History of St. Croix International Regatta

In 1992, Commodore Nick Castruccio organized the first St.Croix Yacht Club International Regatta, convinced Mumm’s Champagne to sponsor the event, and encouraged his sailing friends from across the Caribbean to compete. The three day event was held in October, on the weekend of Columbus Day / Puerto Rico Friendship Day, and 69 boats attended the first year. Peter Holmberg of Team Heineken, winner of the racing spinnaker class, receiving his weight in Mumms Champagne. A tradition was born!

After a series of hurricanes in the 1990s, resulting in the loss of the main Yacht Club dock three times, the event was moved to February, allowing us to replace the dock after hurricane season. Better weather and better planning on the Yacht Club’s part have resulted in dock retention since. In 1999, Mumms withdrew as the event sponsor and was replaced by the local Innovative Companies, who continued to sponsor the event through 2007. The winning skipper now received his weight in Cruzan Rum, thanks to our local distillery. In 2010, the organizers affiliated with the National Hospice Regatta organization for several years until, in February 2012.

November 2012 was the 20th anniversary of the event. Founder Nick Castruccio was the special honoree – and raced his beloved Annick II in the spinnaker class, with a little help from his kids. For the 2013 regatta, members created the Dick Newick Perpetual Award for the first place multihull in honor of Richard Newick, considered the Father of Modern Multihulls and an avid St Croix Yacht Club member in the 1960s and 1970s.  Fittingly, the first recipient was a Newick designed trimaran, Piglet.

The 23rd Regatta, November 2015, included 31 Optimists, with a VISA (Virgin Island Sailing Association) sponsored Optimist clinic on Friday and racing on Saturday and Sunday. The Big Boat race on Friday was renamed Captain Nicks Race in honor of our founder, who turned 90 this year!  The race for the rum on Saturday and Sunday was won by longtime participant Jonathan Lipuscek of Puerto Rico on Dark Star with six bullets and Peter Stanton in the Rhodes 19 class, in a very tight competition with Miles Sperber and his daughter Victoria. Dark Star and 19ini (Stanton) also won Captain Nicks Race on Friday.

Chris Haycraft on Pipedream from Tortola, our most faithful competitor, won the spinnaker class at the 24^th regatta in November 2016, but unfortunately not the rum, as there were only 5 entries in the class. The Rhodes 19 class, however, turned out 9 competitors! Scott Stanton won the rum in a tightly contested battle with Manuel Gutierrez on Chrys.  

Winners of the Champagne and Rum