J’s race at the St Barths Bucket

Onne van der Wal har fångat en fantastisk regatta!

I was asked by the J Class association to film the J Class sloops racing during the St.Barths Bucket this past winter. This was a historic event for the class as they had not had so many J’s race together in decades. A J class yacht is roughly 140 ft long, has a mast height of about 170ft and takes a crew of 30 to push these 150 ton yachts around the track. It was quite a sight to see these boats racing together off St.Barths. A big thank you to the owners of the yachts and the J Class association for hiring me to shoot the event, to Greg from Caribbean Helicopters for his great flying skills and perseverance in getting to St.Barths to enable me to film the action from the air. And to Halsey Fulton, my assistant and editor who is always ready to drive the chase boat, haul the gear, set it up, double check my actions, edit the piece and does it with the best attitude.

We chartered a chase boat for two of the four racing days, spent one day filming on board Rainbow (bedankt Chris) and shot from the air on the last and breeziest day of the event.

We had great conditions to shoot the event and enjoyed filming the action of such amazing boats sailing in one of the best events anywhere. Looking forward to the 2014 St.Barths Bucket and hoping for a few more J’s!