CMC 2020 - Interview of Steve Burzon

Caribbean Multihulls is glad and proud to remain a CMC sponsor for this second edition of the Caribbean Multhull Challenge, in February 2020.

Below is an interview of our friend and partner Steve Burzon of the Sint Maarten Yacht Club. Steve tells us how this wonderful adventure started, and what are the exciting news for the 2020 edition!

Hello Multihull sailors! I'm here with Steve Burzon, of the Sint Maarten Yacht Club, organizer of the Caribbean Multihull Challenge.

How did the Caribbean Multihull Challenge start?

Steve Burzon: "How did I first become acquainted with the Caribbean Caribbean Challenge? Robbie Ferron, the managing director of Budget Marine here in the Caribbean, took me to lunch one day and told me about this idea he had for a hot regatta open to multihull sailboats only. That would be a 3 or 4-day festival celebrating what multihulls were all about.

He asked me whether I'd be interested in helping out, and the answer was: "I think this is a unique idea. I never heard of a multihull only regatta, and if you would like my help, I'd be more than happy to give it to you!" 
And so we began planning the first edition which was in 2019."

How did the first CMC edition go?

Steve Burzon: "Well it was very successful. From the moment we got out in the field to talk about it, all of the local multihulls around St Martin signed up to race.

Sponsors just jumped right in. It was one of the easiest sponsorship sales I've ever been involved with, and I've been selling sports sponsorships for a long time.
We had Oris watches that became a sponsor.  Caribbean Multihulls, the broker, became a sponsor of course. Mount Gay became a sponsor. Port de Plaisance became a sponsor... It just started rolling in terms of that.

We were delighted! We said "If we could get 12 entries, we would think it would be a major success". We got 15 entries, and we went off the starting line in February of 2019. 

The racing was spectacular. We were blessed with windy sunny days, except for one violent rain storm. And some of the Boats that sailed with us where the famous FUJIN, the Bieker 53, and then the HH66 sailed along with a Neel trimaran. We just had a whole bunch a boats, a whole bunch of winners, we had wonderful parties.  

And we were delighted that some of the sponsors last year announced that they would come with us the next year. Some of the entrants said that they'd sign up again. So we are now in the middle of planning the 2020 CMC, which will be February 14th, 15th and 16th of 2020.

What are we planning for 2020?

Well it will be a little bit different this year: we're going to have racing on the Dutch side of Sint Maarten as well as on the French side of Saint Martin. We certainly expect more boats. We have about 10 of them enrolled now and we know many more coming in.

We're going to have racing on Friday. That will be in and around Simpson Bay.
On Saturday, the race will start in Simpson Bay and end in Grande Case on the French side. 
And on Sunday, the race will start in Grand Case on the French side and race back to the Dutch side to the Sint Maarten Yacht Club.

We have parties planned for Friday night at the yacht club in Port de Plaisance, beach games set for Saturday on the French side on Grand Case beach, with a beach party at Captain Frenchies beach bar and with a gourmet dinner buffet at Rainbow next door.

And then, coming back here to the Sint Maarten Yacht Club, we will do our wrap up prize-giving and that will be the end of the event.

We also have another new feature for 2020.

The Sint Maarten Yacht Club are the originators and organisers of the Heineken Regatta. And Oris Watch company - who is our official timepiece - proposed an idea that if a multihull enters the CMC in early February and then enters the Heineken regatta in early March, the winner of both the CMC and the Heineken would receive a combination award and the prize is a $2,000 Oris Aquis dive watch. 

So we're excited about that feature, and what we're doing is we're having the CMC feed the Heineken, and we're having the Heineken feed the CMC, and that's good business for the Yacht Club!"