Island Racing at Its Finest as Light Winds Tested the Fleet Around Tortola
Round Tortola: When the Course Bites Back
There are days in the British Virgin Islands when everything lines up.
And then there are days like this one.
The Round Tortola Race for the Nanny Cay Cup at the BVI Spring Regatta & Sailing Festival did not deliver brute-force trade wind sailing. Instead, it handed the fleet something far more demanding — light breeze, shifting pressure and decisions that actually mattered.
The race committee, reading the conditions early, adapted. Courses were shortened and reworked across classes, making full use of the islands that define racing in the BVI.
That’s the beauty of this place.
You don’t need marks when you’ve got Tortola, Peter Island and Dead Chest doing the job for you.
Apollo: Turning a Bad Start Into a Statement Win
If there was a defining performance on the monohull side, it belonged to Apollo.
The J/121, helmed by Don Nicholson, didn’t get it right off the line — far from it.
“We were one of three boats over early,” Nicholson admitted, with the usual shrug that comes from experience. “And of course, the helmsman always gets the blame.”
But this wasn’t a start-line race.
This was a distance race, and Apollo did exactly what good boats do when things go wrong early — they reset, pushed hard, and sailed clean.
By the time they reached the closing stages, Apollo had fought back into contention, locked in a proper match-racing duel with the Club Swan 42 Lady M. Tack for tack, no room given, no mistakes tolerated.
On corrected time, Apollo edged out Panacea X by just over two minutes — a margin that tells you everything about the day.
This wasn’t dominance.
This was execution.
A Boat Rebuilt — and Now Delivering
Apollo’s result carried extra weight.
The boat had missed the previous year’s regatta following serious damage sustained at the STIR Regatta. What followed was a near full-season rebuild — structural work, performance upgrades, and a rethink of the setup.
1,200 pounds removed Water ballast system stripped out Larger asymmetric sails added
It wasn’t just a repair job.
It was a reset.
Nicholson accepted the rating penalty that came with the changes — but out on the water, it paid back.
“The boat felt fantastic,” he said. “Upwind and downwind, the performance is there. It’s worth every bit of that penalty.”
Airgasm: Local Knowledge Meets Pure Speed
While Apollo took the monohull honours, the multihull side belonged to Airgasm.
Barney Crook’s Corsair 31-1D, sailed with the confidence that only comes from knowing these waters properly, delivered a clean and effective race to secure the Nanny Cay Cup in the Sport Multihull division.
There were faster boats on paper.
There always are.
But the Round Tortola Race has a habit of levelling that playing field.
You don’t win here on theory.
You win by:
Reading pressure Picking the right side of the islands And keeping the boat moving when others stall
Airgasm did exactly that.
Sophia: Speed in the Right Conditions
Out on the course, the Nigel Irens 63 Sophia once again showed flashes of outright pace.
Marcus Sirota’s trimaran, already one of the most talked-about boats of the regatta, pushed hard whenever the breeze allowed.
“I think we saw 24 knots on the other side of the island,” Sirota said. “Which we weren’t expecting.”
In typical Sophia fashion, the approach wasn’t rigid.
“We didn’t follow a strict plan — we just sailed the pressure.”
That’s often the difference.
Not overthinking it.
Just sailing what’s in front of you.
Sophia finished narrowly behind Ting-A-Ling II, separated by just seconds on corrected time — another reminder of how tight things had become.
The BVI Factor: A Course That Thinks for You
Racing around Tortola isn’t just about speed.
It’s about geography.
Wind bends around headlands Pressure builds and disappears without warning Decisions made miles earlier suddenly matter
Chris Haycraft, Regatta Chairman, put it simply:
“Round Tortola has become a classic. Everyone loves it — and it’s not going anywhere.”
He wasn’t wrong.
Because races like this don’t rely on perfect conditions.
They rely on interesting ones.
Cruising and Bareboat: Close Racing, Same Story
Further down the fleet, the same pattern played out.
Tight margins. Local knowledge. And just enough chaos to keep things honest.
Libertas took the win in Performance Cruising, with a Tortola-based crew making the most of home advantage A family crew aboard a chartered IC24 delivered a standout second-place finish In the Bareboat fleet, Topaz edged out the competition in another close battle
Even here, nothing came easily.
Every class saw compression.
Every class saw opportunity.
When It Doesn’t Go Your Way
Not everyone made it.
Equipment failures claimed a handful of boats, including:
Thunder & Lightning, forced to retire after a jib failure despite a strong start Triple Jack, sidelined by structural issues Monster Project, also unable to continue
That’s offshore and coastal racing combined.
You don’t just race the fleet.
You race the boat.
The Bottom Line
No records were broken.
The benchmark set by Fujin still stood.
But that didn’t matter.
Because the 2026 Round Tortola Race delivered exactly what it always promises:
Tight racing Smart sailing And just enough unpredictability to reward the teams who stayed switched on
Apollo and Airgasm didn’t just win.
They earned it.