When JP Conte was 13, his father bought the family a 22-foot O’Day sloop. “I frequently sailed around New Jersey and even solo from New Jersey to New York City. It was a huge adventure,” he shared in a first-person account published in the spring 2026 edition of Edmiston Intelligence. What followed was a career in business that kept him occupied, with motor yacht charters filling the time he had on the water. The pivot back to sailing came one afternoon off the Amalfi coast, when a large sailing yacht dropped anchor nearby and held his attention completely.
“One year, we were on the Amalfi coast when a big sailing yacht came and anchored nearby,” JP Conte shared. “I thought it was the most beautiful yacht I had ever seen. The lines, the colour — I had never seen a mast that tall. I was completely transfixed and asked a crew member to find out the yacht’s name. Perseus^3.” A Caribbean charter followed not long after. “When Perseus^3 became available for purchase, I took the opportunity without hesitation. It was the start of my new ocean adventures.”
What the 2026 St. Barths Bucket Involved
Decades after that New Jersey solo run, JP Conte and Perseus^3 competed in the 2026 St. Barths Bucket Regatta, held off the French Caribbean island of St. Barthélemy. This year’s race was scheduled for March 12 through 15, with an optional race on March 12 preceding the official three-race series. More than thirty yachts started across nine classes in a pursuit format.
High winds forced organizers to cancel the third official race on March 15, leaving standings final after two completed race days. Perseus^3 had accumulated sufficient results across Race 1 on March 13 and Race 2 on March 14 to take first place in the Les Grande Dames des Mers class. JP Conte was among the class winners called to the stage at the closing awards ceremony that evening at the Collectivite.
Perseus^3 and the Les Grande Dames Class
Perseus^3 is a 60-meter Perini Navi. Its mast stands 76 meters — a specification that shapes every routing decision JP Conte makes with the yacht. “I knew full well that with a mast of 76 metres, Perseus^3 was way too tall to go through the Panama Canal, under the Golden Gate Bridge, or under any other bridge for that matter,” he told Edmiston Intelligence. He built the yacht’s offshore program around that physical reality, opening up deep-ocean passages that most sailing programs never attempt.
Les Grande Dames groups the larger sailing yachts at the upper end of the Bucket fleet. Winning the class under pursuit rules requires clean starting intervals and sustained pace management through the course — a format that rewards accumulated offshore experience as much as outright boat speed. Perseus^3, under the ownership of JP Conte, has logged over 80,000 nautical miles. At the St. Barths Bucket, legendary U.S. sailor and America’s Cup Hall of Fame inductee Paul Cayard served as the tactician on Perseus^3, helping guide the team, which included other notable professional sailors, to victory in St. Barths.
“I like motor yachts, I’ve chartered many. Sailing is different. It is the adventure. Every single day,” JP Conte shared.
Behind the Result
Since JP Conte took ownership of Perseus^3, the yacht has covered an extensive portion of the world’s open ocean. The program has included a rounding of Cape Horn, a passage JP Conte described in the Edmiston Intelligence account as producing emotions he had no adequate words to describe. From there, the ship has also covered ground westward through the Pacific and into the Southern Hemisphere’s island groups, continuing through Southeast Asia and across to the eastern coast of Africa.
Those miles produce a particular kind of crew cohesion. “My crew are my band of brothers (and sisters). There is a bond that is absolutely special,” JP Conte shared.
Away from racing, JP Conte serves as managing partner of his family office, Lupine Crest Capital. His philanthropic commitments include a $25 million contribution to Colgate University for a new campus social center and a $5 million gift to UCSF for Parkinson’s and neurodegenerative disease research. Edmiston featured JP Conte’s account of sailing Perseus^3 in its spring 2026 publication.