The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

MARK Holowesko led a 1-2 finish for the Bahamas at the Alpen Cup in Torbole, Italy, winning the first event in the International 5.5 metre Class Association event for 2015.

Holowesko, teaming up with Christopher Burger and Peter Vlasov, accumulated a total of 16 points to hold off Gavin McKinney and his crew that included Hauff Johannesser and Peter Lars Hurn, who trailed by just one point. Jan Arend from the Netherlands was third with 26 points.

Michael Schulz, also representing the Bahamas last month with crew members Tobias Glawe and Stefan Hafka, were eighth with 47 points out of the field of 13 boats.

Holowesko and company won three of the eight races, got two seconds, a third and a sixth. They were able to discard their eighth place in the first race. McKinney had a pair of first and five third places, throwing out their fourth in the fourth race, while Schulz had a second, fifth, two seventh, two eighth and a 10th place.

For Holowesko, who prefers to sail in the Star Class category, said it was good to compete in the 5.5m class, which is a mini 12m boat used to sail in the Americas Cup. “It’s not a boat that I enjoy sailing. I mostly grew up sailing in the Star Class, which Sir Durward won a gold medal,” said Holowesko, who hopes to follow in the footsteps of his legendary Bahamian mentor and icon. “I took some time off from sailing, so I thought this was a good way to get back into sailing.

“I did a couple of regattas last year and had some mixed success and then a friend of mine started to get this boat built and we looked forward to competing in Europe, but the plan was to come here and sail in the event when it comes back to the Bahamas next year.”

As the Alpen Cup was the first international event for the year, Holowesko said it was a tremendous boost to go to Italy and pull off the victory.

“It was a three-day event with eight races. The first three races were not that good, but we managed to turn things around over the final two days with the help of one of our crew, who is good at manufacturing sails, so it was a good experience for us,” Holowesko said.

“I took some time off to compete, so it was just great to be able to get back on the water. It helped that we also managed to come out with the victory too.”

As one could imagine, Holowesko admitted that he was a bit nervous competing on the opening day with winds blowing about 25 knots and that combination played havoc.

“It’s a very tricky boat to sail. But it is so nice when you can concentrate on what you are doing and I was with a great crew,” he said. “We also had another Bahamian there, so it was a lot of fun having two boats racing head-to-head against each other. It was a lot of fun.

“A lot of people were surprised to see the two Bahamian boats do so well. Garvin is extremely good. He is a former Gold Cup winner in the class. He’s been sailing in that class for about 25 to 30 years. So it was a lot of fun having him over there. I think we both did very well competing against each other.”

The next race in the class is the World Championship in the Baltic Sea,Nynäshamn, Sweden August 24-28, but Holowesko is hoping to go to the United States at the end of May and in June to compete in a Star Class competition so that he can get in some action in the boat that he enjoys competing in a lot more than he does in the 5.5.

On his return from the championships, Holowesko presented Sir Durward with a cheque for $100,000 at the headquarters of the Bahamas Association for the Physically Disabled (BAPD) to support “Our Real Darlings.”

Holowesko assisted Sir Durward, the BAPD president, in raising funds for a new bus that was recently purchased for the association.