LES VOILES DE ST-BARTHS

AMORNING RAIN SQUALL DRENCHED COMPETITORS AND STOLE THE BREEZE, UNFORTUNATELY CANCELING THE FINAL DAY OF RACING AT LES VOILES DE ST. BARTH RICHARD MILLE AND ALONG WITH IT, THE OPPORTUNITY FOR ANY FINAL RANKING SWAPS. THE 12TH EDITION IS OFFICIALLY IN THE BOOKS!

Overall Multihull, CSA and Offshore Multihull Classes

By winning this year’s Overall Multihull class, the MOD70 Zoulou will also be awarded the prestigious Richard Mille Multihull Trophy, with owner and skip- per Erik Maris accepting the impressive Montre Richard Mille RM 60-01 titanium carbone TPT watch*.

While it was the only MOD70 entered this year, Loïck Peyron, Zoulou’s navigator, thoroughly enjoyed his time and gave credit to the other multihulls that held their own against the powerful trimaran.

“It’s always nice to go almost four times faster than your opponents,” said Peyron, one of the most decorated French sailors of all time. “We love taking part in Les Voiles de St. Barth Richard Mille. This event was a great warm up for our team, as we look ahead to racing this summer in the Rolex Fastnet Race against more MOD70s.”

Nemo, a HH 66 owned by Todd Slyngstad, won the Offshore Multihull Class.

Maxis

Disney, a first-timer at Les Voiles de St. Barth Richard Mille, said that the course configurations provide a good challenge. “Racing around and through the surrounding islands makes the wind tricky,” he said. “We often saw 20 degree shifts, and big puffs swirling around. There’s a lot happening.”

Pyewacket, Roy P. Disney’s Volvo 70 not only won its class, it also celebrated winning the 2023 Caribbean Maxi Challenge, presented by Benoît de Froidmont, president of the International Maxi Association. The multi- event challenge is open to boats 60 feet and above, and this year included the RORC Caribbean 600, St. Maarten Heineken Regatta and Les Voiles de St. Barth Richard Mille.

“The short course racing at Les Voiles is totally different from what the Pyewacket team typically does,” said Disney, who has competed in 25 Transpac 600s and won five. “I have really good guys who don’t make mistakes. If I didn’t have these guys, I’d be dead. Going around the buoys in this race is a lot more stressful in many ways, because offshore racing is more consistent.”

Due to a lack of sufficient wind this year, race organiz-