"We were then joined by Nick O'Donnell and Rosie (the rigger) Russell who jumped ship from the glamorous 72 ft Oyster to do the 5-day Tahiti Pearl Regatta with us. Yes, Rosie really is a yacht rigger, engaged to be married to Nick who is a quinteesential Irishman--boisterous and full of charm.I especially enjoyed hearing Rosieand Nick abusing each other while we were racing with comments such as, 'You're not running a Sunday sailing school, you know!' John and Nick have written about the races separately, but just as good as the racing were the social events held each evening on different motus (atolls), always with wonderful singing and dancing. On one occasion, all the skippers were blessed by a Tahitian priest. There's no doubt the handicapping system strongly favoured the local participants, and as they went up to collect their trophies they were required to perform a Tahitian dance. It was all very rowdy and good humoured, with some teams having flown out from London to take part in the regatta.

The local 'acqua plod' were heavily involved taking people ashore at night, and each morning fresh baguettes were delivered to each yacht. On the World ARC site in the gallery section there is a photo of all the skippers doing a haka at the final presentation with John in the front row. Nick and Rosie have an entertaining web site at www.sailingrtw.typead.com and they have a detailed coverage of the Pearl Regatta with pictures".

"The regatta is a local as they come - it was incredibly simple - with this year been the biggest yet - on account of the 11 WARC boats that entered ( making total entries 36 ) - it could have been Schull regatta 25 years ago - no protests , local boats with limited knowledge of racing rules , very experienced race officer but French .. So we knew we would never be in the chocolates - but they were kind enough to recognise that the WARC boats were making a special effort - even if they did allow us all to race with our huge kedge anchors hanging over the bow ! - there were lots of Garlands of frangipani for everyone , flowers behind the ear ( signalling your availability ) , and a great verity of food ( some fantastic !!), some local charm elements included, having the Marine Police - provide RIB services to get ashore ( service varying from useless to great) - free baguettes delivered to the boat each morning . - oh and we all got free t shirts ! Read the race results in separate coverage in Yachting World"

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"Excellent résultats des nauteek owner’s de Papeete à la tahiti pearl regatta 2 juin 2008 Lors de la récente tahiti pearl regatta (43 participants), la régate du pacifique, authentique et conviviale, entre Bora Bora, Raiatea et Tahaa, en Polynésie, les trois speed feet 18, tous équipés de nauteek se sont classés 1er 3ième et 4ième.
Les prises de départ des bateaux ont été particulièrement remarquées! Félicitations à eux!"

You can't judge the success of everything by paper results, which is just as well. We got up early, organised ourselves, had breakfast and a good (no, leave that out Ed), made sure all the gear was ready, arrived at the start on time, concentrated hard on what we were doing, trimmed the sails, steered the course, and did everything else possible to make Cleone go as fast as she could, but since we could do nothing about removing the ton of water and half a ton of fuel which we needed for the next part of our trip, let alone shave and deepen her four and a half ton keel, all was of no avail.

As she always does, Cleone made her way safely and steadily around the poorly defined buoys of the various courses, but failed to make much headway, even on corrected time, in the placings! But, starting in Raiatea on the first day, and circumnavigating Tahaa by the end of the second, and crossing to Bora Bora on the third, we finished the Regatta with a wonderful morning on Strega (a First 47.7) and Andreas Steffan, learning how a real racing yacht should be managed. We saw wonderful scenery, partied hard in the evenings at various Yacht Clubs and restaurants in magnificent tropical settings and enjoyed watching the other yachts as they scythed or struggled past us, crewed by a mixture of dedicated experts and others just out to enjoy the moment and the exhilaration of competitive sailing.

There was a plethora of "local" yachts, almost exclusively sailed by expatriate Frenchmen, a family catamaran with two very small children aboard, several hired yachts from Moorings or Sunsail, with a mixture of French, Italian and British crews, and many of our own World ARC boats. These included the magnificent Far Out, the swift Wizard and Branec, and many others of our friends - Strega, Blue Flyer, Kasuje, Into the Blue, Talulah Ruby, Asloare, JusDoIt (we are only here for the parties), Southern Princess, Storyteller and Chantelle.

But all were scantily crewed and heavily laden and none were able to show their proper potential. But the other crews and our hosts in Raiatea, Tahaa and Bora Bora were clearly delighted to see us, and goodness me, did we enjoy ourselves! And to ring the changes a bit, Ruby from Kasuje joined us for the Bora Bora race. This allowed Norfy to escape to the comforts of Kasuje, whilst giving Ruby a chance to help with the hard work of keeping Cleone on the move. Hopefully, both enjoyed the change - for us it was great to have Ruby on board, and Norfy raved about the ease and excellent service whilst traveling aboard Kasuje.

So here we are in Bora Bora, now scratching our heads whilst we try to recover some sleep in order to work out what we will do between now and the formal departure from Bora Bora on the 18th of May. I will keep you posted on developments. Meanwhile, the crew are ashore in Bora Bora Yacht Club (no doubt sipping cups of tea) and I must have a shower and get ready for one of Steve's famous curries on board Kasuje. All well and happy, but tired and slightly sunburnt, even after all this time in the tropics. James, Chris, Elizabeth and Will World ARC Around the World Sailing Rally Yacht Cleone - Bora Bora - Society Islands"

"11 World ARC boats participated in this year’s sixth successful Tahiti Pearl Regatta. The event was larger and livelier than previous occasions with 43 yachts from all over the world coming together in Raiatea Island on the 8th May. Formed under the Raiatea Regatta Association this five-day race is an ideal way for pleasure cruisers and more competitive yachtsmen to enjoy sailing in and around the most beautiful lagoons in the world. The Pearl Regatta is a five-day race that sails between the islands of Raiatea, Tahaa and Bora Bora. Each day brought differing sailing conditions, some good downwind legs, narrow upwind passages, light airs and some stronger faster windy passages. At the end of each days racing a spectacular function was held in the most beautiful venues. One such party was held on an uninhabited Motu just inside the lagoon on the Eastern side of Tahaa.

The finest local Tamure dancers swung their hips to the sound of live Tahitian beats while fire throwers lit up the skies. Speaking to various skippers that had not sailed in or even heard of the Tahiti Pearl Regatta before, all said that they would certainly participate again and will never forget the ‘experience and atmosphere like no other’.

The yachts depart from Bora Bora Yacht Club on Tuesday 20th May bringing their time in Polynesia to an end. World ARC has thoroughly enjoyed the time spent here and look forward to returning again in two years. We would like to thank our agent at Polynesia Yacht Services, Laurent and Mike for all of their help since the fleet’s arrival in the Marquesas Islands at the end of March. Laurent is here in Bora Bora to ensure that the clearance for the fleet out of Polynesia goes as smoothly as possible and to say his farewells to the yachts. We hope to see you all again in 2010"

"While I am stuck here in paradise, just to pass the time and to have a little fun, I decided to get on another boat for the Tahiti Pearl Regatta, which is a series of four races over four days around Raiatea, Tahaa and over to Bora Bora. I joined the crew of Wizard, a 57 ft race boat from South Africa, and we were the second boat to cross the finish line each of the four races behind a 72-footer named Far Out from England with a Danish owner and professional crew. We had a luau each night at a different location with a Tahitian Dance Show.

Many of the boats that raced in the regatta are part of the ARC World Cruise, and I met many people from all over the world with lots of good stories and shared experiences. Just before we left for the first race one of the crew on Wizard asked if I had a pirate costume I could bring. "But of course. I carry eight pirate costumes onboard Traveler." So we were fully decked out, with a couple of great pirate flags, too. On the first day of the regatta we had five local Tahitian kids, ages 9 to 12, join us for the race, and we had them all dressed up in pirate costumes, too. A photo of us made the local newspaper. "Arrrrrg.""

"We watched more local dancing as part of the festivities for the annual Tahiti Pearl Regatta. 4 days of not too serious racing around the islands of Ra'itea and Taha'a and then over to Bora Bora." "A very enjoyable 4 days of "racing" around the Society Islands. On the race from Tahaa to Bora Bora ( the longest race) we used the parasail to great effect and reached nearly 10 knots at one point. Most of the boats were French with 10 World Arc yachts joining in.

We crossed the line half way down the fleet ( not bad for a non racing boat) but on handicap came nealry last ( French handicap rules! you cannot win unless you are French I think!) Each evening after the race we had a meal and "frenzied" entertainment put on by the organisers including fire eating and dancing, polynesian dancers, coconut peeling demonstrations. The meals were held either in a local hotel or on a beach and food was then cooked traditionally wrapped in banana leaves in an underground oven."

"Grounding debacles over, the following morning we set sail for Raiatea where the Pearl Regatta was due to start from, arriving in the early hours! There was a welcoming committee on the quay side for Regatta participants and much to our dismay/amusement the accompanying cocktails were in short supply, some of the staff having got there first! The tension was mounting and after yet more money exchanging hands we were officially listed and advised to start planning our strategy! At least we had a map by now! The race was spread over four days and would take us to the neighbouring Island of Tahaa and then across to Bora Bora.

The info sheet spoke of "technical legs" designed to "harass" the crew! Kate and Kim discussed their "anti-harassment" strategy, and devised a secret weapon ready to deploy, thankfully not needed! It was a smooth operation with minimal shouting and most of the hassle came from some of the other boats who seemingly had next to no knowledge of racing rules! We were expecting a cruising class to be in place to account for all the extra weight on board but that never materialised, however we still managed a respectable finish. We were the third WARC boat in, on each of the four races and 18th overall. So not bad! No trophies, just great to sail the "Olympic Triangle" in Bora Bora! The evenings entertainment after each race has kind of merged into a big blur!

They promised us festive dinners and frenzied shows and for the most part that's what we got, along with very rowdy, boisterous sailors! At one event on the Island of Tahaa the skippers were all blessed by the local chief (?) who tied a leaf around their wrist to ward off the evil spirits. This was then transferred to the boat - only problem - it seemed to ward off all wind and wild life as well. JH in his new state of beatitude was then asked to perform the Hakka with the other skippers. They looked like a bunch of "little boys lost"! Funny to watch!

John and Kim had a great dive in Manta Pass despite not seeing any Rays, apparantely a bit early in the year. We hitched a lift off another Dinghy - 30 hp engine (ours is 8) and planed there in next to no time. That's the way to travel! We had a guided tour around the Pearl Beach Resort "Manea Spa". "

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Strega Blog :

"Ausser uns vier hatten wir noch Kiran von der WARC und gleichzeitig Berichterstatter der Regatta und Uwe, ein Journalist der YACHT aus Deutschland als Verstärkung an Bord. In der ersten Nacht der Pearl-Regatta ankerten wir inerhalb des Riffs vor einer kleinen Insel (motu) und hatten eine großartige Party mit lokal BBQ und polynesischen Tänzern. Brian von Talulah Ruby als berühmt berüchtigter Tänzer tanzte ausgelassen mit Fio und bald war die halbe WARC auf den Beinen. Die nächsten Rennen machten viel Spass bei tollem Wetter, leider mit etwas wenig Wind für unser Boot. Am letzten Tag erreichten wir Bora Bora und endlich spielte auch der Wind mit und brachte unser bisher bestes Resultat bei einem Rennen mit Dreieckskurs.

Unterstützt wurden wir hier tatkräftig von der Cleone Crew. Für ein grossartiges Rennen dank an James, Elizabeth und Will, Fio und Kiran. Einige relaxte Tage später erreichte Izzet planmässig Bora Bora und wir fanden wunderschöne Buchten zum ankern, schwimmen und schnorcheln. An Fios letztem Abend hatten wir Captains dinner im berühmten Restaurant Bloody Mary - so ziemlich jede berühmte Person dinnierte hier schon - von Marlon Brando über Brad Pitt bis zu Whoopi Goldberg. Leider viel zu früh musste Fio nun wieder nach Hause fliegen.

Diesmal allerdings reibungslos mit stopover in Los Angeles und Besuch bei Peter und Zina, die sich schon auf der Hinreise grossartig kümmerten. Einen Tag vo unserer geplanten Abreise bekamen wir eine Sturmwarnung und verzogen uns hinter ein Riff. Hier verbrachten wir einige Tage mit Warten auf besseres Wetter in nunmehr Bora-Boring."