Sunsail44i960b
For years, the reward for winning one of the eight Sperry Top-Sider NOOD Regattas has been pretty sweet—an invitation to escape to the British Virgin Islands to compete in the NOOD Championship, for which Sunsail provides the boats, free of charge. This year, winning just got a little sweeter. Replacing the 39-footers that have long served NOOD racers as platforms for racing and cruising, Sunsail has upgraded the boat for the 2011 event to the Sunsail 44i, a three-cabin racer/cruiser built by Jeanneau.
Sunsail’s Josie Tucci was pleased to share the news. “It’s a fantastic bonus for the crews this year,” she says. “We’ve got a lot going on, with with the new Moorings crewed yacht offerings in France and Turkey, a new Grenada flotilla for Sunsail, the Sunsail 444 cat coming to the Med this summer, and the doubling of the Footloose fleet in the B.V.I., combined with lower rates. Plus, we have a racing fleet of 42 Beneteau First 40s arriving in the United Kingdom.”
The development of Sunsail’s raceboat charter program in England—particularly the Beneteau First 40 fleet supplied for Cowes Week in August—should be of particular interest to U.S. racers who’ve always wanted to join in the fun of marquis events across the pond. We’ll be taking a closer look at Sunsail’s racing initiative in the June issue of Sailing World. Stay tuned…
