By Colin Thompson

Sailing Correspondent

This year is turning out to be an extremely fruitful one for Bermuda sailors Hasso Plattner and Glenn Astwood.

The Royal Bermuda Yacht Club sailing pair have enjoyed multiple success racing in the Caribbean aboard Plattner’s 148-foot yacht, Visione.

Plattner’s super maxi seized class honours and placed third at the Super Yacht Challenge in Antigua and won the St Barths Bucket Regatta in the French-owned Caribbean Island retreat.

Astwood, the spinnaker staysail trimmer and former Bermuda Olympic sailor, was delighted to talk up the team’s impressive start to the year.

“The start of the new year has been fantastic,” said Astwood, the brother of late PHC Zebras striker Marischal “Mop” Astwood.

“We race in the Caribbean during the winter and then in Europe in the summer.”

Plattner’s triumph in St Barth was his first in several attempts.

“We have come close, but never won it before this year,” Astwood said. “It was great to finally win the regatta.

“The courses were long and the conditions varied. A couple of days it was anywhere between 14 to 18 knots.

“It’s all handicap fleet racing so the boats are anywhere from 130 to 200 feet.

“They are basically called super maxis and normally they [race committee] won’t take anything under one hundred foot.”

Astwood forms part of a crew laden with sailors who have competed at America’s Cup level.

“We have a multinational crew but most of them are former Team New Zealand America’s Cup sailors,” the former Tornado sailor said.

“Some of them stuck with Sir Russell Coutts when he left Team New Zealand and went to Oracle Racing, so they have been a part of multi syndicate racing or America’s Cup teams.

“The boat is very professionally run and the crew that work on the boat have it well-prepared. The crew boss, Roo Stevenson, puts together an awesome crew, so basically the whole package is just a very well-run programme. There is absolutely good chemistry on the boat.”

n Bermuda is among the countries at the IODA Optimist South American Championship taking place in Paracas, Peru, from April 10 to 19.

Flying the Island’s banner at the regatta are Campbell Patton, Micah Thomas, Adam Larson, Tayte Stefaniuk and Jordan Etemadi.