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3rd Annual Bart's Bash Sailing Event Announced. Belizean Sailors Will Race in It as Always

Bart's Bash 2016 Sailing Event will take place worldwide on Saturday, September 17, and Sunday, September 18. The organizers in San Pedro have decided to make the most of the weekend by holding an open regatta on Saturday and sailing Bart's Bash on Sunday. Bart's Bash has been a highly entertaining, one-of-a-kind sailing race, in which sailors all over the world and in every kind of sailboat imaginable have taken to their home waters on the same day and sailed courses that have been designated as comparable by a computer program in the hands of the Bart's Bash Committee. Another computer program handicaps all the various boat classes involved. It has been a fully legitimate regatta. Guinness Book of World Records formally recognized the inaugural Bart's Bash (2014) as the largest boat race in history. Having secured that record on the first try, the Committee has loosened the all-on-the-same-day rule, and made the world-wide Bart's Bash an all-on-the-same-weekend sailboat race. Bart's Bash should attract even more boats than it did its first 2 years; they averaged in excess of 16,000 boats.

Local participants are encouraged to sign up with Bart's Bash now by logging on to: Bartsbash.com, go to Sign up here and fill in the form. Don't forget to complete your application by clicking on the Register button. The San Pedro venue is identified on Bart's Bash web site as the "San Pedro Sailing Club."

Preceding Bart's Bash San Pedro, Belize 4 classes of small craft will take part in Saturday's racing: - Hobie catamarans, Laser Radials, Optimist dinghies, and windsurfers. The venue for this regatta and for Bart's Bash the next day is the waters off Caribbean Villas Hotel, San Pedro, Ambergris Caye. Sailors of the small craft will compete in both events.

The Belize Sailing Center, located right on the beach at the venue, has a limited number of these small craft available to be signed up for now, on a first-come-first served basis, by any sailor who cannot bring a boat of his or her own. Contact Andrew Milner at tel 632-4101 to reserve a craft. Race Officer. Andrew Milner also encourages all Belizean sailors and sailing clubs who cannot come to San Pedro to enter Bart's Bash on their own home waters. Go to http://www.bartsbash.com to find out how.

On Saturday, the first races of the day will begin at 11:00. Race briefing will be at 10:00.

Race briefing for Sunday's Bart's Bash Sailing Event will be at Caribbean Villas early Saturday evening at a time to be determined by the availability of boat captains who work. The event itself will commence on Sunday at12 noon. Belize launched 28 boats for the 2014 Bart's Bash and entered 30, last year.

Bart's Bash was created in 2014 to commemorate a beloved champion sailor and philanthropist, Andrew "Bart" Simpson and to support The Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation. The main aims of the event are to increase international awareness of participation in sailing, and to raise funds for the Foundation to help support a range of sustainable projects, using sailing to improve the lives of children and young people globally. The Foundation's motto is a Bart Simpson quote: "Everything we do is driven by our belief that all young people have the ability to excel." Bart lost his life at age 37, practicing aboard Sweden's 72-foot America's Cup catamaran that cartwheeled in preliminaries on San Francisco Bay on May 8, 2013. In life he too was an award-winner and was as engaging, offbeat, and full of fun as this tribute to him is. Come and join in.

A total of 21 boats from Belize participated in the 2016 annual Bart's Bash International Regatta on Sunday, September 18th off the shores of Caribbean Villas Resort. The event saw sailors not only from San Pedro Town, but a few from Belize City who came to join the local crew. Despite a decrease in boats compared to last year's participation, the very favourable weather (semi-cloudy with a steady North-East wind) gave way to superb sailing conditions.

Optimists, Lasers and Hobbies dominated the sailing event. Jorge Sanchez once again manned a Hobie 18, taking advantage of the favourable conditions and heading straight to the finishing line in the optimist division. Kevin Velasquez made it first on the optimist division, while, Caroline Sersland and Nicholas Lausen followed right behind. Other boats that had great timing were the Laser, and San Pedro's Blanca Velasquez captained one of them.

The organizers for the Belize segment of Bart's Bash have submitted their results, which will be compared with race results from across the world. In relation to the fundraising, participating countries are still receiving donations and the final fundraising amount will take a few days to compute. The charitable donation element is a crucial part of the equation, as it serves to continue raising awareness and funds to support disabled sailing around the world.

Click here to read the rest of the article and see more photos in the San Pedro Sun

Hot action, Laser radials is a close duel

BART'S BASH SAILING RESULTS

Provisional results of the Bart's Bash world wide sailing race are up. Venues could choose to race on Saturday or on Sunday, September 17 or 18. The event organizers in San Pedro chose Sunday to hols the race for Belize's field of 22 boats. All the well-established and known-to-be-organized clubs have now reported in. Therefore, for all intents and purposes, here, still unofficially, but quite encouragingly, is how the Belize sailors fared:

LASERS

In the worldwide field of 174 Laser Radials, San Pedro's Andy Milner is ranked 3rd overall. Among the Belizean sailors still of formal age for Laser Radials, Antonio Ricardez, 16, of Belize City is right behind Andy in 4th; Andy's former cadets in San Pedro - sixteen-year-olds Sarah White and Blanca Velasquez - finished 5th and 6th respectively. Antonio's sister Nashira joins the others, finishing 10th in their class.

OPTIMISTS

In the worldwide field of 196 competitors aged 8 to 15 sailing Optimist Dinghies in Bart's Bash, Kevin Velasquez, age 15, from San Pedro and the 2015 Belize National Champion, is atop Bart's Bash Optimist class leaderboard - in first place and ranked number one. out of 190. San Pedro's Caroline Sersland, age 12, who took 3rd in Belize's last National Championships, is in 7th place, Nicholas Lausan of San Pedro finished 9th. Out of 196, they are all in the top 10!

HOBIE 18S AND HOBIE WAVES

Eighteen year-old David Verralls is in first place in the small field of 3 Hobie 18s, ahead of two UK sailors.

Hobie Waves comprise a small class of 12 entries this year; never the less, adult San Pedranos occupy the top three spots. Cindy Vigna and crew Lara Goldman are first; Leeanne White and co-skipper Joanne Sayer are second, and Jorge Sanchez is third . Significance: Thee results appear on the front pages of each boat class' results on the Bart's Bas web site. As the thousands of participants around rthe world (7311), and their families, friends, and supporters, study these results, it will instill immense curiosity about Belize as a sailing venue well worth visiting, and worth visiting for training purposes.

The purpose of the race is to have fun and raise money for the Andrew (Bart) Simpson Foundation. This year's Bart's Bash donations to the foundation total almost $80,000.00 and are specifically earmarked to encourage and facilitate sailing among people with special needs, especially children. Sailing has proven to be a highly therapeutic activity. The event organizers in San Pedro have had such a program in place for over a year and provide sailing weekly for a small number kids whose families have enlisted them in the program.

Laser Radial Class Overall
http://www.bartsbash.com/leaderboard?year=2016&class=LASER%20RADIAL

Hobie Wave Class Overall
http://www.bartsbash.com/leaderboard?year=2016&class=Hobie%20Wave

Optimist Class Overall
http://www.bartsbash.com/leaderboard?year=2016&class=OPTIMIST

Hobie 18 Class Overall
http://www.bartsbash.com/leaderboard?year=2016&class=hobie%2018

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