Eschew

Has anyone done the America's Cup 12-Metre Yacht challenge at St. Maarten? We are considering this as an activity for late November this year. The activity would be about 2.5 hours with instructions, a pratcice run, and a "race". Any comments would be appreciated.

We will be in port for about 8 hours, so that should still give us plenty of time to do other stuff such as sight seeing at Historic Philipsburg and Marigot.

abram

My parents absolutely loved that excusrions--they got to help sail the ship. As they described it, it held no appeal to me.

Rhea58

Booked my husband, a sailor, on it twice & he adored it plus they put him to work at his request. So a definite yes!!

RoamsAround

Everybody I know (including me) who has done the 12 Meter Yacht Challenge gives it high marks. Don't miss - we'd do it again in a heart beat. As a matter of fact we are schedule to do a similar excursion when we visit New Zealand later this year.

doug_stallings

This is one of the most popular activities in the Caribbean for cruise passengers. My only caveat is that you have to book it through the ships. When they're in port, they tend to block out all the slots (and fill them), so you can get bumped if you book independently. At least I've heard reports of that happening.

traveller69

Go for it Eschew. We did it in the late 80's. We were on the True North and beat the Stars and Stripes. Came back to the ship tired and wet but it was well worth it.

Eschew

Can we just sit and watch and don't participate? I heard you can be part of the crew or just sit and watch. I am not much of a sailor and my wife even less so than me.

The ship's excusrion shows 2 open time slots. Either way, we will not be able to take on other activities as the time is right in the middle of everything.

If I have a choice to go to the French side or take the sailing challenge, what would be a better choice?

traveller69

Hard to say which would be better choice - so different. They actually put everyone to work on our race - you don't have to be a sailor - they give you a job and that's it. I was a winch grinder. It is exhilarating out there though even if you just sit and watch - you really fly over the water and the fact that you are racing adds to the excitement.
Its one of those once in a lifetime activities.

starry_nite

Another yes vote from me! It was one of the best excursions I've ever done! You don't have to work...I was the 'timer' and yelled go for the race to start....

Have fun!

Rhea58

Doug's caveat is so true. Either book before you sail if you can or immediately once you board the ship. If I remember correctly only 20 or 25 is the limit on ones I booked.

TPAYT

We also loved it--so much fun and you really race fast. I didn't want to do much so I was designated navigator--haha! MDH was a grinder---what a job for an old guy.

It was different and we were highly surprised that just a few instructors could get us newbies sailing so fast and so close to the other boat.

IMO, go for it!

Eschew

Thanks everyone, I think it would be a go at this point.

Silly quertsions: Has there been any incidents where there were man-overbapord (fell off the baot at a turn) or injuries, and how about motion sickness.

TPAYT

Don't know about man overboard but I must say that these guys really know what they are doing.

Motion sickness--if you are worried take a non-drowsy Dramamine OR, it's probably just a tale from somewhere, but my friend was advised to tape a penny to her navel--hahaha! She said it worked but it might have been mind over matter, you think?

I had to laugh at the introductory speech when they explained the boat and said that there was no head. Then they offered us drinks. All the guys had one, all the gals said no thanks.

Eschew

Booked and looking forward to it.

Many years ago, bought a computer simulation software on the PC called the "American Cup Challenge" and learned about the rules, strategy, tatcics and everything else about the competition and sailing in general (on paper anyway). So now it would be interesting to see how the real 12 meters boat runs compare to the tiny sail boats or the computer simulation. It would be an interesting afternoon.

Note to self: flying on a simulator is not the same as flying a real plane (although it is close enough in some way if you ahev experienced both). Sailing via a computer simulator and a real 12 meter yacht is definietly not the same.

traveller69

Glad you are going to do it - you won't be disappointed. Lets just say its exhilarating to say the least. Hope you get the True North just to keep up the tradition.

Eschew

The weather forecast calls for thunderstorm, so let's see what happens. If it is cancelled due to weather, then we will be stuck to explore the island on our own as we gave up our guide and the (backup) princess excursion is wait list only ... Keep checking the weather forecast and hope for the best. I'll make sure we get on the True North.

traveller69

Here's hoping for good weather but if not the taxis are very reliable and offer tours right at the dock. They have a taxi association with fixed rates. We used them a couple of times on different cruises and were very pleased.