Coastal Offshore racing took the spotlight on the penultimate day of action during Barbados Sailing Week 2026.
Overall 31 boats have signed up for this year’s event, with 239 sailors — 82 of which are Barbadians, while14 local yachts were entered.
In Multihull action, Spirit of Everest skippered by Robbie Yearwood, was victorious ahead of Plaissir, with Lawrence Dunster at the helm.
Sailing in the Club Class saw Fadeaway and James Adam triumph, ahead of Glory Daze captained by Gus Reader in second, while Less Stress with Peter Hoad at the helm in third.
Bella J captained by David Sparman was the top boat in CSA Racing, ahead of A-Salt Weapon with Jason Tindale, with Rapajam third, skippered by Paul Johnson.
The focus now switches to the feature events of Barbados Sailing Week, the Mount Gay Rum Round Barbados Race and the Coast to Coast Race, which will be followed by the Mount Gay Red Cap Party and Prizegiving at Barbados Cruising Club.
Speaking during the junior prize giving ceremony, Regatta Director, Marianna Polacka, revealed that 22 boats were scheduled to face the starter on Wednesday.
“The weather looks quite good…the wind looks light in the morning and should pick up a bit later but the swell is quite high, so we will see whether anybody can beat the record.”
Polacka revealed that the boats will begin leaving the Carlisle Bay area near the Hilton Hotel at 7:30 a.m.
“They will be going along the West Coast for another hour or two and you will start seeing the boats around the Animal Flower Cave, between 8-9 a.m., before they continue to the East Coast. In the afternoon, the Boardwalk will be a perfect spectator position to see them coming with their beautiful spinnakers, which is the downwind sail.”
Quizzed about potential favourites, the Race Director remained guarded.
“We do know that the local sailors have the advantage of knowing their home turf.
They know every single reef where it is and how to sail as close to cut the distance that every boat has to sail. Every boat has to sail 60 nautical miles, which is about 80 kilometers, that day,” said Polaka, who is pleased with the quality of junior sailing this year.
“So as a part of sailing week, we always make sure that juniors are included because they are our future and we had 25 of them this year. Last weekend, they were battling for two days out in Carlisle Bay, approximately a kilometre offshore. It was incredible what they can do on the water. The conditions were rough and they were very, very brave.”
“Some of them capsized, some of them got hurt, and most of them just recovered and continued racing,” he added.
According to the race director, after the growth experienced from 2024 to 2026, they hope to raise the standards even more in the future.
“Our cooperation and partnership with Barbados Port Inc., the redevelopment of Shallow Draught Marina, and the moorings that are now in Carlisle Bay, brought this event to international standards. Now we can offer what other Caribbean regattas can offer. What other Caribbean regattas cannot offer is Barbados.”
“Anybody who ever comes to Barbados, wants to come back to Barbados, so we are very, very excited about this infrastructural upgrade that we have now. The capacity that Barbados Sport Inc. offered, can be doubled, so we now can start advertising as early as next week, when we finish racing.”
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