The Virgin Islands offered a perfect warm up day at the International Rolex Regatta on Friday. The first day of racing was favored with warm tropical breezes with enough power get most boats moving well upwind.
As anticipated, 75' Titan XII dominated the big boat class with three first place finishes. Many of the other classes are showing the tight competition expected from "The Rolex". Classes 2, 3 and 4 have one point or ties separating the top scorers. In the Racer/Cruiser class two sister ships from opposite sides of the Atlantic are tied for first. Anticipation from Cowes, UK is even with Lazy Dog from San Juan, PR.
The battle in the locally grown IC-24 class is a smaller version with St. Thomians Chris Rosenberg and John Holmberg chasing Michael and Robbie Hirst after four races. . The standard J-24's have Cruzan Jeff Fangman in second place in a mostly Puerto Rican class.
Saturday's races are planned to take the racing fleet into St. Thomas Harbor for the finish of the first race and the start of the second of the day. Final race or races should be located between St. Thomas and St. John on Sunday.
