Extending their support

News of the 2006 BVI Spring Regatta

Nanny Cay Marina, host and presenting sponsor of the BVI Spring Regatta since 2002, recently signed a five-year contract to continue its support of the British Virgin Islands' largest sporting event.

Held annually on the first weekend of April, the BVI Spring Regatta & Sailing Festival is celebrating its 35th anniversary next year. It is now a seven-day event with two events back-to-back attracting an average of 135 yachts per year with eighty percent of the competitors from overseas.

Since the BVI Spring Regatta moved to Nanny Cay, it has continued to develop its facilities to improve the regatta village and shoreside activities. The biggest developments were in 2004 when Nanny Cay dredged its entrance channel, expanded its seawall and built a beach which now accommodates the majority of the "sand-between-the-toes" village. For 2006, a new permanent stage will be built next to the swimming pool.

The BVI Spring Regatta organizers and Nanny Cay management and staff work closely together to put on the event. On discussing the signing, Marina Manager, Miles Sutherland-Pilch said: "We're very pleased to be making this commitment to one of the BVI's premier events. The relationship between Nanny Cay and the BVI Spring Regatta is very much a partnership. We plan the village in detail with the organisers in the months before and as the event draws closer our staff and the regatta's volunteers become indistinguishable as they work hard towards finalizing the set up."

The 2006 Sailing Festival - a low-pressure, three-day warm up for the regatta - starts on Monday, March 27 with a welcome party at Nanny Cay. Three days of destination cruising, racing and Layday fun including the Nation's Challenge Cup, lead up to the main three-day BVI Spring Regatta starting on Friday, March 31. The expanded seven-day format has turned the traditional three days of racing action into a week-long sailing festival that takes participants throughout the British Virgin Islands.

The three-day regatta takes place on the south side of Tortola in the Sir Francis Drake Channel on four different courses.

Visitors can fly to the British Virgin Islands through San Juan, Puerto Rico with American Airlines, Caribbean Sun and Cape Air. Flights are also available through Antigua and Barbados on Virgin Atlantic, British Airways and BWIA.

For full details on the BVI Spring Regatta & Sailing Festival including daily news, photos and complete results from the 2005 event, visit the official web site: http://www.bvispringregatta.org.