Mea culpa. I know I am very far behind on these blogs. And there has been lots happening, too… maybe that’s why I haven’t found time to blog. And the internet has been, well, a nuisance. So, I will start with this blog and plug away. It’s a (rare) rainy day, so this seems like a good time to get some writing done.
We hadn’t planned to stay in Antigua as long as we have. Initially, when we checked in back on February 29, we had every intention of being gone by Classics week. Frankly, hanging around with the cruisers who are seeking out the next free drink or party is not our scene. While we enjoy a drink, neither Ken nor I actually enjoy being drunk, and hanging around drunk people is not much fun for us, either. So Classics wasn’t high on our list of priorities to be around for.
So, we were invited to dinner on ‘Desiderata’, a 66’ ketch (from bumpkin to bowsprit) built in the 1970’s on a 1950’s classic design. Stuart and Julia have competed in the Classics the last couple of years, and were planning to do so this year. Last year, they did it with a group that chartered the boat, but this year was all for their enjoyment. When they heard that we were planning on departing before the Classic Yacht Regatta began, they made us an offer that we couldn’t turn down “come race on ‘Desi’ with us, and experience the classics on the water.” Initially, we thought it would just be one race, but I ended up crewing 3 out of 4 races, and Ken crewed on the last day. And we are very glad we did it.
First, a huge thank you to Stuart and Julia. They were fantastic hosts, and they put together a fun, and diverse, crew. We had an ex-pat Canadian, Ian, as our helmsman… he learned to race with the Dragon Lady out of National Yacht Club. Corinne and Mark were last year’s charterers, and they flew from England to crew again. Rob and Jen, also Brits, came in as friends and stayed on the boat. Bebe and Karim rounded out the base crew as local “muscle”… We had others come and go for “guest appearances”, but this was the core. We had a wonderful time, despite the chat about Premier League Football (I love soccer, but I don’t give a fig about the leagues, I just enjoy watching or playing). It was a very educational experience, as I had never sailed on a ketch before, much less raced on a classic one. Flying a mizzen stay sail is cool.
The winds were pretty light, especially for heavy displacement boats. From a racing perspective, it wasn’t great, but from a photographer’s perspective, it was not bad at all, as everyone had every stitch of canvas that they could fly, up. Short of hanging out the laundry, we couldn’t get any more sails up. Granted, they didn’t get the shots of the rushing wakes and the water coursing down the decks as the boats buried their rails in the water, but it did make for sedate legs for the crews, too.
Our first day out, as soon as we put up the light air genny (foresail), we heard an ominous ripping. The poor old sail ripped! Fortunately, it didn’t get any worse, so we could still use the sail; the heavier foresail, that was sitting on the dock, wouldn’t have been much good in the 12 knots of wind (maximum) that we saw while racing. The slow speeds gave us a chance to gawk at some of the other boats, and curse the boat that messed up our start. Thankfully, the committee had already made the course shorter from the get-go, but it would have been nice to have the marks in place before we actually started racing, instead of telling us as we were on the course. This was an ongoing thing during the course of the regatta.
Second race was essentially the same, but the genny had been fixed… only to rip AGAIN as it was deployed. Poor Julia was going to be busy with the sewing machine again that evening. That day saw us with Louis onboard, a copywriter for the regatta and a sailing journalist. He was a nice person, and even offered a hand and some useful insights.
The third race I didn’t crew as I wasn’t needed. This was also the day of the Parade of Sails, in which the crew was to dress as pirates for the cruise through English Harbour. They were a fine sight, and ended up getting the award for the Best Dressed Crew of the regatta. Oh, we also had ‘Desiderata’ crew shirts that had cute or funny boat puns on the back, most alluding to ‘Desi’ being a ketch. “Mizzen in action”, “I’d schooner be a ketch”, “Does this make my bumpkin look big?”, “Long keel, great feel”… you get the idea. We did join the bunch for the party that Julia and Stuart were hosting (the sail remained intact, so Julia could finally enjoy herself a little more without worrying about sail repair).
Monday was the final race, and Ken helped work the mizzen. My job was release of the lazy sheet on the foresail on tacks and jibes (this was an important bit of timing as it had to be backwinded just enough, but not too much), and I also ended up doing a lot of the “string pulling” for the mizzen stay sail. The final leg of the final race saw us actually break 10 knots.
What a great experience. The Antigua Classic Yachts Regatta is MUCH more entertaining and rewarding to compete in than just to attend.