RACE

Spirit SY111 Geist sailed her first Caribbean regatta season in style, scooping two class wins at her first outing racing in the Caribbean’s turquoise seas and notorious trade winds.

Designed for cruising and latterly optimised for racing, 34m Geist is a custom Spirit superyacht, which went on to win two World Superyacht Awards in 2021. The original brief for the yacht was to build “a work of art”, with a low freeboard, long overhangs, and no straight lines in her interior – read more here. Since launch, Geist has sailed all over Europe and in the Caribbean, and she now races almost as much as she cruises.

Her first event this year was the 15th Superyacht Challenge Antigua, which took place from 4th to 8th March. Hosted at Nelson’s Dockyard, in English Harbour, Antigua, the regatta saw a fleet of varied superyachts take on a three-race series in big breeze, squalls and plenty of fast-paced action.

Competing in the ‘Bucaneers Class’ alongside Swan 90 ‘Hummingbird’ and Tripp 90 ‘Prevail’, Geist sailed a perfect regatta, winning all races on her debut at this event.

The regatta took place in classic Caribbean trade wind conditions, with big gusts and squalls, kicking off with the 33.51nm Half-Island Race, and Geist’s first win of the event.

The regatta series continued on day two with a 33nm course. The race report explained, “Geist produced the best start of the day, just two seconds shy of the line and continued with a stunning performance on the race track to win the race on ORC corrected time. Geist completed the 33.51-mile course in an elapsed time of 3h 29m 28s. Second place went to Prevail, finishing 17 minutes 22 seconds behind the winner on corrected.”

Geist’s tactician, Graham Sunderland, commented, “I find it tactically super interesting. You get the classic sunny trade wind weather, then these rain squalls come through which change the wind direction and even the visibility. Trying to keep track of the pattern is great fun, but it’s definitely not easy.”