Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta

"Boto" aboard "Kuhela"

The 24th Annual Classic Yacht Regatta is presented by the Antigua Yacht Club, April 14th-19th, 2011.

We’ve heard about Antigua and it’s regatta for some time now and are excited to be here (finally, although we are now safely tucked away on July 28th in Grenada, we are recounting our regatta adventure for posterity). While Antigua is yet another beautiful Caribbean island, we get the impression that the primary reason to visit are the Regattas. Following on the heels of the Classic Regatta, (which is a showcase of racing yachts from the 1920’s-1930’s as well as newer yachts whose designs mimic the craftsmanship of those bygone days) is the Antigua Sailing Week, April 24th-29th, 2011. The Sailing Week is a competition of the latest and greatest racing yachts, crewed by professional sailors. Although we saw many of the newer race boats on our visit we were most taken with the classics.

After getting ourselves settled in and making the rounds to greet old friends and new we are ready for the races. With a quickly accepted invitation from “Kuhela” to join them on Sunday the 17th to watch the races from the first mark we are up and going early. We first met Harry and Linda of “Kuhela” in the Bahamas last year and have continuously crossed paths with them

ever since, we love Harry and Linda.

Linda's a laugher. Harry's an eater

They have decided to open their home ( http://kuhela.blogspot.com/ ), a 45 foot Royal Cape catamaran built in South Africa in 2002-3 to a group of cruisers for a day at the races. In addition to “Boto” the guest list includes; Rob and Lauren of “Arita” (http://aritacruising.blogspot.com/ ), Dudley and Becca of “Altair” (http://sailblogs.com/member/altair ), Rick and Debbie of “Miss Heidi”, Ken and Lynn of “Silverheels III”, Dave of “Persephone”, Bev of Bev and John (john was off racing on one of the classic work boats, in their spare time they run a charter boat out of Eastern Canada), Mark and Willie of "Liahona"(http://svliahona.wordpress.com/ ) and a further cast of thousands. Visit the regatta home page here, http://antiguaclassics.com/ .

Short of being on deck, hovering just off the first mark for a sailboat race is a lot of fun. The pictures to follow will tell the tale, we thank Lauren and Rob of “Arita” for sharing these with us as our camera has been on the blink since St. Martin; truth be told it kinda worked until Ed decided to fix it. Oh well a new camera should catch up with us in Guadelope.

There is something enchanting about the lines of classic sailboats, even more so when seen under sail.

Of course modern yachts have taken the best of the yesterdays craftsmanship and combined it with todays technology to create some wonderful boats, there is no better example of this than the "Maltese Falcon" ( http://www.symaltesefalcon.com/about.php ) our neighbor in Falmouth Harbour and later in St. Kitts.

After a week of regatta parties, how does Antigua top things off? A "Red Hat Party" of course. One of the unoffical sponsors is the rum that started it all, Mount Gay. The red hats have become collectors items over the years, selling on eBay (where else) for large sums. In order to receive a "free" Red Hat, one must obtain a voucher. These vouchers are handed out at various establishments around the island, of course one must first imbibe in a certain amount of Mount Gay product in order to receive the "free" hat vouchers. We managed to acquire six (6) hats, one tee-shirt and a backback. Vicky managed to acquire the shirt and backback using her female wiles and her big smile. Two of the hats were obtained by knocking back EC$ 50 worth of rum drinks, while the other four were obtained through old fashioned begging. For the nice young lady from the Mount Gay Rum stand who accomodated us with four additional hats I want you to know that the additional hats were in fact gifted to some very appreciative young folks that were unable to attend. For those out there thinking we were robbed by having to dole out EC$50 (about US$18) don't worry about us. Mount Gay was gracious enough to set up a sampling tent the night of the Red Hat party, gratis.