BVI Spring Regatta beats the odds

Apr 12, 2018

All photos credit: John Morris 

As you have read Hurricane Irma blew the British Virgin Islands to pieces. But the Spring Regatta was pulled together despite the obstacles that confronted it. Racers came from everywhere, including Rob Butler’s Canadian entry Touch2Play Racing.

Rob is from Collingwood ON and the crew are from all over Ontario including Sarnia, Wheatley, Windsor and Niagara Falls as well as neighbouring Wilson and Youngstown, NY. The cartoon beaver on the mainsail and on the stand-out pink crew shirts lets everyone know the boat is definitely from Canada.

Rob Butler’s mainsail beaver and pink outfits were a hit at BVISR

The memorable prizes for the regatta were re-purposed from garbage created by the hurricane. Third place winners got trophies made of scrap rope, second place, including Touch2Play in the CSA class, received ice buckets made of broken mast segments and the winners’ awards were flower pots decorated with window glass rubble.

This 3rd place and all the prizes were made from scrap! Instead, the money went to rebuild junior sailing.

This video https://youtu.be/c4sQUxcJeEU tells the story of how the BVI was devastated and how the organizers beat the odds to make it a success.
-JM