Ann's Blog
Falmouth Harbour, Antigua:
April 27, 2012:
A feast for the eyes
“25 gallons of lobster bisque went in 45 minutes,” said the woman at the breakfast tent wearing an Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta shirt. It was the morning after the night before’s annual regatta “Sail Maine” event (sponsored by yachting interests from that state). Which explains why the lobsters – “100 pounds of them” – were big-clawed boys flown in from Maine, not their spiny Caribbean cousins. “And how much rum punch?” I asked. “Trade secret,” she replied, “but I’ll tell you we plan for 600 people – and 3 glasses per person. And it all disappeared.”
It was indeed a merry gathering. But it wasn’t just the free-flowing drinks and food that made for a happy crowd. The Classic regatta, which took place April 19–24 this year (okay, I’m a little behind on my posting; among other things, I blame in on the poor wifi in crowded Falmouth Harbour), is just plain fun for spectators as well as racers. It’s a boat gawker’s paradise.
Forget the quantity of rum punch – I’d like to know how many gallons of varnish got used in the weeks leading up to Classic. The boats gleam. The cleaning is meticulous. Walking the docks at the Antigua Yacht Club, we spotted someone cleaning a mainsheet block with a toothbrush; walking back the other way an hour later, we noted his toothbrush was still at work on the same block.
Eilean: Newly restored to her 1936 glory
The belle of this year’s ball was
Eilean, a 72-ft. William Fife III ketch built in 1936. (Even non-sailors – at least those of a certain generation – will know her: She starred in Duran Duran’s iconic music video, “
Rio.”) Termite-ridden and rotting away, she was rescued from Antigua’s mangroves by Officine Panerai (the high-end Italian watchmaker, and title sponsor of the ACYR), carried to Italy, and completely restored. This regatta was her homecoming to this side of the Atlantic.
Savvy: Pre-race, the crew on this traditional
Carriacou sloop dished up a traditional Grenada
breakfast to all comers -- competitors included.
Steve and I had an up-close preview before the regatta. On the way to Antigua, we anchored for a night in Deshaies, Guadeloupe. Just at dusk, an incredible honey of a yacht glided into the anchorage, and even from a distance, her lines revealed her as a classic. Although Steve (a wizard at yacht IDs) suspected who she was, it was only the next morning, when the notoriously fickle Deshaies winds left us stern to stern with
Eilean that we could read her discreet name on her tiny transom.
Breakfast of champions: Saltfish salad,
fried bake, saltfish fritter, and fried plantain
Another Fife that turned heads at the docks was the 94-ft.
Tuiga, owned by the Yacht Club of Monaco. “Eye candy for every photographer,” reported Steve, who did his own fair share of snapping. Me, I was keeping an eye out for Prince Albert II of Monaco, who was rumoured to be arriving to race on her (also rumoured, according to a cruising friend, to pour champagne freely for female dock rats). Alas, both rumours proved false. But another one had more legs. “I could swear I just passed Dennis Connor,” another friend said when we crossed paths near the dinghy dock. In fact, the legendary America’s Cup skipper was around for several days, aboard the lovely
Mariella, yet another Fife, who subsequently placed first overall in the racing. (Coincidence? I like to think not.)
Kate: Launched in St. Kitts in 2006, she's based on the design of a
1908 gaff-rigged twelve-metre
The boat that stole my heart, though, was
Kate, a 60-ft. gaff-rigged yawl built by owner Philip Walwyn to a 1908 design. One of the regatta events that’s a joy for spectators is the parade of classics: After Sunday’s race, the yachts drop sail at the entrance to English Harbour and then, with their crew lining the deck, motor down one side of the harbour and up the other, to the cheers of the hundreds of people gathered on the quays. But
Kate doesn’t have an engine. Walwyn paraded her through the supercrowded harbour
under sail. A bravura performance, especially when 136-ft.
Elena was coming through the narrow entrance as
Kate tacked back out to anchor. The beauteous
Elena graciously stood off, the beauteous
Kate whipped smartly by. Sweet.
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Thanks for “the boat that stole my heart” piece, yours Philip at www.1906-TwelveMete.com