Black betty heads for the Caribbean

ABN AMRO One entered in St Maarten Heineken Regatta

Next year's St.Maarten Heineken Regatta has a new high profile entry in the form of Volvo Ocean Race winner ABN AMRO One and her skipper Mike Sanderson, last week named ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year 2006.

Unless boats will enter of similar calibre ABN AMRO One will not encounter a lot of head to head competition in the regatta. Their main focus however is to beat the Around the Island record for monohulls that is currently in possession of Brunel Sunergy and has been for the past six years.

Participants in the regatta will look forward to seeing the vessel that achieved speeds in the Volvo Ocean that were previously not considered attainable by a single-hulled vessel, so the participation of this top ocean racing machine will be an added attraction .
“It s great to see a boat of this stature choosing the Caribbean as its winter sailing grounds”, says Mirian Ebbers, Regatta Director. “It proves that some of the best regattas/racing takes place on the turquoise waters of St.
Maarten and its surrounding islands”.

The regatta will include a fourth day of racing this year on Thursday 1 March, for Spinnaker Classes only. This day will consist of windward-leeward racing only and, depending on the wind direction, will be a spectacular sight to follow from the shore side between Simpson Bay and Great Bay. ABN AMRO One is expected to also participate in this extra days racing. The regatta runs from 1-4 March.

Other entries are pouring in and the regatta is expected to have approximately the same number of boats as in 2005 and 2006, which was 255 in 21 different classes.