The St. Barths Bucket 2026, held 13 to 16 March in Saint-Barthelemy, gathered 30 maxi yachts of 100 feet and over for four days of invitation-only racing around the island. In the Maxi category, the contest between the two Wally 100-footers V, helmed by Yacht Club de Monaco member Karel Komarek, and Galateia delivered the regatta's closest spectacle in trade winds of 18 to 20 knots.
V won two of the three completed races to top the ranking, with Galateia second. The final day of racing off Gustavia was cancelled when gusts exceeded permitted limits, a reminder that the Caribbean gives and the Caribbean takes away.
The regatta that matters
The Bucket remains the classic superyacht regatta: Corinthian in spirit, serious on the water, with stewards including Royal Huisman, Vitters Shipyard, Perini Navi, and Rybovich Superyacht Marina. For owners of large sailing yachts, it is the one week of the year the calendar is built around.
The regatta is raced by invitation only, and the Maxi category, Les Cents Pieds and Les Gazelles, is its heart. V won two of the three completed races in 18 to 20-knot trade winds, with Galateia second. In the Goelettes des Mers class, Atlantic, with Yacht Club de Monaco's Nick Edmiston aboard, finished second overall.
The final day of racing off Gustavia was cancelled when gusts exceeded permitted limits. The Bucket's stewards include Royal Huisman, Vitters Shipyard, Perini Navi, and Rybovich Superyacht Marina, which tells you whose owners are racing. For the maxi fleet, March in St. Barths is the fixed point of the year.
The duel
The Maxi contest was the regatta's closest spectacle in years. V and Galateia, two Wally 100-footers, traded blows over three completed races in 18 to 20 knots of trade-wind breeze, with V taking two to top the ranking and Galateia settling for second. In a fleet where the boats are closely matched and the courses run around an island with real navigational choices, the difference came down to execution: starts, mark roundings, and the calls made at 10 knots in big breeze.
The Bucket's format is part of its durability. Thirty maxi yachts of 100 feet and over, racing by invitation only, across classes that keep the racing honest: Les Cents Pieds and Les Gazelles for the maxis, the Goelettes des Mers for the schooners. The final day off Gustavia was lost when gusts exceeded permitted limits, which the fleet accepted with the shrug of sailors who know the Caribbean gives and takes away. March in St. Barths remains the fixed point of the maxi year.
Bucket week turns Gustavia into the sailing world's village. Thirty maxi yachts of 100 feet and over, racing by invitation only, with crews that include some of the best sailors alive and owners who could be doing anything else that week. The racing is serious, the evenings on the quay are not, and the combination is why the Bucket has endured while other regattas have faded. The 2027 edition will be the one circled on every maxi owner's calendar. V's two wins from three completed races, in 18 to 20 knots of breeze, made this the closest Maxi contest in years. With 30 maxi yachts of 100 feet and over racing by invitation only, the Bucket remains the classic superyacht regatta: Corinthian in spirit, serious on the water, and the one week of the year the maxi calendar is built around. The 2026 Maxi crown went to V.
Photography: Don Ramey Logan via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). Representative image.
