Anna Tunnicliffe, with Other Top Match Racers to spar in the 1st Annual Carlos Aguilar Memorial Match Race Championship

Six of the top women match racers in the world along with eight of the best male sailors in the Caribbean will put their sailing skills to the ultimate test in Charlotte Amalie’s harbor, December 5 to 7, 2008, for the 1st Annual Carlos Aguilar Memorial Match Race Championship.

Anna Tunnicliffe, 2008 Olympic Gold medal winner in the Laser Radial Class; Liz Baylis, ranked 4th in the world’s women’s match racing rankings; and Sandy Hayes, 2008 Rolex Women’s Match winner, will be headlining the talent in the Invitational Women’s Division.

Meanwhile, in the Men’s Open Division, skippers will be St. Thomas’ Taylor Canfield, St. Croix’s Peter Stanton, the British Virgin Islands’ Alec Anderson, Puerto Rico’s Efrain ’Fraito’ Lugo, St. Maarten’s Frits Bus, St. Lucia’s Mike Green, Trinidad’s Paul Amon, and St. Thomas’ Chris Curreri helming a team of sailors from El Salvador, Aguilar’s native country.

Unlike fleet racing, where boats sail far offshore and are scored under a handicap system that’s makes it difficult to tell who is winning in real time, match racing pits one boat against another in close competition on a short course near to shore. On-the-water umpires will make instant calls and enforce the rules. The result is some very exciting racing up and down the waterfront where spectators can instantly see who is winning. There will also be a commentator narrating the action.

St. Thomas’ own Henry Menin was instrumental in getting ISAF (International Sailing Federation) to accept match racing. The event’s namesake, Carlos Aguilar, who was killed in 2007, was an avid match racer himself and used every opportunity to encourage others, especially young sailors, to follow in the sport. Match racing has come so far since that come 2012, Women’s Match Racing will be included for the first time as an Olympic event.

"Hopefully in years to come," says Canfield, "we’ll have plenty of representation from the Caribbean in international match racing events around the globe."

America’s Cup Sailor, Olympic Silver Medallist, former number one ranked match racer, and U.S. Virgin Islands’ native son, Peter Holmberg, will be running clinics prior to the event to boost skill levels.

The event will be sailed in IC24s. The IC24, which stands for Inter-Club 24 and was conceived by two STYC members, is a converted J24 equipped with a Melges 24-style deck mold that is wider than the original design and has no traveler.

The event’s NOR (Notice of Race) is available on the STYC website (www.styc.net).

The STYC is not new to hosting world-class match racing events. The Club organized the Marriott Frenchman’s Reef International Match Race - the first Grade One international match race to be held within the Caribbean - in 1997 and again in 1998. More recently, in 2006, the Club hosted the TAG-Heuer Nation’s Cup Regional Final. In 2009, the Club will host the U.S. Women’s Match Racing Championships.

"We’re committed to leading match racing in the Caribbean," says regatta organizer and host St. Thomas Yacht Club (STYC) manager, Bill Canfield, of this Caribbean Sailing Association-sanctioned event. "We intend to make this event an annual affair, make it more international and model it after U.S. Sailing’s Bermuda Gold Cup."

Satish Alwani, of Trident Jewels & Time, says, "We are very honored and proud to sponsor the 1st Annual Carlos Aguilar Memorial Match Race Championship. Carlos Aguilar was a dear friend to the St. Thomas sailing community and Trident Jewels & Time and Ulysse Nardin wanted to sponsor this event so that Aguilar would live in our hearts forever."

Alwani adds, "Ulysse Nardin was founded in 1846 and become world renowned for its precision timepieces. The brand has always long been known for its chronometers, defined as a timepiece that has met certain high standards of accuracy set by the Controle Officiel Suisse des Chronometers in Switzerland. Ulysse Nardin has always maintained the highest degree of accuracy in their timepieces, and as is true with match racing, even a tenth of a second can make all the difference."

For more information about the 1st Annual Carlos Aguilar Memorial Match Race Championship, contact Bill Canfield at styc@vipowernet.net or 340-775-6320.

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