Anguilla won the 2012 KATS Premier’s Cup, retaining the title they won in 2011. Second place went to team BVI 2 (The BVI entered two teams) with third place going to the Bahamas.

The other teams competing were Trinidad & Tobago, Puerto Rico, Cayman, USA Sail Caribbean and BVI 1. Racing took place in the Sir Francis Drake Channel off Nanny Cay Marina July 14^th and 15^th. Racing was held all day on Saturday and also on Sunday morning, with 17 races conducted in total. Racing was conducted in Caribbean-one design IC-24’s.

With 8 teams entering, each team rotated the boat they used during the Saturday morning and afternoon sessions, and again on the Sunday morning session. Boat rotation is conducted to ensure no team obtains an advantage from sailing one particular boat.

On Saturday the weather conditions were excellent for sailing, with East-South-Easterly winds blowing in a consistent direction between 14 and 17 knots. These ideal conditions made for some exciting racing, and it was immediately clear that all the teams were competing fiercely but also in a sportsmanlike manner.  This was apparent from the fact that a couple of teams were “over early” when starting, requiring them to return to the start line!

By Saturday lunchtime Anguilla had established a solid lead, thanks to several first-place finishes, with several teams, including BVI 2, in contention for second place.

After lunch on Saturday, the first boat rotation was held, and the racing remained as competitive as the morning session.  However, the rotation clearly had an impact, with BVI 2 able to post two wins in the afternoon session. In fact they did not finish outside the top-three in the afternoon session, with the result that they held second place by a considerable margin at the end of the first day. Anguilla, however, remained dominant and had established a very comfortable lead.

At the end of the first day three protests were entered, and the protest committee met with the relevant teams to establish whether any sanctions should be applied. As a result Team Puerto Rico was disqualified from races 5 and 10, dropping them to 5^th place in the rankings.

On Sunday morning the weather forecast of stronger winds proved to be correct, with Easterly winds gusting to 22 knots. The Race Committee met with the team coaches prior to the morning’s racing to ensure all teams felt they were safe to race in the demanding conditions. Everyone gave the green light and racing commenced. There was a slight delay to the first start of the day since team USA needed a repair on their boat; once this was completed racing started, and the stronger winds made for yet more exciting racing!

All of the teams coped with the windy conditions extremely well. In the final race team Cayman had a man overboard at the leeward mark, but they turned around and recovered him very quickly and impressively. Safety boats were on hand but were not called upon thanks to Cayman’s rapid recovery.

At the end, Team Anguilla was a convincing winner, accumulating a very impressive low score of 25 points. Only 9 points separated the teams from 2^nd to 6^th places – a testimony to the competitiveness of the regatta.

The race committee wishes to thank KATS and all of the sponsors, including Digicel, and everyone who volunteered on the water on the race committee, safety boats, mark boats and repair boat. We’re already looking forward to 2013!