The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net Richard Browning was quite pleased with Palm Cay's investment in the 25th 'Catch Me If You Can' St Valentine's Regatta in the Montagu foreshore. Browning's company provided a Sir Durward Knowles floating trophy and donated $2,000 to the A Class boat that caught the B Class Lady in Red Lady Nathalie in the challenge race. While the Red Stripe caught the Lady Nathalie first, the Good News also did so before the race was completed late in the evening. They both shared the prize money. "I think it's important that a developer is involved in the community. I'm new on the scene and it's really a matter of trying to get to the real heart and soul of the country," he said. "We do that generally through sports, youth and the community. This traditional sloop racing appears not only to have tradition involved but obviously it had a lot of support and it was held in honour of Sir Durward Knowles, the king of the seas." Browning said it's always difficult to keep good traditions going and, after 25 years, he was pleased to lead the way in taking the regatta to the next level. At the next level, Browning said he doesn't see why the regatta can't take on a corporate challenge where each individual boat is sponsored by a corporation and the Lady Nathalie could still go off as the lead boat. "I think it would give a lot more interest and a lot more support because those corporations can bring a lot more spectators to the event as they follow the progress of the various corporate boats," he said. Sir Durward Knowles, who was honoured by organiser Eleazor 'the Sailing Barber' Johnson, said while the regatta was a success he was disappointed that a C Class race was held on Sunday just before the Catch Me If You Can race was staged. That decision, according to Knowles, caused the challenge race to be finished so late in the evening, something that he feels should not happen again. "But the regatta was good and the sculling put on by Sands Beer was a great success as well," he said. "Bahamians will now learn how to scull. It was a successful weekend." Having received so many accolades before, Knowles said he was delighted that Palm Cay presented the trophy and the cash donation in his honour. "They set the pace for other corporate sponsors to come on board," he said. "It's something that can be even more exciting when we get more corporate boats competing." At the Nassau Yacht Club Thursday night, an awards presentation was held for the various winners in the challenge race as well as the B Class race held Saturday. Race commodore Stafford Armbrister said he was pleased with what happened despite the fact that they had to sail the C Class race on Sunday because they didn't have sufficient tide to do so on Saturday. "In the Catch Me If You Can race, the Rupert's Legend broke a boom and we had to wait for her. She came all the way from Long Island and we showed sportsmanship to wait for her," Armbrister said. "It was a 10-mile race and everybody enjoyed themselves. I like the St Valentine's Massacre. It was fun being out on the water in Montagu Bay." Eleazor Johnson said this was definitely one of the most exciting regattas that he pulled off. "This was the biggest field of boats that we had. We almost had 20 boats in the C Class," he said. "I had to turn down about five because the funds were not there. But we had the majority of the top skippers to see who was the best." Thanking Sir Durward Knowles for using his name, Johnson said the regatta would not have been successful without the sponsorship of Palm Cay, the Ministry of Sports, BTC, Bahamian Brewery, Bristol Cellars, Super Value, Hanna's Hardware, Wallace Auto Sales and Nassau Plastics. Warren Adderley, who sailed on the Red Stripe as they caught the Lady Nathalie first, said although they were disappointed that the race sailed late in the evening, they did what they had to do to catch the Lady Nathalie. "The race could have been closer to the land so that the people could have watched the race," said Adderley. "But we sailed well and we knew that we had a good chance to catch the Lady Nathalie." Clyde Rolle, the skipper of the Lady Nathalie, said when the race started, their sail came off the track and when they tried to fix it, it came off another. By the time they got it fixed for good, he said seven minutes had already elapsed and they were only left with about a minute or two before the A Class boats started. "The wind died out but they still had to sail hard to catch us," he said. "If the wind hadn't died out, they would not have caught us because we came back and were right on their stern. But it was a little too late."