The race was actually won by a J80, a go-fast day racing boat, with high performance sails. Now, a J80 is not a “cruising boat”. Sure, I assume somewhere, sometime there is someone who has slept on top of the extra sails stored in a J80’s miniscule cabin – but not very damn often. And, they certainly do not have heads, galleys, big screen tv’s, microwaves etc.

This picture is of a lovely little catboat which also participated in the race. Catboats have their roots in Cape Cod or Long Island waters but are also great for the protected (and shallow) waters of the Sea of Abaco. There are several nice ones sailing the area. We could handle the catboat well upwind but downwind her light weight, shallow draft, flat hull and large gaff main had her walking away from us in the light airs of the day.