For the second year, Grenada Sailing Festival and Westerhall Rums are joined in partnership to present the Westerhall White Jack Workboat Regatta for 2016, to be staged on Grand Anse Beach on Saturday 30 & Sunday 31 January. The initiative is a natural pairing of the strong heritage of seafaring and rum production — and paves the way to keep this popular traditional event growing for future years.
This, high action, high fun Regatta Festival has been a ‘Must–Go–To’ event on Grand Anse Beach for 23 consecutive years, and organisers are looking forward to welcoming, even more, boats, crews and crowds to the first big fun fete in 2016. Over the years, the event has become extremely important as a showcase of the strong sailing heritage of Grenada & its sister islands, and an integral part of the culture. Once again skippers will be bringing their boats from the traditional sailing communities of Carriacou, Gouyave, Petite Martinique, Sauteurs and Woburn, and will be welcoming boats from Bequia and Mayreau.
There will be 2 days of the most spectacular and competitive racing; a full day of Community Class Racing on Saturday, 30 January and again on Sunday morning, 31 January, when all crews will be going full throttle to win first place in their community races to qualify for Sunday afternoon’s GSF16 Match Race Final — for the highly prized overall title of ‘Champion of Champions’ & a cheque for US$1,000. There will be more action on Sunday in Grenada Sailing Festival’s own fleet of GSF16 Workboats when each community nominates a Junior & Senior crew to compete to be ‘National Team Sailing Champion’ for 2016. Once again, Carib is the sponsor of the Senior National Team Sailing Race and Budget Marine is the Junior Team Sailing sponsor.
There will be great action on the beach as well, with the Festival’s favourite DJ Blackstorm, and as a new treat for 2016 on Saturday, there will be a special ‘Sunset Session’ of live music from local artists taking part in the first ever Pure Grenada Music Festival (5–10 April). Fit For Life Gym will be running the ever popular Fitness Challenge, and thanks to Macdonald’s Amusement Park from Calivigny there will be a fun Bouncy Castle for children to enjoy.
Community Kitchen food stalls will have all the best traditional dishes on offer from Oil Down to Lobster, and there will be bars featuring a range of Westerhall Rums, plus ice-cold Carib beers and Aqua Blue water for refreshing drinks throughout both days. The whole event will be rounded off with a wonderful fireworks display courtesy of Spice Island Fireworks — a true high spot to start the week of Independence celebrations.
The Westerhall White Jack Workboat Regatta will be staged on Saturday 30 & Sunday 31 January, on Grand Anse Beach and Camerhogne Park. Grenada Sailing Festival thanks Sponsors, Supporters & Festival Friends who make the event possible: Westerhall Rums; the Grenada Tourism Authority; Budget Marine; True Blue Bay Resort’s Dodgy Dock; Carib; Spice Isle Fish House; Guardian General OECS; Waggy T; DeSign Factory; Horizon Yacht Charters; Courts; Aqua Blue; McIntyre Brothers & Yamaha; Bryden & Minors with Campari, Smirnoff & Monster; BOSS FM; Jeans & Co; Republic Bank; L L Ramdhanny & Harris Paints; Grenlec; Digicel; Andy’s Soup House; Bulk Buy; Victory Bar; Camper & Nicholsons Marinas; Grenada Marine; Amalgamated Security Services; Century21; Savvy Grenada Sailing Charters; Island Dreams Yacht Services; Clarke’s Court Marina & Boatyard; Sunsation Tours; Cashwiz Grenada; and Spice Island Fireworks.