Bahamas Claims Third at Charleston Race Week

L-R: Stefan Kuehn, Chris Sands, Brent Burrows

After 3 days of intense racing with 10 races in light to moderate breeze, Team Bahamas came away with a third place finish in the J/22 Class at Charleston Race Week 2014.

Skipper Chris Sands sailed along with fellow Bahamian Brent Burrows and teammate Stefan Kuehn over the 3-day series. The trio are all members of the nationally ranked College of Charleston Sailing Team, and CRW was their first event competing together in the J/22.

Charleston Race Week is North America’s largest keelboat regatta, featuring hundreds of boats and thousands of sailors from all over the world. The J/22 fleet included top-notch sailors such as Aden King and Arthur Libby, and played host to extremely competitive sailing with 4 of the 8 boats in the fleet claiming a bullet in at least one of the races.

The Bahamian Team, sailing boat #6 (‘Quick Beat’) had a tough first day, but rebounded on day 2 to place themselves into 3^rd overall. Day 3 saw extremely light breeze, and the team was unable to climb the score sheet, instead extending their lead over the 4^th place boat to finish in a respectable third place position.

The Bahamians were able to claim 2 firsts and 2 seconds over the course of the 10 race series; finishing the event with a very well respected score line, despite being their first regatta together as a team.

Greg Fisher, Director of Sailing at the College of Charleston, and former J/22 World Champion had this to say of the trio’s performance, “I couldn't be more proud of Chris Sands, Brent Burrows and their teammate Stefan Kuehn with their tremendous performance at Charleston Race Week. For them to jump in a boat they hadn't sailed a week before, sail in a wide range of challenging conditions against a tough & proven group of J/22 sailors, and finish a solid third is tremendous. They worked hard in their practice sessions before the event, and were diligent in their pre-race preparation. It had to be special for Chris, a top starter on our varsity Dinghy team, and Brent, one of our best on our varsity Offshore team to be able to sail together again and finish so well!”

It is worth noting that the Bahamians finished as the top charter boat, and top College of Charleston Boat (2 other C of C teams were competing).

The trio would like to thank thank Mr. John Lawrence with Windermere Corporate Management for his generous support, the Bahamas Sailing Association, and Director of Sailing Greg Fisher at the College of Charleston for his support in providing a boat.

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