Grenada Sailing Festival has joined in a new partnership with Westerhall Rums to present the Westerhall White Jack Workboat Regatta for 2015. The initiative is seen as 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 22 consecutive years and organisers are looking forward to welcoming even more boats, crews and crowds to the first big fun fete in 2015. Over these years the event has become extremely important as a showcase of the strong sailing heritage of Grenada and 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 for the first time welcoming a crew from Guadeloupe and boats from Bequia.
There will be two days of the most spectacular and competitive racing: a full day of Community Class Racing on Saturday 31 January, and again on Sunday morning, 1 February, 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’ and a cheque for US$1,000.00. There will be more action on Sunday in Grenada Sailing Festival’s own fleet of GSF16 Workboats, when each community nominates a Junior and Senior crew to compete to be ‘National Team Sailing Champion’ for 2015. This year we are pleased to welcome Carib as sponsor of the Senior National Team Sailing Race and Budget Marine as Junior Team Sailing sponsor.
There will be great action on the beach as well, with Festival favourite DJ Blackstorm, drummers and traditional dance from Conception Dance Theatre, and live performances from local bands ‘The Edge’ and ‘Love Vibes’. Fit For Life Gym will be running the ever popular Fitness Challenge, and thanks to OK Fun Spot from St David, there will be a fun Kiddies Korner with games and activities, bouncy castle, trampoline and even a scary ‘haunted house’.
Local arts and crafts will be on sale, and community kitchen food stalls will have all the best traditional dishes on offer from oil down to lobster. There will be a chance to sample the range of Westerhall Rums, plus bars featuring ice-cold Carib beer and Aqua Blue water for refreshing drinks throughout both days. The whole event will be rounded off with a wonderful firework 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 held on Saturday 31 January, and Sunday 1 February on Grand Anse Beach and Camerhogne Park. Grenada Sailing Festival organisers are pleased to welcome Westerhall Rums as Title Sponsor for 2015, with additional sponsorship support from Spice Isle Fish House; the Grenada Tourism Authority; Budget Marine; True Blue Bay Resort’s Dodgy Dock; Carib; Massy United Insurance; Waggy T; DeSign Factory; Courts; Aqua Blue; AmeriJet; L.L Ramdhanny & Harris Paints; Horizon Yacht Charters; Grenlec; SOL EC; Victory Bar; Andy’s Soup House; Bulk Buy; Sailing School Grenada; Camper & Nicholsons Marinas; Amalgamated Security Services; Century21; Island Dreams Yacht Services; Sunsation Tours and Spice Island Fireworks.
For more news and information log on to the Festival’s official website www.grenadasailingfestival.com and follow us on Facebook.