Sunday, the final day of the St Maarten Heineken Regatta, dawned with clear blue skies and a distinct lack of wind.

The regatta organisers managed to get the racing fleets, the seven spinnaker classes, the five bareboat classes, the three non-spinnaker classes, the two multihull classes, the beach cats and the open class, out of bed in time for their scheduled starts, first off at 0900 local time, just in case there would be enough wind, and mustered them at the committee boat.

But with the wind gods on holiday, at 1000 local time the joint Principal Race Officers Tony Blachford and local man Andrew Rapley gave in.

Thanks to the two windward/leeward races on Saturday followed by the race to Marigot, the spinnaker classes got in four good races, everyone else apart from the bareboats three, and the bareboats sailed two.

For unusual weather in the Caribbean, especially St Maarten, 2006 will go down in the annals of St Maarten’s Heineken Regatta as only the second year when racing was abandoned for the day for the first time since the early eighties.

Yesterday, CBBS boatNumbersskippered by Daniel Myers was reputed to have found an un-charted obstruction on the western side of the island. They met a hard bit of something 13ft under the surface with their 15ft keel. It took a while to get the dark blue boat with the whites stripes sailing again.

Sailmakers didn’t earn much this weekend, though North Sails reported one job that paid for the weekend shift, a rip in Peter Harrison’s 115 foot schooner,Sojana’sspinnaker. This was no ordinary nick, but a whole 120ft of stitching, longer than the boat itself. AsSojanahad three sailmakers aboard at the time – though from two different lofts – we expect that there was plenty of advice on how the job should have been done.

In the CBBS racing division Tom Hill’sTitan 12won with four first places, Daniel Myers’Numbersbeat Bill Alcott’sEquationwith straight seconds apart from the final race when they swapped places.

The CBBS cruising division was well populated with boats as diverse asBelle, an IY60, Team Atlantic with a Swan 60 and at the other extreme, the 115ftSojana. The final order was Clay Deutsch’s Swan 68Chippewawinning from George Gamble’sBelle, with the very pretty Wally 77Carrera, Alex Jackson, in third. The Wally turned heads whenever she passed – especially when she gift wrapped herself in a spinnaker drop gone wrong – and also endeared her crew to the organisers with their unfailing politeness and courtesy.

The prize for first Bareboat overall out of all the classes went toGruppo Sportivo, Cees-Jan Bartmanns in bareboat 2.

The Most Worthy Boat of the Regatta prize: a repeat of last year with Spinnaker 5’sLazy Dog, skippered by Sergio Sagramoso from Puerto Rico winning every race in a hotly contested class.

Results:

Bareboat 1: 1st Van der Valk Hotels, Bob Zeeuw van de Laan NED; 2nd Roam, Malcolm Brown USA; 3rd BVI Yacht Charters, messers Otis and Duranty USA.

Bareboat 2: 1st Gruppo Sportivo, Cees-Jan Baartmans NED; 2nd Jasmin, Don Reeder USA; 3rd The Giants, Bart Landa NED.

Bareboat 3: 1st Team Golden Dog, Jeffrey Sochrin USA; 2nd Gabes Babes, Gaby Rappange NED; 3rd Fortis Bank, Johan Postma NED.

Bareboat 4: 1st Allegheny Gal, John Wimer USA; 2nd Sea Breeze, Larsen Soren DEN; 3rd Zeilen 2, Dana van Beek NED.

Bareboat 5: 1st Silver, Rob van der Veken CUR; 2nd Berengere, Scott Lorette CAN; 3rd Pelican Pat, John Pinheiro USA.

Beachcats: 1st Dauphin Telecom – Snickers, Pascal Marchais GDP; 2nd Demeco Outremer, Birgit Krahe GDP; 3rd L’Etabli, Marmolejo MAR.

Multihull 1: 1st Free Air Racing Team, Llewellyn Westerman STC; 2nd Tryst, Patrick Turner, STM; 3rd Triple Jack, Richard Wooldridge TOR.

Multihull 2: 1st Rocketeer, Ken Winters USA; 2nd Windsong OC, Michael Hyland USA; 3rd Torridon, Don Spence CAN.

Non-spinnaker 1: 1st Three Harkoms, Christopher Lloyd IVB; 2nd Disco Inferno, Matt Abbiss GBR; 3rd Rapajam, Ralph Johnson BAR.

Non-spinnaker 2: 1st Sunshine, Hans Lammers ANT; 2nd Blue Peter, Lawrie May ANT; 3rd Huey Too, Bernie Evan-Wong ANT.

Non-spinnaker 3: 1st Selene, Duke Steinemann USA; 2nd Nimrod, Simon Lambert GBR; 3rd Ondine, Jarbas Guimardes BRA.

Open class: 1st Goeie Mie, Ton Deegenaars NED; 2nd Stroumph, Jean-Michel Valade STM; 3rd Bullicio, Marius Dealessandri STM.

Spinnaker 1: 1st Titan 12, Tom Hill PUR; 2nd Rosebud, Roger Sturgeon USA; 3rd Equation, Bill Alcott.

Spinnaker 2: 1st Chippewa, Clay Deutsch USA; 2nd Lolita, Frank Savage USA; 3rd Belle, George Gamble USA.

Spinnaker 3: 1st DSK Comifin, Danilo Salsi ITA; 2nd Plenty, Alexander Roepers USA; 3rd Slippery When Wet, Peter Peake TRI.

Spinnaker 4: 1st Affinity, Jack Desmond USA; 2nd Avocation, Hank Schmitt USA; 3rd Kinship, Tom Selldorf USA.

Spinnaker 5: 1st Lazy Dog, Sergio Sagramoso PUR; 2nd Kick ’em Jenny, Ian Hope-Ross AHO; 3rd Shamrock V, Thomas Mullen USA.

Spinnaker 6: 1st Lost Horizon II, Jamie Dobbs ANT; 2nd Carib Natufit, Frits Bus SXM; 3rd Bruggadung, Paul Johnson BAR.

Spinnaker 7: 1st Finn, Diederik Demesel BEL; 2nd Budget Marine, Tony Maidment ANT; 3rd Vanille, Phillippe Herve FRA.