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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

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Matt and I are so excited to be here during the world renowned Musket Cove Regatta week!  We do want to participate, but we don’t want to race our home.  We do however, register Sugar Shack so that we are eligible to sign up for the hobie cat race, the SUP challenge, and we get access to the opening and closing night dinners.

About a month before the race, we ran into our friends on the sailing boat “Wow.”  We met them in French Polynesia and stopped by to say “hi.”  They were keen to race in the regatta and needed additional crew so we happily signed up.

Wow is a stealth 14GT and weighs in at a surprisingly low 5 tons.  To give you an idea of how light that is Sugar Shack weighs close to 14 tons.  Wow is super light and fast!

We spend one day practicing and getting to know the boat which is pretty different than Sugar Shack. 

Opening Night

The opening night was held at the local Island Bar located on the beach.  Tickets are required, free rum punch for the first hour, and dinner was served.  It was a great opportunity to get to know other cruisers.  We head in with the sailing team on Wow and our friend Chris (lower left corner).

There are three boat races that are held during the 5-day race week.  The first race is called “beachcomber” then the most challenging race is “Around Malolo Race” and the final is the “sand bank” race.

In addition to the boat races, there are hobie cat races, the SUP challenge, a fun run, and a beach cleanup.

Hobie Cat Races

The first race that kicks off is the hobie cat races.  Matt had sailed on hobie cats when he was in college, but I had never been on one before.  We had hoped we could watch a few rounds so we can see the course, check the winds, and figure out a game plan. 

But that was not in the cards for us. We were literally the first team, out of 60 teams, on the water! 

There are 4 hobie cats.  You race two teams at a time with a beach start.  We have mere moments to look at the boat before we start.  This is Matt and I with the marina manager, Patrick.  The lower right photo is just a silly hat that I had to share.

The course started at the beach, at the whistle, you run and jump onto the boat, and two pushers give you a shove to get you started.  As you can see, I had a rough entry!  I had to run around the pusher as the boat was moving and face planted!

We had a good start but it quickly went downhill from there!  The course had you go around two markers, past the start, back around the two markers, and back to the beach.  After 3 rounds they shortened the course to just once around the course.

The hobie cats are relatively simple. You have one-person steering using a tiller and another person working the jib.  I was up front working the jib. 

We didn’t do so bad on the first of 6 legs.

The Challenge isn’t the other boats, but rather the boat itself

With the first tack (attempt to turn the boat) we realized we had a problem.  The batons on the jib were too long and had a hook on the end.  Each time the jib passed the mast to make the tack it got stuck on the halyard preventing the jib from doing its job which is filling with air to help steer the boat.  It caused us massive fits and troubles and we lost valuable ground. 

Needless to say, I came up with some creative curse words and we lost by single elimination heat.  I can at least say we came in 2nd in a race with 60 boats were racing, can’t I?

As soon as we came back to the beach, the race committee tried to repair the batons on the jib – clearly it was not a Christine problem – well this one wasn’t at least. 

The good news is that we did not flip the boat!  Unlike another team.  Not sure how they flipped their boat as we had incredibly light, light winds.

And there were moments where we sort of looked like we knew what we were doing.

All in all, it was a fun day.  Not the outcome we had hoped for, but still loads of fun.

SUP Challenge

The SUP (stand up paddle board) challenge was held in the lagoon on the same course as the hobie cats.  The first leg was up wind until you rounded the first mark, then it was a nice down wind run until you rounded the second mark which led you to a cross wind run to the finish.

Matt was going to participate but his hands were covered in blisters so we both melded into the cheering crowd.

Next up we race in the Beachcomber race and participate in pirate day!

The events from this blog occurred in early September 2022.  Our blog posts run 6-8 weeks behind actual events.  In our last blog we finally arrive to Malolo Island after a few short stops.