Wow! A major "duh" has been reversed. Good move...

Sadly I could care less about Regatta
Ever since it was moved to PDP
Gone are the days of dancing on the beach
And mingling with islanders and tourists alike

Replaced by dancing in the PDP dustbowl
With only the people who have 100 to get in
It used to be a great party! It’s morphed into
A money grab disguised as a celebration

I will not disagree but it was still some much needed $$$ flowing to the island.

After the sponsors pulled out from Carnival, that seemed a done deal and definitely for the best. VIV--You are right, Heineken isn't what it was, when it was in Simpson Bay, and free, that's for sure..

Wondering if our favorite island will ever recover.

Never been a fan of Carnival, that seems to be more of a local thing that draws few tourist. The Regatta seems to draw a lot of people onto that Island that love sailing and if they did not have the parties I don't see the issues as its outside. I think was more a matter of if we don't get our party then they don't get theirs more that a logical choice or medical Science. Not saying it was a bad choice but maybe another way to do things in a safe way. Been going to Sxm for almost 30 years and after every bad event gloom and doom come out, some people give up. To many the island would never come back from Hurricane Luis , 911, Lenny and Irma was to be SXM's final death. For everyone that gets feed up with the island a swear never to return 5 other discover the island and fall in love. Its a GEM in paradise and very few of those in the world so to me I not really worried about its future.

You may have a point there, forever, that when it was apparent that Carnival should be cancelled, they didn't want the essentially 'tourist' event to go forward either. I do agree that Regatta, without any organized parties, which they had announced up front there would be no parties, was way less of a risk.

And as a friend asked me, I wonder if the number f boats entered possibly had any bearing on the decision? The Regatta site pretty much indicated it would not be a "party" affair this year.

I guess that is true too. I heard from you, possibly?? --that there were only 40 boats registered this year, which is a VERY small amount.

I have no idea of the number of boats registered, but I know it has gone down some just about every year from what it used to be.

Just read the Daily Herald article. In the same article fifth paragraph “As such, correspondences have been sent out via TIMATIC [Travel Information Manual Automatic, a database containing documentation requirements for passengers traveling internationally via air – Ed. ] to place a temporary ban on incoming flights from high-risk countries experiencing variant strains of the COVID-19 virus...." . A big deal.

We never made it to Simpson Bay for the parties as the traffic was a nightmare. Went to PDP once for the concert. Have to say while I wasn’t a “Jackson’s” fan the show was great, Orange Grove was amazing as always. Very well organized. Parking perfect. pricey - well we opted for VIP. But that was our choice. After leading the press release sent out prior to cancellation I thought it sounded like a good way to keep the racing which is what it is about. Create a “safe zone” for the racers. Just a shame the money the island will lose. But I get why not wanting to take the chances.

No surprise that the Regatta was cancelled. It was part of a series that drew racing yachts to the Caribbean, the biggest race of which was the Caribbean 600. That race, which starts in Antigua, was cancelled two weeks ago. It was expected that the St Maarten Regatta would be cancelled soon thereafter. Not sure why they waited so long.

I agree with you Carol. The Regatta could have gone on and not posed any serious health issues from COVID. These cancellations are unfortunate, and I suppose predictable, but in reality everyone here and abroad needs to get a grip when it comes to this pandemic. By comparison, the swine flu (H1N1 I believe) was actually worse than COVID-19 back in 2009, but it didn't shut down the world. Because we live in this mass media "breaking news" age, the negative aspects of this virus are constantly being shoved down our throats '24/7' everywhere we turn. St. Martin, from my past experiences, is one resilient island and I have always admired the spirit of the residents there. Like Foreversxm noted above the island has taken some pretty big hits over the years and has always bounced back (except Club O.). COVID has been bad just about everywhere, but no virus has ever defeated the human spirit and our ability to control it. This one won't either. Next month a third vaccine is coming from Johnson & Johnson and their partners from Belgium (Janssen). 100 million does are being produced and this is a 'one shot' vaccine that presently is matching the efficacy of the mRNA based vaccines. COVID-19 vaccine availability will open up big time for those who want it and life will eventually return to normal both here and on St. Martin. And, in all honesty you don't need to wear two masks as long as people are smart and continue using common sense safety measures.

Swine flu (H1N1) in 2009 worse than COVID-19 ?
I don't think so, not even close.
H1N1 2009 death toll: Two Hundred Eighty Four Thousand (284,000).
COVID-19 death toll to date: Two Million One Hundred Sixty Thousand (2,160,000) and still increasing.
(Both are estimated worldwide numbers).

Let's be real here.

Rasputin--I didn't think so, but was too lazy to look it up.

Although they are both bad, H1N1 hit younger people harder (much harder) than COVID-19 because those age 65 and over likely had some level of influenza immunity present in their systems. A high percentage of younger people who contract COVID-19 have mild symptoms and recover, while H1N1 made this same group much sicker. Swine flu was controlled much faster before it could do more devastation because a flu vaccine was out just five months after the first cases of H1N1 were detected. To be real, COVID-19 is especially bad mortality-wise on the elderly populations of the world, so if you compare the two pandemics on mortality only then COVID-19 is far worse. But, based on who got infected and how sick they became the 2009 Swine flu was still worse overall.

But, the point I was trying to make earlier is that some level of discretion is needed worldwide before events in 2021 are randomly cancelled. 2021 should hopefully be the year where we come out of this pandemic, and not stay hunkered-down in fear once enough people have been vaccinated.

I think that most people would say that the one that has TEN TIMES more overall deaths (and still growing) is the worst of the two.
But you can argue on, I won't.

Sammy--you are entitled to your opinion, but this kind of general talk is far afield of the original topic...

The St Barth Bucket has been cancelled for 2021. Sint Maarten and St Barth are on the same page here, no Carnaval on either island, no Heineken Regatta, no Bucket.