The Lions Club Bonaire was immediately interested to assist in developing a sailing race into a regular annual competition. Ad Michel of the Lions Club Bonaire became an organizer of the Bonaire Regatta. He was assisted by Nol Soree and other members of the Club. The international publication The Lion, edition of January 1972, gives some details of the Bonaire Lions Club sailing regatta as it was called in that publication. The month of October was chosen for the regatta event because, as Don Stewart explained, this was the month that hotels on Bonaire needed more guests and the regatta offered an opportunity to increase the occupancy rate in hotels. Flamingo Beach Club remained the site of the Bonaire Regatta for the first number of years. Of the first competition few details have been recorded. The Lion publication mentions that the first competition in 1969 consisted of 54 boats from Bonaire, Curacao and Aruba in three classes, viz sailfish and sunfish, stem and yacht, and fishing boat This was already a 2­day event and the 28 members of the Lions Club Bonaire were all involved somehow in organizing this event. Dancing and barbecues added to the festive occasion. Next the Lions expanded the Bonaire Regatta into a four­day extravaganza, commonly starting on Wednesday. The 1970 Bonaire Regatta, according to The Lion, had become an international regatta with the participation of 82 boats including those from the USA, Europe, Colombia and Venezuela. Trophies were donated by Bonairean commercial firms and the tourist board. They were presented to the victors by Mr Raymundo P. Saleh, the governor of Bonaire. The Antillean Department of Education agreed to schedule vacations for Bonaire, Curacao and Aruba youngsters to coincide with the Bonaire Regatta. Hotel owners even established a special rate for guests at this time and organized dances, parties, parades, barbecues. Arts and craft exhibits were also held to heighten the holiday atmosphere.

Lionel Axson, past president of the Bonaire Lions Club in those days, expressed the Club's opinion in the January 1972 edition of The Lion as follows: "We are delighted with the success the regatta has generated as a community relations service and we expect future regattas to be even bigger so that this event with its attendant pageantry will quickly develop into one of the Caribbean's major tourist attractions." Registration fees, collected by the Lions from the sailing participants, was put towards the Club's various youth activities. This initiative of the Lions Club Bonaire developed well. However, the Lions' policy is to give a certain project an initial boost to leave further developments in the capable hands of other people. Handing over by the Lions Club Bonaire of the Regatta steering wheel took place in 1971 when Mr Pedro Nicolaas "Niki" Tromp, the new head of the Bonaire Tourist Office, was appointed as the coordinator of the Bonaire International Sailing Regatta.

Niki Tromp remained Mr Bonaire Regatta from 1971 until his sudden death in 1992. Mr Tromp put his life and soul in the annual event of the Bonaire International Sailing Regatta.