Welcome to the St. Lucia Yacht Club website.

The Club is situated on Reduit Beach in Rodney Bay, with Rodney Bay Marina close by (click here for map). From the Club House there are panoramic views across the bay. The Club has squash courts and bar and restaurant, together with shower and toilet facilities. Members and their guests, as well as visitors from overseas are always welcome at the Club.

I hope this website will give you all the information needed to interest you in visiting our Club and, if you are not already a member, becoming one. Please explore the site and contact us with any suggestions for improvement.

We look forward to seeing you at the Club.

Charles Devaux
Commodore

The Digicel Junior OECS Squash tournament took place in St Lucia at the St Lucia Yacht Club from Friday March 28th to Sunday March 30th.  Digicel sponsored both the tournament and the St Lucia team uniforms.  The tournament which was also sponsored by  First Caribbean, the Village Inn and Spa, Dominos, Subway and Everlee juices distributed by Renwick & Co was competed in boys and girls divisions in age categories – under 11, under 13, under 15, under 17, and under 19. 

President of the St Lucia Squash Association, Cheryl Renwick commented that although the standard was not as high as in the past and the numbers participating were lower than previous years, the tournament was a great success.  There were several newcomers to the scene and with full time coaches in St Vincent and BVI the performance and numbers from these islands is expected to improve and grow each year. There were also players taking part in more than one age category and this meant these juniors had to play several matches a day as the tournament was over a 48 hour period and there were several persons who showed great improvements from their previous performance last year.  Ms Renwick also commented that during the recent visit of the IOC President, he indicated that squash will be included in the Olympic games possibly by 2016 but definitely by 2020,  it is important that we start preparing atheletes from now so the junior programme throughout the OECS is important for developing top atheletes.

At the prize giving ceremony held at the Club on Sunday afternoon, the atheletes were addressed by OECS Sports Co-ordinator David Peterkin, Patrick Mathurin of the Department of Youth and Sports and Cheryl Renwick President of the St Lucia Squash Association.

In the overall results:

Under 11 boys there were only two persons in this category –

Ist place Jason Doyle SVG (St Vincent)

2nd place Robert Poole of BVI

Following the prize giving  Vice President of the OECS Squash Association, David Piper of st Lucia announced the selected OECS team for the Junior Caribbean Squash Championships to take place in Bermuda in July.  These include

COME AND MEET PETER HOLMBERG ,Olympic Sailing Champion.@ THE ST. LUCIA YACHT CLUB on Wednesday 16th April 2008.

Bequia Easter Regatta 2008

FROM ST LUCIA.
The St Lucia Youth Team wins Bequia J24 one Design class racing 2008! Having pitted themselves against some of the best helms in the South Caribbean J24 circuit and in particular the two previous Bequia winners of 2006 and 2007 they realized what a task they had ahead of them. Undaunted and with consistent scores  and good team work they kept in the  top 5 and pulled it off! Well done that young and talented team.

In their own words this was their action plan:

On the 18th of March, after much preparation, a team of four St Lucian Youth sailors set off with their coach Ben Todd to Bequia Easter Regatta with high hopes of finishing in the top half of the fleet.  The swell forecast for the Thursday of that week nearly called the trip to a halt with coach and parents expressing their concern as to the safety of the youth sailors. The call was made to leave a day earlier to avoid the swell as too much time and effort had been put into the trip and the team departed at approximately 10pm on the 18th.

The race boat J24 Attitude was kindly provided by Charles Devaux and towed down to Bequia by Christian Richings of Free Spirit Charters. The sailors helped to sail the towing boat down the island through the night. At 8am the next day the team arrived in Admiralty Bay Bequia in SVG.

The team then had only two days to train together for the regatta and worked extremely hard on crew work and boat handling techniques. The team amalgamated very quickly and soon had the important manoeuvres running smoothly and efficiently.  All that was left now was to apply this newly acquired knowledge and ability in a racing situation, easier said than done in the heat of the moment!

The first race of the regatta was on Friday the 21st of March and was a 3 and a ½ hour coastal race. At the start 11 boats from various Caribbean nations lined up jostling for position on the start line. These boats included some big hitting teams from St Lucia, Mike Green ex Olympian on Unbridled and previous regatta winner Nick Forsberg on Jabal.  Also James Arindell from Trinidad and Tobago and boats from Grenada, Barbados, and Martinique. The race ran in winds reaching 25knts and a long hard course tested all the boats and crews. At the finish the team was surprised and extremely pleased to finish in second place and also in front of the previously mentioned teams!

The next day of racing moved away from the coastal racing and took place within Admiralty Bay around a smaller but technical course. The racing again was hard fought and with renewed vigour and determination the team secured two more second places and despite snapping a spinnaker pole, a pretty important part of the boat for downwind sailing, the team was lying in second position overall  at the end of day two. This alone was causing a stir in the race camp as people were asking the question who these kids were and where they had come from. The team had no hesitation to tell of their Lucian nationality and of their age!!

At the start of the final day there was much discussion in the team as to whether we should attack and try to take first, or defend our already coveted second place. The plan was to attack in the first race and see what happened. The start of the 1st race was controlled well by the helm of the boat and after the first upwind leg the team were in first place around the marker buoy. This remained the same with some clever tactical decisions from the crew until the last upwind to the finish when the main sheet (a rope controlling the mainsail)   sheared off. Unfortunately this was not a quick repair and the team ended up with a 5th position in that race. Not the ideal attacking race. On paper 1st place overall now seemed out of reach and second place was secure so the team decided that to leave their mark on the regatta they should finish in style and get at least one 1st place in a race.

The final race was a longer race with some of the cruising class on the same course; this presented a further challenge but also gave rise to opportunities to make big gains on other boats. After 1 lap of the course and on the final upwind leg to the finish the team were in first position being chased hard by the 2007 Champ Nick Forsberg and Mike Green previous winner. The team then continued to make sound tactical and strategic decisions to stay in front of the big boys and held their own to the last getting that greatly desired, and deserved 1st place. Mike Green and Nick Forsberg followed in second and third position.

Back on the shore the team was ecstatic with a race win and second overall found that the leading boat had false started over the starting line and been disqualified from that race. This meant that after a long 6 days of training and racing the team got the ultimate reward for hard work and sound preparation and won the Bequia Easter Regatta 2008. Final results from all classes are attached.

The response from the organisers was fantastic; everyone seemed so pleased to see young sailors do so well against such a wealth of experience and talented senior sailors, and most importantly sailors from our island, St Lucia

                                          
2nd J24 Unbridled
Mike Green, Gerard Bergasse, Christopher Pilgrim, Jeremy Franklin

3rd J24 JABAL
Nick Forsberg, Frank Chevrier, Sean Compton, Allan Didier
Special thanks go to Charles Devaux , Commodore of the St. Lucia Yacht Club, for allowing the use of Attitude and a set of very expensive racing sails and to Christian Richings for ferrying the team to and from Bequia with his charter boat.

Also not forgetting Bill Simmons for supplying free accommodation in Bequia for the team.

Also attending were Rich Washington on Hot Chocolate C&C 38’, with an American / Lucian crew. This boat raced with the larger boats in the Cruising Class II. After some hotly contested coastal races including the Round Bequia Race the crew of Hot Chocolate had successfully piloted their craft into 1st position overall, making a St Lucia double in both the J24 and Cruising class!  

Dubloon from Marigot in St Lucia also had a commendable position of 3rd and 4th in their Cruising Class 1.

This Regatta is a permanent fixture on the regional and SLYC racing calendar and is one of many Caribbean regattas that St Lucian youth could be a part of and potentially win?!!

Ben Todd (Coach St. Lucia Yacht Club Sailing Program)
www.stluciayachtclub.com