12 December 2022 – Simpson Bay, St Maarten – With just months to go before the start of the 43rd edition of the St Maarten Heineken Regatta, many race teams are now finalizing their arrangements to attend this bucket-list event.

Breaking news from the Volvo fleet confirms that at least three VO65s will be taking part in the 2023 St. Maarten Heineken Regatta. Team JAJO, supported by Janssen de Jong with 28 year old Jelmer van Beek from The Netherlands on the helm, will be competing against fellow Dutch skipper Gerwin Jansen on Team Austrian Ocean Racing, with Ambersail II from Lithuania also now committing to race again in the Maxi class.

In the 2022 edition, the big boat class had incredibly close competition between four VO65s and four VO70s, plus two custom Maxis Botin 85 Deep Blue and Farr 100 Leopard 3. There are at least two VO70s slated to return in 2023, including I LOVE POLAND, helmed by Grzegorz Baranowski.

I LOVE POLAND will be back to defend their reign as 2022 IMA Caribbean Maxi Challenge champions, a separate trophy for Maxi yachts based on collective scores from three top Caribbean events, for which the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta is proudly one of them. In the 2022 Regatta I LOVE POLAND finished third in class, but their consistent top performance across all events secured their position as IMA Caribbean Maxi Challenge winners overall.

Team navigator Konrad Lipski shared his reflections, “We already took part in three editions of St. Maarten Heineken…