november/december 2016cruisingworld.com66
s my plane approached the airport on St. Thomas, in the
U.S. Virgin Islands, I took in the gorgeous view of tur-
quoise water and mountains and thought once again of
how glad I was for this week away from the March gloom back
home in Rhode Island. As far as assignments go, this one was a
good one: the Jeanneau Owners Rendezvous in the British Virgin
Islands, of which Cruising World was a sponsor. Having never taken
part in something like this, I honestly had no idea what to expect.
But fun, I was sure, would be a given. Particularly because I was
told to bring a pirate costume.
The fi rst BVI Jeanneau Owners Rendezvous was in 2012,
and it’s been a biennial af air ever since. During his time as the
president of Jeanneau America, Paul Fenn organized the event
as a way to connect with customers. “I thought by of ering a
rendezvous in the BVI, it would give Jeanneau owners a rea-
son to travel outside their normal sailing area and give all of
us an opportunity to spend a week together, have fun, and be
part of the Jeanneau family,” Fenn said when I spoke with him
after the event. “It turned out exactly as I hoped.” For those
who couldn’t make it to the islands on their own boat, a fl eet of
various-size Jeanneaus were available to charter from Sunsail, a
co- organizer of the event.
Our week in the tropics began at the Sunsail charter base on
Tortola with an island barbecue, complete with music and rum
punch. Here I met up with my crewmates for the week — my col-
league Ted Ruegg, his wife, Heide, and our friend Dave Robinson
— and got to know some of the other rendezvous-goers.
Emory and Kim Zimmer hail from Cincinnati and were in the
BVI aboard their new Jeanneau 53, Someday. For them, the ren-
dezvous was a planned stop on their journey south from Newport,
Rhode Island, to the Caribbean. “Kim and I had heard about the
event from our broker, Glenn Walters,” said Emory. “We saw some
photos online from a previous year, and it looked like a fun time.
We also felt it would be a unique opportunity to spend time with
the folks who design and build Jeanneaus, as well as other owners.”
The busy rendezvous itinerary began the next morning with
our Sunsail charter briefi ng. While the boys went over the charts,
Heide and I took advantage of our time on the dock to pick
up a few more provisions. Our ride for the week was a spacious
four-cabin Sunsail Jeanneau 53 named Aeolus. Once everything was
stowed, it was time to cast of for Norman Island, but our route
included a detour to the airport on Beef Island to pick up a special
guest, America’s Cup-winning tactician and television commen-
tator Gary Jobson, who was booked as a dinner speaker for the
following evening. Once we had him aboard, we had a fantastic sailover to the Bight and met up with the rest of the Jeanneau crowd.
Participation in the BVI Jeanneau Owners Rendezvous is
capped at 25 boats, and roughly 80 to 100 sailors participate.
“This is about the maximum number of people the restaurants
can handle in the BVI,” said Fenn. Dinner at Pirates Bight
was a delicious island buf et, followed by dancing. Despite the
name, the pirate costumes weren’t needed this night (I was,
admittedly, a bit relieved).
One of the benefi ts of attending the rendezvous is the opportu-
nity for Jeanneau owners to spend time aboard other models. This
year, the boat to see was the company’s new fl agship, the Jeanneau- I hopped aboard for a sail on Serenity, the 64 chartered for
the week, from Norman Island up Sir Francis Drake Channel
to the Virgin Gorda’s North Sound (for a review of the boat, see
“Superyacht Style,” August/September 2016).
The day was blustery, with abundant whitecaps out in the chan-
nel. Several squall lines passed over and
fairly drenched us, but the sailing was
exhilarating. The wind frequently gusted
to 25 knots, and Serenity handled it beau-
tifully, easily staying on course even in the
puf s. There was a crowd of people aboard,
but the spacious boat was comfortable and
had more than enough room for everyone.
As we sailed into North Sound and on to
the Bitter End Yacht Club, the sky cleared,
and it turned out to be a lovely day. Being
the largest, speediest boat in the rendez-
vous, Serenity was
the fi rst one to the
dock, and we were
relaxing with beers
and cheeseburgers as the others trickled in.
With all the boats accounted for, Jeanneau
vessels pretty much fi lled the docks. Ted
and I went boat to boat delivering Cruising
World swag, and that evening Jobson regaled
the crowd with stories of his recent sail to
remote Sable Island (see “Sand and Sea,”
June/July 2016) and the infamous and deadly
1979 Fastnet race, where he sailed with Ted
Turner aboard Tenacious and fi nished fi rst.
With two days at the Bitter End, there
was plenty of time to relax and enjoy
everything the resort had to of er. Ted took
out one of the club’s Lasers to do some
beer-can racing, I went with a group on a
surprisingly steep hike up in the hills above
North Sound, and later we all relaxed by6 4º 40’ W^6 4º 30’ W18º 20’ N18º 30’ N18º 45’ N6 4º 20’ WB
R
ITISHVI
RGIN
ISLANDSSirFranc
isDrak
eC
hannelCARIBBE
A
NS
E
ACane Garden
Bay Road Harbour
Road
TownMonkey
PointTORTOLAPeter IslandJost Van Dyke Virgin
GordaSandy
CayGreat Thatch
Soper’s HoleGuana IslandMarina
CayBeef
IslandAnegadaGreat Harbour0 2.5 5Nautical Miles
Norman IslandSt. John, U.S.V.ITrellis Bay6 4º 20’ WLIZ SAUCIER (ABOVE); MAP BY SHANNON CAIN TUMINO