Skippered by Ian Mayers, the BANKS ESPERANZA J/24 team continued an impressive run of form to completely eclipse the J/24 division of the Harris Paints two-day regatta. It was another show of late-season magic from the Esperanza crew, who also dominated and won the First Citizens Regatta earlier in the season in Holetown. In the Harris Paints event, which was also the 30th year of sponsorship by the company, and which featured shifty winds on the southcoast, Esperanza slammed nine other rival crews to win three of four races. They finished fourth in Race 4. “We were looking to make a clean-sweep but we didn’t have a great start in the last race, although we made up some ground. Our crew is in good form, and we proved that we are capable of challenging the top boats in competition,” said skipper Mayers. Impulse, skippered by Neil Burke, finished second, and HawkEye, skippered by Robert Povey, finished third overall while also winning Race 4. Fourth was Die Hard, captained by Robbie Yearwood, and fifth, ISIS, captained by Nicholas Lashley. The six-member Barbados J/24 Youth team used the weekend’s regatta as part of their preparation for the BVI –Premier Cup International regatta. Significantly, the Harris Paints regatta was the last of six regattas making up the 2013 Jaguar/Landrover series in the race for the national championship of J/24 racing in Barbados. Despite their late season heroics, Esperanza was unable to deny Williams Industries HawkEye the championship as they pipped them by one point to secure the right to be called national champions. After six regattas, HawkEye collected nine points while Esperanza finished the season on ten points, for second place in the Jaguar/Landrover series. HawkEye earlier in the season won the Taylors Cycle Centre regatta , were second in the Mount Gay regatta in mid-May, and won the Lucky Horseshoe regatta in early June. “It was a very competitive season. Our main goal was to win the national championship this year, and our crew made it happen. We came out with a mission and accomplished it,” said Robert Povey, skipper of HawkEye. Champions in 2012, Impulse finished the season third overall, on 12 points, while Fully Covered, skippered by Bruce Bailey , finished fourth with 16 points. ISIS, skippered by Lashley, were fifth overall on 26 points. The Jaguar/Landrover series is organized by the J/24 Club of Barbados, and President Gregory Webster praised sponsors, sailors and other partners for helping to create successful events and an outstanding season. For more J/24 Barbados sailing information, visit http://www.j24barbados.com/J24/public/default.asp.
International Class Association
