Trinidad, St. Thomas, Tortola, and St. Maarten filled the top slots at the finish of the 1999 Heineken International Cup Regatta held March 18-21.
Crash Test Dummies, only in the water 5 days, sailed up from Trinidad and into the winners circle on Sunday evening when the overall winner was announced. A disappointed Marriot Frenchman's Reef crew took second, Rushin Rowlette of the B.V.I. finished third, and Carib Mantra was fourth.
On Saturday night it looked like Frenchman's Reef had the regatta sewed up with a 6 point lead on Carib Mantra, in the same Melges 24 class, and a 10 point lead on Crash Test Dummies sailing in Class A. The crew of Crash Test even joked about hiring a ferry to drive through the Melges 24 class to have a chance of winning.
The winds and waves of Sunday must have been custom designed to hold the Melges back as the every other racing class put boats into the top ten, while the two top Melges scored a 14th and 15th.
"We purposely avoided getting into a boat to boat fight with Carib Mantra, thinking about the fleet score," said a Frenchman's Reef crew member.
This did not stop the close racing as CaribMantra and Frenchman's Reef exchanged the lead around every buoy. Carib Mantra crossed the finish line a few seconds ahead of Frenchman's Reef.
Crash Test Dummies also won Class A. Rushin Rowlette won Class B. Colibri of Puerto Rico won Class C. Marriot Frenchman's Reef was consoled with winning Class D. Orion of Ponce, Puerto Rico won the J-24 Class E. Pipedream of Tortola won the racer/cruiser Class F.