Antigua Classics Regatta

[Bajansailor]

I posted some photos on the absconded Classics Forum recently, but it does seem to be rather dead now - and as YBW have not started a 'new' Classics forum here, I guess I will just have to post these Classics on Scuttlebutt instead........

The first race of the Classics (www.antiguaclassics.com) started on Thursday 14th April - there is a lovely catalogue here that you can browse on line http://content.yudu.com/Library/A1r...05662/Antigua-Classic-Yacht-Regatta-Programme

I was there as from Saturday - had a survey job first on a bulk cement carrier at Crabbs in Parham Sound on the north coast on Friday, hence I just had to stay for a few days afterwards to take part in the Classics - and it was brilliant.

Here is the ship I went to visit

And here is the view from her wheelhouse roof - there is deep water right up to the beach

And the view looking north across Parham Sound, to one of the off-lying inhabited islands - that is the car ferry arriving, a wee barge pushed by a tug

Next door to the Cement Works is the new Stanford Yacht Yard, built on what used to be the Crabbs haul out yard for 'small' yachts - now they are catering mostly for bigger boats.

Re the Classics, on Saturday I took a picnic and took up station on the cliff top between Falmouth and English Harbour, from where I had a grand stand view of all the yachts taking part.

Took lots of photos from there - but all the boats were far away, especially for a pocket auto camera that only has a wide angle lens, and I took them on the minimum resolution - in retrospect now I should have had the setting much higher (ie lots more kbs per photo) as they all came out rather fuzzy.

Here are the big boats setting off - from the left are Ranger, Elena, Velsheda, Rebecca and Marie - the smallest is 140' long, while Marie is the largest at 180'........

It was a pursuit race, where the biggest boats started last - and it was timed pretty well, with some exciting finishes.

Here are Iris J (a 5.5 m) and Ranger coming back from the windward mark

And here is Marie looking down on the Spirited Lady, who is at least 56' on deck

I went sailing on Rosa on Sunday - she is a lovely old gaff ketch who used to be a fishing boat in Britain in a former life. Spike found her abandoned and half sunk, spent 5 years rebuilding her, and then sailed her to the Caribbean on a shoestring.
Simply ace.
Last I heard, he and Charlotte (and their wee 5 year old 2nd Mate Jake) were trying to decide if to head north to the Eastern Seaboard for the summer, or return home across the pond.

And I went sailing on Stormy Weather on Monday (the last day of racing) - I used to sail on her in the early 90's with her previous owners, and I hadn't seen her in person for 16 years, hence it was pure magic to go sailing on her again.

Saw the Rum Pirate's lovely Kate under her new gaff yawl rig :

Here are a few photos of Rosa - how do you like the stowage for the main topsail and it's yard along the starboard bulwark?:

Rosa's engine was not very well, but no worries, you can do a lot with a sculling oar, as Spike demonstrated with ease as he sculled her out of the very congested Yacht Club marina on Monday

Rosa was definitely the party boat at the regatta - she never actually completed a race, just being out there and having a brilliant time was far more important!

At the end of the race on Sunday was the Parade of the Classics in English Harbour - we abandoned the race early, and Rosa was first in the queue for the parade, where we stormed in to English Harbour under full sail (including the topsail - we had to put in a couple of quick tacks to get through the entrance, as the wind was on the nose), wove our way through the anchored yachts, rounded up smartly in the corner off the Copper & Lumber store and dropped anchor.
A raiding party was mustered and promptly sent ashore to procure a couple of crates of cold beer, and we then had a grand stand view of the Parade with all the other lovely yachts coming in.
We left under sail as well - cranked up the anchor by hand, winding in the last bit furiously once she wore round on to port tack, as we had no room to leeward if she decided to go off on starboard.......

And here are some photos of Stormy - for background reference, here is her previous owner's website http://www.stormy.ca/marine/index.html and her current owner's www.stormy-weather.co.uk

Here we are getting ready to go sailing on Monday :

A photo taken from Rosa as Stormy over took us at a rate of knots :

Here are Stormy and Mariella (a lovely Fife yawl) powering to windward

And the view from onboard Stormy when powering to windward

I was very privileged indeed to sail on these two gorgeous ladies.
Some more photos will follow soon.

 

[Bajansailor]

I tried to add this photo afterwards to the post above as an edit, but I was told that I had used up my allowance of 20 photos already..... so I shall just include it here, ahead of the Carriacou sloops.
This was my look out station on the cliff top - should really have brought a cushion along, as that rock was very hard, so I sat on my sandals instead.

And here are a few photos of some of the Carriacou sloops taking part.
After racing, they were all moored in a group on the Antigua Yacht Club jetty, conveniently right next to the Skullduggery watering hole; Summer Cloud is in the foreground :

Here is Pipedream

And New Moon

Ocean Nomad and Ranger

New Moon and Summer Cloud, as seen from the cliff top between English and Falmouth Harbours

And here is Summer Cloud storming along in fine style

 

[Bajansailor]

The Rum Pirate started a thread on the Classics Forum asking for photos of irresponsible sailors with no lifejackets, harnesses etc, so I just had to reply with some photos of boats at Classics without any stanchions or lifelines either.........

Stormy Weather is equipped with them, but she didnt have her's rigged during Antigua Classics - and I must admit that she certainly looks much nicer without.
She does however have reasonable bulwarks that provide a good sense of security -

The lovely Spirited Lady was sailing sans lifelines as well -

As was her bigger (100' on deck) sister Gaia -

Even the lovely 160' (on deck.....) Herreshoff schooner 'Elena' was sailing without her lifelines -

But the prize for the most hazardous foredeck work would probably have to go to either of the two J class yachts Ranger or Velsheda - here are a few photos of Velsheda storming past us at probably 14+ knots to demonstrate.....

Thats Ranger on the left, trying to catch up on Velsheda...

I didn't hear of any MOB incidents..... but if they did happen, well, the water is warm..... and it was only a mile or two at the most to swim for the shore.....

 

[capnsensible]

Brilliant! Mucho ta.

 

[Rum_Pirate]

I have to agree.

 

[Bajansailor]

Here are a few more photos from my motley collection.

BTW, there are literally thousands of absolutely stunning photos of the Classics on Tim Wright's web page here http://www.photoaction.com/clas11/clas11.htm

And on Jason Pickering's website here - http://www.jasonpickering.com/gallery2/v/2011_antigua_classic_regatta/?g2_page=1

But be warned, they are very distracting - I have just spent an hour happily browsing, and I only skimmed through particular boats I was interested in.

Apart from Rosa (who got there first, ahead of everybody else, good tactics!) only a few other yachts sailed in to the Parade in English Harbour.
These included Tessa, a lovely Contessa 26

And Iris J (a 5.5 meter), proudly flying her Antiguan flag

And Springtide (although this photo was taken earlier)

Here is the 1949 built Bolero, designed by Olin Stephens and built of wood by the Nevins Yacht Yard in New York - a bigger sister to Stormy Weather, and with as illustrious a racing career - http://www.cruisingclub.org/pdfs/dl.asp?fn=bws_bolero.pdf

And another bigger Bolero, but no relation - she was designed by German Frers and is relatively new, about 105' long - I think I prefer the smaller one......
http://www.charterworld.com/index.html?sub=yacht-charter&charter=sybolero-1725

Little and Large Boleros said hi to each other during the Parade in English Harbour

Although Little Bolero is not so 'little' at 73' on deck......

Here is a photo of Elena at the Parade - she is a fairly new Herreshoff schooner, built as a replica I think of Westward - she was in Barbados a few months ago for the Round Barbados race, and smashed the existing schooner record most comprehensively - I think she took about 5 hours for 65+ miles......
http://www.schoonerelena.com/

And here is Gaia again, flying another very colourful spinnaker - more about her here http://www.spirityachts.com/spirityachts_articles_bi100.htm

Farfarer is a 'fusion schooner' designed by Nigel Irens and built by Covey Island Boatworks, as a replacement for 'Maggie B' (who was lost in a fire at the yard a few years ago) - http://schoonermaggieb.net/

Here is the lovely Hinckley Sou'wester 50 'Godspeed' from Annapolis absolutely truckin' along

In addition to Tessa, there were a few other classic wee (in comparison to all the big 'uns) cruising yachts taking part as well, such as La Sirene

I wish I could say that I took this photo of Rebecca of Vineyard Haven, but I didn't - I found it on the net, I think in the photos on the Classics web page.
Isn't she simply gorgeous?
More about her here - http://www.britishclassicyachtclub.org/register/rebecca.htm

Here is Elena overtaking Seljm

Here are some of the smaller yachts taking part - from the left are Old Bob (ferro Colin Archer gaff ketch), Leeandus, Orlando and Wild Fox (a Jay Benford designed dory)

And finally, here is White Wings - one of two W class 76' sloops designed by Joel White, and built in Maine (the other is Wild Horses, who is also a frequent visitor to Antigua)

http://www.w-class.com/spirit_of_tradition_yachts/f/w_class_yachts_home.html

Wild Fox is in the background. This photo of White Wings reminds me irresistably of birds all lined up on a telegraph wire......

 

[Searush]

It's pure boat porn, disgraceful!

Making us all jealous like that!​

 

[guernseyman]

The Rum Pirate started a thread on the Classics Forum asking for photos of irresponsible sailors with no lifejackets, harnesses etc, so I just had to reply with some photos of boats at Classics without any stanchions or lifelines either.........

Thank you Bajansailor for those pics and links. Particularly interesting for me as my middle son is bosun on Velsheda. He will be somewhere on the foredeck which is his speciality - as well as being captain of the tender used as a bow thruster during docking.

However, he does wear a harness aboard sometimes, as this photo of him changing Velsheda's kite sheets demonstrates.

 

[Bajansailor]

GM, I think your son can be excused for wearing a harness in such circumstances - brilliant photo!
It again shows the size and power of these J boats.

Velsheda is probably on her way back across the pond now (?), in which case I am sure they are rigged for safe passage making with stanchions and lifelines re-installed.
I guess they probably have a smaller delivery passage mainsail and revert to cutter rig with relatively 'small' headsails as well?

PS - re the boat porn, sorry Steve, I couldn't resist - but mine is only one x compared to the amazing photos from the professionals like Tim and Jason, who are definitely XXX, and should come with an evocative health warning........

 

[guernseyman]

Velsheda is probably on her way back across the pond now (?), in which case I am sure they are rigged for safe passage making with stanchions and lifelines re-installed.

The plan is to move on to the US east coast racing season, as indicated in their diary:
Antigua Classics Race: 15 April - 19 April
Boss cruise: 20 April - 24 April
Delivery to Newport: 08 May - ?
Newport J-Class Regatta: 15 June - 19 June
New York to Boston cruise: 09 July - 30 July
Maine cruise: 08 August - 14 August
New York J-Class Regatta: 22 August - 24 August
Newport Bucket Regatta: 25 August - 28 August

I'm not sure about lifelines, etc. I'd better ask for peace of mind.

 

[guernseyman]

Here is current practice aboard Velsheda.

(It may be old hat to racing types, but I only do cruising; the subject is currently of interest as I am trying to evolve some rules for single-handing).

Quote:

Yes we have stanchions and life lines for cruising and for deliveries.
Just not racing because of our deck swept jibs/genoas as well as
tradition.

We wear life jackets after sunset and when TWS is over 30knots.

We clip on when it is required (large sea state, wind, or when forward
of the rig.)

I wear a climbing harness when up the rig or going out on the boom or
spinnaker pole.

Unquote.