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Musket Cove Regatta Week 2025

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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.

  1. Beachcombers Pirate Day
  2. Around the Island
  3. 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.

Musket Cove Regatta: Races 2 & 3: 2023

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Part II of the Musket Cove Regatta 2023.  Be sure to read Part I: Musket Cove Regatta: Pirate Day 2023.  Day 2 of the regatta is a “down day” and meant to be onshore for the games, activities, and hobbie cat races.  But Day 3 is the famed Around the Island Race.

If you might recall last year, on the sailboat “Wow” we had to leave the race without finishing because we tore the jib.  This year we were determined to simply go all the way around the island.  The problem is we did not have a boat to crew on.

Luck of the draw…we met this boat called “Wings” in Viani Bay a few weeks prior to the regatta.  They shipped “Wings” their beautiful 46′ Dehler from Austrlia to California so they could participate in the prestigous Transpac Race (California to Hawaii).  After they finished the race, they sailed from Hawaii to Fiji which is where we met them.  The race course around the island.

Racing on “Wings”

Ian, the owner was gracious enough to invite Matt and I on to their boat for the Around the Island race.  We were thrilled to be back in the game!  Even though this is a really sleek racing boat, I was not sure how well we would do.  I just wanted to finish!

Wings is made for racing and Ian takes her all over the world to compete.  In the top photo Wings has her racing sails up but for the Musket Cove regatta she used her standard ‘working sails.’

Well equiped and ready to race with easily visible instruments, and key performance indicator sheets.

The Race Photographer captured some great shots of Wings while underway.

Ian, being the master race captain, positioned us perfectly at the start line and we were the first to cross.  It was a packed start as we all were tacking up the narrow channel in a fight for air and position.

The crew: Ian, David, Mark, Alissa, Janesse, Matt and I.  Yes, it looks like we are hardly working, but the only time I can take photos is when we have a “lull”  It becomes super difficult to stop and take photos during a tack or jibe.

As it turns out, we were the 2nd monohull to cross the line.  We won’t know for sure until the awards ceremony, but we are 99.99% confiendt we came in second.

The Sandbank Race

The next day, 3 of the 4 crew members decided to go surfing.  Ian, asked if Matt and I wanted to fill in and we decided “why not?”  Of course, we don’ know 1/10 of what his crew does, but we muddled through it the best we could.

The Sandbank race is short and usually has very little wind.  Making it challenging to get this heavy boat to move.  Our start was not as good as the day before, but we made the best of it.  This is the race course:

We certainly did not do as well as we did on the Around the Island race, with little wind, and short 3 crew, but we sure did have fun!

Awards Ceremony

Wings came in 2nd in the prestigous Around the Island Race.  We won tons of prizes.  Matt and I received a bottle of champagn, a new hat, and a $100 fuel voucher.  We then won several drawings.  We got 2 months of free internet from Vodafone, 1 year professional subscription from PredictWind, and we won a huge bag full of wine, goodies, and more.  

Our crew on Wings and Salty.

We had many beautiful sunsets where the anchor lights dot the sky making it look like falling stars.

Soem Fijian Love

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind live events.  This event occurred early September.  In our last blog we get down and dirty as pirates.

Musket Cove Regatta: Pirate Day 2023

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We were lucky enough to get on a winning catamaran called “Wow” last year during the 2022 Musket Cove Regatta. This year we arrived the day before the regatta and did not have a chance to secure a position for all three races.

There are over 100 sailboats in the anchorage and on the moorings.  It is packed!  About 80 boats signed up for the regatta this year.  But that does not necessarily mean that all 80 boats are racing.  For example, we signed up Sugar Shack but we don’t plan to race our home.  We signed up so we can participate in the challenges, games, opening and closing night dinners.

This is a great shot (taken by Musket Cove) of the Island Bar and the boats in the marina.

Day 1

Day 1 of the Musket Cove Regatta is the Beachcomber Pirate Date Race.  This is definitely the most fun race as anything goes!  We were lucky enough to secure a spot on a beatiful Fountaine Pajout catamaran called “Salty.”  We know Mel who is crew on it and she invited us on after we bribed her with jello shots and cookies.

Such a different experience from last year.  We were in party mode the minute we stepped onto the boat.  Everyone was carefree and jovial and ready for a good time.  With that said, we were still in a race and managed to get a pretty good position off the start line.

Like last year, we did not have much wind so it was a motor sail (anything goes in this race).  We sailed right past the marker with a bird who was just watching the excitement go by.  Matt tries to inflate his pirate sword and we arrive to Beachcomber island after 2hrs.  I think we were 5th in the catamaran category.

Once we get to shore we are immediately taken as prisoners.  They shout at us to behave or we will end up in the sandy grave yard.

We walk across red hot coals and are forced to take our rum vaccination. Can’t have a pirate day without rum!

Everyone dresses the pirate part.

The crew at the Beachcomber.

Funtabulous Time

This is Viki from Island Cruising, she is the organizer of our South Pacific Rally.

Cruisers like any excuse to dress up and drink.

My favorite pirate.

And then the silliness occurs…

Do I make a good sea monster?

Meet the “salty” crew.

Fijian Dancers

Such beautiful expressions

And the fire dancing

They really stepped up their show compared to last year!

The Salty crew successfully conquered Pirate Day!

Stay tuned for Part II of the Musket Cove Regatta 2023!  Coming soon

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  This blog post occurred in early September.  Did you read our very cool post on Yadua and Yadua Taba?