It’s that time of year again – the Musket Cove Regatta Week! We had so much fun in 2022 racing on “Wow” and again in 2023″ racing on “Wings.” This year we will be racing on a beautiful SVD60 (Simons Voogd) designed 60′ catamaran called “Marcato”.
Matt and I both admired this boat in the earlier regattas. It has stunning lines, clean look, and wicked fast reputation. The owners Anthony (Ant) and Janine Robinson were kind enough to let Matt and I crew with on this year’s Musket Cove Regatta!
Be sure to read about our 2023 and 2022 adventures of the Musket Cove Regatta. Simply type in “Musket Cove” in the search bar or click here.
Ant and Janine invited several of their friends to help manage this incredibly fast rocket.
But, mostly Ant was at the helm, Phil and Janine worked the main sheet and headsails, Chris, Matt and I (mostly Chris and Matt) were on deck handling the sail changes.
During the longest race, around the Malolo Island we had at least 8 sail changes!
The first day of the regatta is kicked off with hobie cat races. Matt and Chris (from SeaGlub) join together to be team SugarGlub.
The easily win their first heat despite the light winds.
Unfortunately, they lost their second heat during single eliminations. But they had great fun!
Beachcomber’s Pirate Day
Day 2 brings Beachcomber Island’s Pirate day!
Anything goes during this race! That means that boats can use their engines, sails, and whatever means necessary to get to the anchorage first.
Marcato started off slow (captain’s choice) and crossed the start in 11th place. Never good when you take photos with boats in front of you. By the end of the race we were catching up to the 1st place boat. Unfortunately, this boat displayed really poor sportsmanship and refused to let us pass and pushed off off the course.
True that anything goes, but this was beyond rude.
Beachcomber Island Resort really knows how to host an authentic pirate party. Yachties are captured, and tied together as they step foot on shore. The pirates then walk them across hot coals at knife point and into the vaccine tent for a retched shot of rum.
We did win 2nd place and I won sexiest pirate 🙂
Around the Island Race
There are 3 sailboat races during Musket Cove Regatta week.
- Beachcombers Pirate Day
- Around the Island
- Sandbank Race
The around the island is by far the most prestigious race. Racers have to navigate around reefs, corals, and more as they sail around Malolo hitting almost every point of sail.
We had over 9 sail changes during this race (which is a LOT).
We had a great start and managed to stay in the top 3 for the majority of the race. During the last 1/4 of the race we edged in front of both the 1st and 2nd boats. As we neared the finish line, with a mere 100 meters to go the wind died to zero (see photo). The good news it died for everyone. After a painstaking 45 minutes, it picked up and we crossed the finish line first doing a whopping 3kts!
Super Hero / Villain Party
Besides having an amazing boat, Ant and Janine are great party planners. They went all out on the costume party. We were Gru and his minions complete with a “moon” strategically placed in the rafters of the bar.
We won first place!
The Sandbank Race
This is an interesting race as the racers follow the committee boat with a marker.
The committee boat does not drop the marker until it deems it prudent. The racers never know where the marker will be dropped.
Marcato came in 3rd during this race.
All in all the Marcato crew came away with lots of prizes and wins.
- 2nd place Beachcomber Island Pirate Race
- 1st place Around the Island race
- 3rd place Sandbank race
- 1st place Superhero costume contest
- 1st place sexiest pirate
We sailed in the Musket Cove Regatta 2025 in mid-September.
Our blog posts run 8 weeks behind actual live events.
Don’t miss out on our bushwhack hike along the ridgeline of Malolo Island.