SINT MAARTEN (GREAT BAY) – The Employer Council of Sint Maarten (ECSM), which represents the majority of private sector employers through its member associations, including the St. Maarten Hospitality & Trade Association (SHTA), the Indian Merchants Association (IMA), the Sint Maarten Marine Trades Association (SMMTA), and the Sint Maarten Timeshare Association (SMTA), supports the development of a Strategic Economic Plan for country Sint Maarten, it does however call for a more inclusive and transparent process.

Sint Maarten needs this strategic economic plan. For such an important document to succeed, the process matters as much as the plan. Both the design and implementation must be inclusive, transparent, and built to last.

Timeline Reveals Limited Stakeholder Input

Between January 12 and 21, 2026, the Employer Council’s member associations received invitations to participate in a five-day workshop titled “Addressing Sint Maarten’s Crossroads: Charting a New Way Forward” on the development of Sint Maarten’s Strategic Economic Plan. What was presented was an outline of an approach already developed by the Ministry, including the format, methodology, and set goals.

Based on this information, the Employer Council notes that the engagement was framed around participation with a preset agenda, in a predetermined activity rather than early involvement in shaping the process.

In recognized engagement practice, meaningful engagement begins at the stage where the process is being designed by key stakeholders, ensuring that those most affected have a voice in what is discussed and how future decisions are shaped. For the wider community, this leads to decisions that better reflect everyday realities, support more stable jobs and stronger businesses, and contribute to long-term economic security. Without this foundation, even well-intentioned initiatives risk falling short of outcomes that can be realistically implemented and sustained.

Context of the Strategic Economic Plan

The workshop forms part of reform package E6 of the Landspakket Sint Maarten, a Kingdom-funded reform trajectory. According to the publicly available execution agenda, this trajectory includes two formal Plans of Approach: one for an Economic Carrying Capacity Study and one for the Strategic Economic Development Plan. Both prepared by Sint Maarten, and once approved at least a management summary should be published.

Recognizing that, in principle, Plans of approach should be approved before the start of any project as outlined in “bijlage C Werkwijzereglement Sint Maarten” as mentioned in Art 4.5 of the “Onderlinge Regeling”

Recognizing that these Plans of Approach provide essential context for understanding the overall economic planning process, the Employer Council indicated that it could not responsibly participate in the proposed workshop without first reviewing the plans of approach in order to understand how the workshop fits within the broader development of the Strategic Economic Plan.

This prompted an urgent meeting convened by the Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication (TEATT) on January 27, 2026, with the Employer Council and other representative organizations and members. During the meeting, stakeholders shared their concerns about the proposed workshop, including issues related to timing, process clarity, and the ability to participate meaningfully under the current conditions.

In addition, stakeholders reiterated their request for access to the Plans of Approach. At that point, the Employer Council was advised to request the documents from the Tijdelijke Werkorganisatie (TWO) the ministry could not provide them. TWO in turn indicated that it is up to the ministry to share plans of approach with interested parties

To date; the plans of approach have not been made available and the workshop participants have not been able to review the project to establish a strategic economic plan for country Sint Maarten. This workshop is an integral part of the project, financed via the TWO. The “onderlinge regeling” states that in principle the plans of approach should have been approved on a ministerial level by both the COM and the Minister of BZK before starting any project and at least a management summary should be published after approval and before starting on the project.

What the Employer Council Calls For

With the aim of strengthening the process rather than delaying it, the Employer Council proposed the following adjustments:

*Providing stakeholders with access to the Plans of Approach or their management summaries;

*Clarifying governance and accountability;

*Establishing a realistic engagement timeline that allows for meaningful participation in both process design and content development.

Unfortunately, to date, no changes to the process have been communicated, and the Employer Council continues to raise these points as a constructive call to action.

Commitment to Sint Maarten’s Future

The Employer Council remains fully committed to contributing to an inclusive and forward-looking economy for Sint Maarten. The private sector will ultimately be responsible for investing, creating jobs, and adapting to any strategic economic direction adopted. For that reason, the integrity of the process is as important as the outcome. We remain ready to contribute constructively when the process meets basic standards of transparency and good governance.

SINT MAARTEN (SIMPSON BAY) - For every racer who competes in the stellar regattas off St. Maarten, there is one contest that almost always outshines the others: the 38-nautical-mile Round-the-Island Race. On Saturday, in pumping trade-wind gusts and confused, challenging seas, the CSA 1 and CSA 2 Classes were both tested in a counterclockwise spin around the isle that featured steady 20-knot breezes and much higher puffs. It proved to be a racecourse that favored the trimarans over the catamarans, and at least for the day, suggested that three hulls were faster than two.  

In CSA 1, the start was chaotic, with one boat over early and several others who thought they might have been and spun around to restart, just to be sure. That included Marcos Sirota’s Nigel Irens-designed 63-foot tri, Sophia.

But Sirota and his crew recovered quickly and did not repeat their early mistake, their only one of the day. The race started shortly after 0900 local time. After burning around the course in 2 hours, 19 minutes, Sophia was finished by lunchtime.

What’s even more remarkable is that Sirota has only owned the boat since last October, when he took delivery of the big tri—formerly known as Paradox3—and sailed it across the Atlantic to the islands in a quick nine days. “It should’ve been six,” laughed Sirota, “but we had some light air along the way.”

The CMC is Sirota’s first regatta with the boat, and after a second-place finish on Day 1, Sophia has scored a pair of bullets and is atop the CSA 1 leaderboard. Sirota said Sophia reached 26 knots of boat speed on the dash around the island, and gushed about the boat’s performance. “It’s fantastic,” he said. “Even in today’s conditions, it was very dry. So it’s extremely comfortable, and very safe and secure.” From the smile on his face, it was very clear he was one happy sailor.

In CSA 2, Sam Talbot’s Rapido 40 tri, Spike, earned its first win in the series and surged to the top of the class rankings. Spike’s main rival, Richard Woodridge’s Triple Jack, was forced to retire with damage.

That opened the door for Bernard “Appie” Stoutenbeek’s Ninth Charm to secure a second for the day. And Ninth Charm’s story is every bit as intriguing as Sophia’s…perhaps more so. After all, Stoutenbeek just completed the purchase of his boat last week. “It ended up in my lap,” he said. 

Not coincidentally, it’s the third Newick-designed trimaran in the Stoutenbeek family. With a reef in the main, Ninth Charm started the race rather conservatively. And once the team had turned the corner at Pelikan Rock, Stoutenbeek wondered aloud whether they should push on. That’s when crewman and accomplished sailmaker Andrea Scarabelli spoke up: “She’s solid, we’ll figure it out. Let’s go!”

It was the right call, said Stoutenbeek: “It was a phenomenal day. We pushed her hard but she was dry and fast. Once we cracked off, we topped off at 15.4 knots and averaged almost ten knots for the race, which included the pre-start. What else can I say? The boat is magic.”

Continuing the trimaran theme, the Diam 24 one-design tri class also had a phenomenal day, knocking off five races in the flat but windswept waters of Great Bay off Philipsburg. In one 30-knot gust, Bradley Winslett’s Black Sheep flipped and was sidelined for two races, its mast impaled in the shallow bay.

It would not keep a good team down, as Winslett’s crew righted the ship, rallied and finished the final two races of the day. That said, the star of Saturday was Ted Reshetiloff’s Buzz Team Racing, which recorded three bullets and was the day’s class winner.

To round out the very full day of CMC sailing, as the Diam’s crisscrossed Great Bay the Rally participants rolled in after an overnight stay in St. Barth’s and dropped anchors, just in time for a full afternoon of beach sports on the Philipsburg beachfront.

Ron Boehm has sailed in several CMC Rallies aboard his 52-foot cat, Little Wing, and summed up the experience well. Boehm is a super-experienced racing sailor, who’s competed all over the Caribbean, but enjoys the slower pace of the Rally. 

“It’s just a great way to meet people and hang out together,” he said. “The pace and the shoreside activities really get everyone to know one another and it’s a really great group of sailors. We’re all enjoying this fun, common sailing experience.

And it’s also great to sail point to point, rather than around in circles like the racing fleets. You really get to experience the islands in a way you don’t when you’re competing. It’s just a fun event all the way around.”

After a chaotic start, the CSA 1 Class made quick work of the Round-the-Island-Race. Image by Andre Dede Knol.

Buzz Race Team won the day in the Diam fleet. Image by Andre Dede Knol.

The Rally fleet during their stop over at the Saint Barths Yacht Club, during Tropical Night.

SINT MAARTEN (COMMENTARY - by Cdr. Bud Slabbaert) - Technology is accelerating, traveler expectations are shifting. The Caribbean is at a crossroads. By combining AI with Behavioral Psychology, one gains something powerful: the ability to design systems around how people actually behave, not how it is assumed they behave.

In governance, that means services that build trust. In tourism, it means experiences shaped by emotion and culture. In air transportation, it means understanding the Caribbean traveler and strengthening route viability.

Together, these insights form a unified intelligence strategy that makes our region more trusted, more competitive, and more connected. This isn’t just modernization, Caribbean transformation, powered by data, guided by psychology, and anchored in culture is a new blueprint for Caribbean transformation.

The Caribbean is being reshaped by forces larger than any one island: technology, climate, global mobility, and the rising expectations of its people and its visitors. But the truth is simple: the future of the Caribbean will not be built by technology alone. It will be built by understanding people. That is where AI and Behavioral Psychology come together, as tools for designing a Caribbean that is more trusted, more competitive, and more connected. A model built specifically for the region could be called: “the Caribbean Human‑Centered Intelligence Framework”. It unites three pillars of development, governance, tourism, and air transportation, into one human‑focused strategy.

1. Governance: Trust through adaptive intelligence. AI helps to see patterns in how citizens use services, where frustration builds, and what communities need before they ask. Behavioral psychology explains why people behave the way they do, why they avoid certain processes, why trust rises or falls, why some messages resonate and others don’t. When combining the two, one gets predictive governance with services designed around real human behavior. Policies are tested before they are launched. And communication shaped by culture, not bureaucracy

2. Tourism: Experiences move people. Tourism is the region’s global identity. AI can now map what travelers search for, what inspires them, and what makes them choose one island over another. Behavioral psychology explains why scarcity drives bookings, why authenticity matters, and why diaspora travelers respond to identity cues. Together, they allow to design emotion‑driven tourism. The Caribbean can lead the world in tourism that is powered by culture and guided by behavioral insight.

3. Air Transportation: Understanding the Caribbean Traveler. Air transport is the region’s bloodstream. AI can analyze passenger flows, booking patterns, and stress points in the airport journey. Behavioral psychology explains why reliability matters more than price, why respect shapes loyalty, and why symbolic gestures — like first‑flight ceremonies, matter in our region. Together, they create passenger‑centered aviation and build a more connected Caribbean.

The real power emerges when all three sectors are connected. Governments, tourism boards, airports, and airlines all serve people, and people behave in patterns that can be understood, predicted, and shaped.

A unified Caribbean intelligence system would allow anticipating visitor flows and improving route viability. This is not just modernization but rather Caribbean transformation. The question is no longer whether AI will shape the Caribbean. The question is whether AI is shaped to serve the Caribbean. If one combines data with culture, technology with behavioral psychology, one can build a region that is not only smarter, but stronger.

By Cdr. Bud Slabbaert

SINT MAARTEN (SIMPSON BAY) - At first glance, the two yachts could not be more varied in appearance. With its massive beam and willowy outriggers, Marcus Sirota’s triple-hulled, 63-foot trimaran Sophia resembles a fast, graceful water bug. Some 20 feet shorter, with reverse, wave-piercing bows and a sleek profile, Marco Uliassi’s 43-foot canary-yellow catamaran, Falcon, emits an aura that’s all business.

However, as we learned on the opening day of competition in the CSA 1 division in this year’s running of the Caribbean Multihull Challenge Race and Rally, looks can be very deceiving. For once the starting gun went off to begin the 22.3 nautical-mile contest around the Mancel Rocks—an outcropping about midway between the southeast shores of St. Maarten and the glitzy isle of St. Barth’s—in the opening stages Sophia and Falcon engaged in a boat-for-boat tacking duel and match race reminiscent of the heydays of the America’s Cup. Somewhat surprisingly, at least at the outset, the two smaller boats showed significant pace in the relatively light air over the CSA 1 heavyweight, Andrew Anne’s Gunboat 72, Layla.

Meanwhile, it was also a day to showcase the fun and diversity in the wide world of multihull sailing. As the racing fleets, including the CSA 2 class and the one-design Diam 24 tris, took flight from Simpson Bay, the quartet of yachts in the Rally portion of the CMC also got underway, but at a much more genteel pace. The first stop on their four-day adventure was Friar’s Bay Beach, where the crews enjoyed lunch at the local beach café and took the opportunity to chill out and get acquainted. With catamaran sailors, pun intended, there’s more than one way to skin a cat.

On Friday, the Rally crews will be underway on a quick reach to St. Barth’s and an overnight anchorage off Corossol Beach, located near the St. Barth’s Yacht Club, where they’ll enjoy drinks sponsored by the CMC. From there, on Saturday, it will be back to St. Maarten to anchor in Great Bay off Philipsburg. The day’s activities will include viewing the Diam 24 fleet racing in the Bay before hitting the sand off the Seaview Beach Hotel for a full slate of volleyball, cornhole, tug of war and more beach sports, followed by a prize giving in the Seaview Courtyard.

Sunday will take the Rally group to Mullet Bay for a Boat Crawl so all participants can boat hop to their neighbor’s vessels for drinks and snacks. Throughout the Rally, the crews are encouraged to participate in the Time Trials Mariner challenge, a pursuit sail where skippers compete not amongst one another—it is definitely not a race—but against the clock. It will all conclude, for the entire CMC contingent, back at the St. Maarten Yacht Club for the presentation of awards and the wrap-up party.

Before all that, however, there’s also plenty of racing action to unfold. Which started on Thursday with the aforementioned CSA 1 battle. The race began in Simpson Bay in unusually mild winds of 8-10 knots and flat water, and both Falcon and Layla had excellent starts. But as the fleet sailed to windward up the island’s southern shoreline, en route to rounding the rocky Pelikan group, Falcon was clearly sailing higher and faster than the entire CSA 1 fleet. Close behind was not only Layla but also Sophia, which overcame a shaky start to emerge with the frontrunners.

Falcon was first to leave Pelikan to starboard, followed shortly thereafter by Sophia. Against the backdrop of the dramatic islands, they were a stirring, spectacular sight to behold. But on the next leg of the racecourse, as the first whitecaps appeared and the breeze briefly freshened to 10-12 knots, Sophia made her move and led the entire class around the Moncel Rocks group. In the race between Falcon and Sophia, the latter’s superior waterline length in the open water ruled the waves. It was another picturesque scene, with the stony rocks capped with guano looking something like icing on a cake.

At the conclusion of the race, on corrected time, Layla had done just enough to surge ahead of the smaller boats and earn the Race 1 victory, with Sophia and Falcon rounding out the podium in that order. Meanwhile, in CSA 2, Richard Woodridge’s Kelsal 47, Triple Jack, took Race 1 ahead of Sam Talbot’s Rapido 40, Spike, and Appie Stoutenbeek’s Newick 38, Ninth Charm.

Lastly, the CMC Race and Rally would be a far lesser event without the inclusion of the strong Diam 24 one-design fleet, which kicked off the regatta with three stirring round-the-buoys races out of Simpson Bay. When the spray had settled, there was a resounding leader in the clubhouse: Miha Krumpak’s Fastnet, which laid down the gauntlet with three bullets. It was a statement day for Fastnet, and it will be fascinating to watch how his rivals respond.

Sophia - Photo by Andre Dede Knol

The CSA 2 Class battles upwind after the start. Image by Andre Dede Knol.