Les Voiles Welcomes The OMA This Year

One of the new additions to the 9 th edition of Les Voiles de Saint-Barth is the arrival of the OMA (Offshore Multihull Association), a class created in February 2017 for all owners of multihull sailboats.

“This class was created to better run the multihull races, but also ensure the security of the boats and their crews, while also participating in their promotion,” explains Charles Goodrich, a member of the OMA, who also points out the creation of the new MultiRule aimed to establish equitable ratings for multihull boats to race as fairly as possible in all wind conditions (for additional information: http://www.offshoremultihull.org/).

“Rating the multihull class is an important subject. Until this year, Les Voiles de Saint-Barth adhered to the CSA, and we integrated the CSA Multihull class. Today, we are happy to include the MultiRule as part of the regatta,” assures Luc Poupon, the race director for Les Voiles de Saint-Barth.

As of now, six members of the OMA class have already indicated their intention to participate in Les Voiles after the Miami to Cuba Race and the Caribbean 600 in February, then the St Maarten Heineken Regatta in March. Among those are Lloyd Thornburg’s Gunboat 60 Phaedo, Robert Szustkowski’s HH66 R-Six TS 42, Christian Guyader’s Gastronomie, which also plans to participate in the Route du Rhum 2018, and Stephen Cucchiaro’s Gunboat 60 Flow or last year’s Multihull Class winner Greg Slyngstad’s Bieker 53 Fujin.

“This will be the sixth Les Voiles de Saint Barth for our crew from Seattle, Washington,” said Slyngstad. “The beautiful scenery, great courses, along with the friendly organizers and awesome onshore festivities make this our favourite Caribbean regatta. The Fujin crew had an incredible time last year, and 2018 looks like an even greater turnout of multihulls, so we’re super excited to line up and go again.”