St. Vincent yacht wins Windward 500 race series

A St. Vincent yacht placed first in the Windward 500 race series. 

On May 17, at 10 a.m. “Sweet Janina”, captained by Mickey Bracken, along with his crew Kelly Glass, Brian Marks-Dasent, Rocky Punnett, Corey Caldwell and 11-year-old Kai Marks-Dasent started the 500 nautical mile race.  

Boats start from their home port island and race non stop in a clockwise direction until reaching back to their home port. 

“Sweet Janina: set sail from Bequia, sailed up the coast of St. Lucia, round Diamond Rock off Martinique, then on to Sandy Lane on the west coast of Barbados, a run down to Grenada and then finally back to Bequia crossing the finishing line at 4 a.m. on May 20.

This was the second year running the race has taken place. 

Last year, Sweet Janina which was sponsored by Medicinal placed second and was determined to take the winning spot this year. The youngest member of the team Marks-Dasent, who just the week before took his CPEA said it was an amazing experience he will never forget.  

The hardest part for him was being woken up in the middle of the night to go on watch and the best part was when he got to sail the boat around Grenada.