As the European winter maintains its icy grip on us, thoughts of warm water sailing in the Caribbean might be crossing the minds of yachtsmen.



There’s a remarkable calendar of events lining up over the next couple of months and with the Heineken Regatta complete attention now focuses on the St Barths Bucket, which starts on 25 March and runs for three days. It’s a superyacht only event but with more than 40 yachts taking part it’s going to be some event, ashore and afloat! For a flavour of the event take a look at some of the video clips running with this story.


Shortly after the Bucket comes a new event, Les Voiles de St Barths, designed to emulate the iconic Voiles de St Tropez in the Mediterranean. It’s set to run over Easter from 6-11 April. The intention is to attract yachts large and small, and Mike Slade’s ICAP Leopard has already signed up. We’ll be reporting from the first event.

Next up is the Antigua Classic Regatta based in Falmouth Harbour Antigua where everything from J Class yachts like Ranger and Velsheda will be doing battle with a fleet of schooners and local boats like the Carriacou sloops. Dates for this event are 15-20 April.

And finally, from April 22-30 Antigua Sailing week, now in its 43rd year, will be underway on the sparkling waters of an island that has become the unofficial headquarters for sailing yachts based in the Caribbean through the winter. One of the highlights of the event is the round the island race for the Yachting World Trophy.

Watch out for our daily web coverage and picture galleries from these events and check out the current, April, edition of Yachting World and Supersail World which carry previews to some of these great regattas.