Ranger finished one point clear of Hanuman and Velsheda at the Saint Barth’s Bucket J Class, the fifth and final race being abandoned on Sunday.
Under America’s Cup winning skipper-helm Ed Baird, who himself was steering a J Class yacht regatta for the first time, Ranger finished one point clear of Hanuman and Velsheda after four races were sailed.
The combination of an enthusiastic owner who is brand new to sailboat racing and a vastly experienced crew who gelled together perfectly at their first ever J Class Yacht regatta proved a winning combination as Ranger clinched the Saint Barth’s Bucket J Class title after the round the island contest was abandoned mid-way through.
On Saturday Ranger won their second successive race at the Saint Barth’s Bucket superyacht regatta by just 15 seconds to hold a slender lead of just one point ahead of the tied duo Hanuman and Velsheda to set up an exciting winner-takes-all finale.
But after racing for over an hour Sunday on a 25-mile anticlockwise course round the Saint Barth’s islands, the decision was taken to abandon the contest because of the wind and sea conditions which were expected to deteriorate.
It was a decision which denied the race leader Hanuman their chance to atone for earlier, costly misdemeanours and repeat their title success here of 2016 and 2017 but which secured the regatta win for the quietly contented Ranger debutant team who missed Race 2 with a winch failure.
“This win is about three years of hard work, long days and nights and a very happy owner,” smiled Greg Sloat, the Ranger project manager. “Between COVID and everything else we wondered at times if we would ever get here and go racing. We are very happy.”
Sloat hand-picked the crew with Mo Gray who runs the team . . .
John Kostecki is tactician supported by Jordi Calafat and Jules Salter a unit which have two recent TP52 world titles to their credit Ranger’s dream team trimmers including Dirk De Ridder, Warwick Fleury, Ross Halcrow and Daniel Fong.
Saint Barth’s Bucket – Final results after 4 races
1st Ranger 2, 4, 1, 1 – – 8pts
2nd Hanuman 1, 2, 4, 2 – – 9pts
3rd Velsheda 3, 1, 2, 3 – – 9pts
The next J Class regatta will be the Palma Superyacht Cup in Mallorca 29 June to 2nd July followed by the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup in Porto Cervo, Sardinia 4-10 September 2022.
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