the 65-foot Derecktor sloop Flying Goose; and John Clyde Smith, captain of the 92-foot Bill Garden-designed sloop Mandalay were enthusiastically toasting Mandalay owner Nelson Doubleday’s birthday. Naturally, some trash-talking occurred, some boasts were floated, and the nautical gauntlet was thrown down. The next day, history was made as seven yachts sailed the first Nantucket Bucket, a 15-mile course around Nantucket Sound. Billy Black

St. Barths Bucket Regatta

The winter Bucket in St. Barths began in 1995 with a fleet of four yachts, including the 131-foot ketch Sariyah, Tom Taylor’s 108-foot Ron Holland ketch Gleam, the Alden-designed 127-foot ketch Parlay and Nelson Doubleday’s 130-foot Palmer Johnson ketch Mandalay. In 2002, the summer Bucket moved to Newport, where it’s been sponsored by Newport Shipyard and watched over by race committee members Hank Halsted, Ian Craddock and Tim Laughridge ever since. The Bucket is a pursuit-style race, with each yacht assigned its own time on a clear starting line for safety. Start times are calibrated to each yacht’s speed handicap, and the first yacht to cross the finish line is the winner. The Bucket is funded exclusively by the marine industry and provides a fantastic opportunity for networking, though overt marketing or wheeling and dealing are discouraged. At the Bucket, the rule is: It’s not whether you win or lose; it’s whether you can play well with your peers._ -Mary South_ Didn’t get an invitation to the Bucket this year? Check out these gorgeous photos by Billy Black. Billy Black