San Pedro Sailors partake in World’s Largest Sailing Race

On Sunday September 21st, San Pedro sailors participated in Bart’s Bash, a worldwide sailing race that has officially set the new Guinness World Record for the Largest Sailing Race. The race itself was organized by the Andrew “Bart” Simpson Sailing Foundation. The foundation is a United Kingdom- based charity set up in the Olympic gold medallist’s memory in 2013, and is meant to inspire the next generation of young people through sailing in the UK and around the world. The foundation invited sailing clubs from across the globe to take part in the simultaneous races worldwide, and Ambergris Caye’s very own San Pedro Sailing Club (San Pedro Racers) was delighted to partake.
The race required each club to organize the details of their Bart’s Bash race locally according to the world record criteria set out by the foundation. Each club needed the entry of twenty-five vessels to participate and was required to race a course of over one kilometer, sailing for more than 15 minutes. San Pedro Sailing Club (San Pedro Racers) sent out a local invitation and saw the participation of 81 sailors manning 28 vessels, including catamarans, Hobie cats, custom sailing vessels and Optimists who all set sail on Independence Day morning. The boats raced two laps from the starting point at Caribbean Villas sailing south along a short course to Victoria House. San Pedro’s sailors joined 17,500 other sailors worldwide, which represented 750 sailing clubs in 65 different countries across the globe. As each sailor crossed the finish line their time was recorded to be submitted to the official Bart’s Bash Website, where they await official tallying. While all sailors will receive official scoring after all global submissions have been averaged by the official website, the day was hardly about competition, as the sailing community gathered simply for the love of the sport. Spectators cheered on the final Optimist sailor as he sailed in and then took the party back to Caribbean Villa’s Beach Bar, where the club and families celebrated the success of a grand event over drinks, brunch and an afternoon barbeque.