SINT MAARTEN (SIMPSON BAY) - Eight Diam 24 teams took to the waters of Simpson Bay and Grand Case on November 8 and 9 for the first event on the 2025-2026 racing calendar for this exciting and competitive class of trimarans.
Hosted in partnership between the Sint Maarten Yacht Club (SMYC), Saint Martin Voile Pour Tous (SMVT), and FF Voile, the inaugural Diam 24 Grand Prix Grand Case started in 17-22 knots of easterly breeze in Simpson Bay, Sint Maarten on Saturday morning November 8. With one reef in the mainsail, competitors got off to a roaring start on a reach, turned north at an offset mark and made their way clockwise around the island to a finish line in Grand Case Bay, Saint Martin. Making well over 10 knots of boat speed, it didn’t take them long to get there!
After a short break to set the race course in Grand Case, it was time for an afternoon of racing action. Starting off of Grand Case’s famously beautiful beach, spectators were treated to thrilling starts, a reaching leg, and then two upwind and downwind laps before a reach to the finish line. A hallmark of day one was how close the racing actually was, as starts and mark roundings were all hotly contested.
When the dust settled with four races in their wakes the eight teams were only separated by a total of 13 points, with the top three coming in at 12, 14, 14. Indeed, this set the stage for an extremely competitive day two of racing.
Sunday morning November 9 dawned sunny and breezy again for the teams, who had anchored their boats overnight in Grand Case Bay so they were ready to go for the days’ races. Once the race course was set by SMYC Race Officer Joris Zweers and his team, the first warning came just after 9:30am.
In similar conditions to the day before, one reef in the mainsail was called for and the starts, finishes and upwind and downwind legs were exciting to watch as the teams battled for the top spots. Three buoy races were completed in the bay before the penultimate event of the day — a distance race from Grand Case back to Simpson Bay.
In the end it was team Trinity 2 and Thomas Tennstrom, Otto Hamel and Theodor Norrby representing Sweden who took the overall victory. Coming in a close second was team Trinity 1, also hailing from Sweden, Joakim Sunberg, Anders Lewander and Gustav Petterson. And in third place was team K.I.C. Krehbiel In Caribbean from St. Barths, Turtschi Noah, Renaud Nicot and Andy Gasmin.
Huge thanks goes to Joris and the volunteers who made this weekend of racing such a success. Also, it could not have been done without all of the race teams — congratulations to everyone who came out for a fun Grand Prix! Full race results can be found at smyc.com/diam-grand-prix.
The next event for the Diam 24 fleet will be the Grant Thornton Keelboat Season Race Day 1 on Sunday, November 23, 2025, hosted by SMYC in Simpson Bay.
https://www.soualiganewsday.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=63547:world-diam-tour-caribbean-kicks-off-2025-2026-season-with-grand-prix-grand-case&Itemid=450
