12 Metre Regatta

[cheysdad]

I have booked the 12 Metre Regatta for myself. My daughter is too young and my wife will stay with her.

Can anyone who has taken this excursion in St. Maarten please share their thoughts with me on it. Is it a good excursion, approx how many people on the boat etc.....?

Thanks

Cruising on Halloween.....not much longer now!!

 

[tvguy]

It is wonderful. I had never been on a sailboat before. Frankly I'm a big chicken, but my DW, DD 12 and DS 16 talked me into it.
You can do as much work, or as little work (none) if you want.
How old is your daughter, is she too young by the booklet guidelines? Or do you just think she is too young. My son and I worked our tails off as crankers, my wife was the Captain (typecasting no doubt) and my daughter was the timer. They basically just sat there. There were 14 people on board, plus 3 crewmembers.
The best part was the Queen Elizabeth 2 was anchored in the bay, and here we are circling her as we learned the ropes before the race. I guess the QE2 is unbelievable inside, but she kind of looks like a dumpy little old ship compared to the Magic and the megaships built in the last 15 years. But I always wanted to see her, and boy did I get a closeup look.
We won by the way, GO CANADA 2!!!!!

 

[Skuba2]

It is a lot of fun. We have gone 3 times and loved every time. We left our kid onboard in the clubs during the last time. They take the whole group--usually people from multible ships docked--and pick captains. Then they let the captains each pick people until everyone has a spot. You are all put on two taxi boats that pull up alongside the boat you will use in the race. You are given your assignments and told where to stand. Then you wait for the others to get ready and the race begins. I have down it with a lot of wind, med wind and basically no wind where they first cancelled the excursion then allowed it to run when the wind picked up slightly. The last one was won more on skill then power and a few beers. LOL! Then you go back to the shop to see the pic of your boat and get some rum punch. This was our scenario this past April.

As a side note----if you have done it in the past and bought a shirt. Wear the shirt again and they will give you a new one free. It says to trade but they didn't make us give it to them. They figure the free advertisement of you wearing it is worth the shirt.

DG

 

[kplatt]

My husband has done this twice and would go again and again. He wears the shirts all the time (one blue and one red) and gets lots of comments from others who have either done it, too, or want to do it.

KPlatt

 

[cheysdad]

anyone else....looking for info

 

[sharlon]

DH and I did this when we sailed the Grand Princess back in 2001. We were on Stars and Stripes I (the America's cup winner). I was the main sheet trimmer and DH was a grinder. We had a blast! There were about 15 - 18 people on board plus two "instructors". We had about 4-8 foot seas on a beautiful day. You spend the first 45 minutes or so practicing, then it's race time. There were 3 boats racing that day. We came darn close to hitting another boat when we were tacking. It was so exciting! Our boat won. After we dropped anchor back in the bay, they let us jump in the water and swim until the taxi picked us up.
By the way, I got sea sick, which only happens to me on smaller boats in rougher seas. Even though I felt horrible for the rest of the day, I would do this excursion again in a heartbeat. It was well worth every minute that I felt bad.