The West Indies Regatta

Photo by Roddy of http://www.acquafilms.com/

Our boat Ocean Nomad which is usually doing day sailing tours and charters here in Antigua just won it's class and division in the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta as many regular blog readers will know. We are about to set off for another regatta at the end of this week which will be held for the first time in St. Barth (St. Barts). The West Indies Regatta is something knew and exciting to all the Caribbean Classic Yacht enthusiasts and you can find out more about it on their website here.

Adventure Antigua isn't just a company doing tours. We are a bunch of guys and girls who live it as well. This adventure sounds like some great fun and hard competition. Wish us luck! After this last sailing regatta we move into the Blue Marlin time of year with our biggest fishing competition coming up at the end of May. Team Xtreme all the way!

By the way, I got another website today with photos from the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta. Check this site for photos of us.

Antigua Sailing Week Sunday beach session

For as long as i remember the famous Antigua Sailing Week started with a bang with it's first race finishing at Dickenson Bay where a huge party would follow. People from all over the island would come down to take part in the party action or to cater for the revellers and tired sailors. Everyone loved it except the hoteliers on the beach. In fact, there was usually a week's cleanup after each visit by sailing week with bottles and plastic cups turning up for months afterwards. Because of the lack of promotion, most hotel guests had no idea that the even was happening and would turn up and find their idyllic beach covered in people and their beautiful sunset obscured by yachts. Of course this was a once a year event that put money into our economy and joy into the hearts of many. I would venture to say that there have been many people who came back to stay in hotels after coming to Antigua for the first time to sail in "race week". Anyway, with the new bunch of people running the Antigua Hotel and Tourist Association (website) we have a new idea of how Antigua Sailing Week should be run. The AHTA after all owns Antigua Sailing Week and runs it. In the old days we had people in the AHTA who knew sailing and knew the history behind sailing week. It seems to me that this has changed and that the people running the event just don't get it. We have heard this sort of sentiment for the past few years as the event has gotten worse and worse. Of course the people directly involved in running it say this is totally untrue and that the event is better than ever. I guess "The Event" has to be clarified as the overall week of sailing and festivities surrounding the Antigua Sailing Week. I am sure that you will have a hard time finding a vendor that took part 10 years ago who is happy with how the event is run now.
To me, this is where the guys running the event miss the point. Don't ask a sunburned sailor if he/she thinks the event is fantastic. Ask people who took part in the racing, or vended, or just partied, or ran a guest house, or operated a water taxi, or ran a land taxi 8 years ago. Compared to how it was back then, the ASW of the past few years has been nothing close to as good. Local people don't nearly make as much money. The parties are totally disorganized with the organizers acting like they are not interested and would rather have sponsors and others organize their own events. Even the lay day was left to die. Over the past five years it seemed as though the organizers were not interested in the "Lay Day" which for almost 40 years was the day off in the middle of the week where boats could do repairs, rest up and take part in a huge afternoon organized party with all sorts of team competitions culminating in an infamous "wet t-shirt party". That kind of thing wasn't for everyone, but there were a huge number of people who felt that Lay Day was a major part of what made Antigua Sailing Week the event that was. In fact, the model that ASW showed was copied by sailing events all over the world, many of them rapidly growing to almost look like ASW.
For whatever reason a few years ago the ASW and the Antigua Yacht Club couldn't come to an agreement on the Lay Day celebration and ASW moved the event to Pigeon Beach. The move upset many and the it wasn't a success. There were few people there. Two years ago ASW decided they were not doing a lay day and didn't have it on their schedule. At the last minute with all sorts of people complaining they had it again at Pigeon with even worse results. It sucked and not many people turned up.
Last year the ASW decided to have the official Lay Day party at Shirley Heights of all places. This move proved that they had no idea whatsoever about what this part of the event was for. Does anyone have a good video of the old Lay Day that they can lend to the organizers of the ASW to show them an integral part of what made the ASW unique? Shirley Heights? Cummon, get real! The result was so bad that this year Lay Day was officially killed by the organizers.
While this was going on the organizers killed another integral part of Antigua Sailing Week. Dickenson Bay day was murdered. Instead of moving the vendors down to the West side of the beach past Buccaneer Cove where there is plenty of space and no hotels at the moment they just moved the entire even to Ft. James showing once again that the ASW organizers knew nothing of the history of ASW and what made it special. The move also showed that they knew nothing about the waters there either. For one it was not nearly as protected there and when there is ground swell which happens quite regularly at this time of year, the place can be dangerous. Another thing that they somehow missed was how shallow it was. Of course the one road in and one road out seemed to miss them as well. Overall the move to Ft. James last year was the biggest mistake made in Antigua Sailing Week history. It was extremely dangerous getting to the shore for a bite to eat after the racing with many of the water taxis getting "swamped" as seen here, and some sinking. Many sailors were tossed out of the water taxis as they were thrown on to the beach and nobody went swimming at all. The event was almost as bad of a flop as some of the flops that were seen while getting ejected from the water taxis. Letters in the local paper were written and complaints were heard island wide. For sure they would never have it there again right?
Wrong! They went right back there.
But to make something that was bad even worse the organizers decided to send some of the yachts back to English Harbour on the round the island race instead of having that race on a day when all the yachts would be in Falmouth. Maybe i missed that last year and didn't notice but with yachts anchored in Dickenson Bay, Ft. James, and in Falmouth the after party was bound to be another flop. Thankfully there was considerably less swell, but it was still too dangerous for us to get close to the beach at Ft. James. We were out on Xtreme and parked up at the very murky dirty water between Millers and Russels for about 30 minutes and then decided to move back to Dickenson Bay.
I have to admit that i was pleasantly surprised that even though the AHTA and the organizers of ASW did their best to kill the Dickenson Bay day this year, we can only call it "attempted murder". Yachts, powerboats, water taxis, party animals, swimmers and spectators of all of the above turned up at Dickenson Bay in huge numbers despite the attempted murder of the days event there. The party was a great one and i am sure that the owners of The Beach Restaurant who had planned for the revolt were extremely happy. It just goes to show that Antigua Sailing Week isn't just about sailors. As you can see from this little video:


the turnout was good even though the venue was not an official stop on the ASW schedule.
As the sun started to set the yachts finally decided to leave the nice swimming and relaxing of Dickenson Bay and pulled anchor to make the move down to the rolly shallow anchorage off Ft. James. I understand that the two live bands playing later in the evening had a hard time getting people to dance and the mood was more one of hanging out that partying. Either way, local people and sailors turned up to support the vendors after the sun set. It was not a raging party by any means though.

The sailing seemed to be much better than the days party action with perfect winds and good sunshine. We motored alongside some of the fastest boats in the fleet outside Diamond Reef. A Yachting World reporter was on the boat we followed for a while.

In his article here, he said it was doing 18 knots but we clocked it at speeds of up to 20 knots as she screamed down on broad reaches.

After we left them to go and see the first finishes of B fleet we noticed that the finish boat hadn't had a chance to anchor up before the first boat crossed "the finish line". These new boats are either too fast or the race committee was a little too slow. Anyway, the rest of the fleet crossed properly and came in to Dickenson afterwards. Tropical Studios has some fantastic videos of the old Antigua Sailing Week events and i wish that the AHTA would sit together and look at them. The modern ASW could learn quite a bit from those vids. This event is getting smaller and smaller while many other events seemed to have grown in recent years. This year The St. Barts Bucket and the Antigua Classic Regatta grew and put on excellent regattas with the after sailing events as carefully organized as the racing was. Sailing Regattas in the Caribbean are about racing as much as they are about partying and I personally don't think that ASW understands this. There are many other things wrong with the management that I could go on and on about, but instead will just mention a few things.
While there are excellent world class photo and video professionals involved in yachting here in Antigua ASW uses people from abroad. This is strange and unfair. While there are excellent professional powerboat charter companies here registered, licensed and insured to do charter work, ASW charters boats to set marks and carry press that are not.
The trickle down effect of the old ASW put plenty of money into everyday Antiguan's pockets and I think this is also something that has changed.
I am sure that one or two of the AHTA people will read this. This message is to you: Go and look at an old ASW video. Call Tropical Studios and buy a copy if you don't have one. It was way way way better than this.

Antigua Sailing Week Starts up

A week after the fantastic Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta finishes the Antigua Sailing Week gets going. ASW is one of the world's most famous sailing regattas with boats from around the globe sailing and partying around the island for a week. There used to be a fun filled stop in the middle of the regatta which i think made the regatta even more famous and for sure more fun. Lay Day was probably the most memorable part for most of the people taking part in the regatta. In recent years the organizers seem to have lost touch with what the regatta was all about and the numbers of entrants has fallen. Personally I think there needs to be a dramatic change in the way the event is now run. To me it needs to go back to how it was run in the past when it was most popular. It's too disorganized at the moment in my opinion with entrants and people who fly in pretty much left on their own to decide what to do. It's not uncommon to see five different hifi systems playing different music at the same venue. Much could be said about the regatta organization and especially their lack of interest in the entertainment side of the event, but I will just say that the regatta used to be way way way better than it is now. It's still loads of fun for people who haven't been to it before and nearly as much fun for those who have done it in the recent past. Today there are two short races held off the south coast. Division A which looks like it is the faster more professional racers will do a "windward leeward" race like this one:

Division B which generally are the slower boats will do this one:
Tomorrow is the race where local people will turn out in numbers. Last year the organizers decided for some crazy reason to change the final destination from Dickenson Bay to Ft. James beach. I say it's crazy not because i think they should have stayed at the ever more cramped Dickenson Bay, but because they moved to a shallow unprotected area that doesn't have much going for it. Most boats didn't even attempt to come to that bay last year and the beach party was made dangerous by some swell that was crashing on the shore. Several smaller power boats sank on the shore after dropping off people. This year they have decided to back and try it again with Division B stopping there and Div A going all the way back up to Falmouth. Great idea to separate the after sailing destinations. NOT!

This is the race that Div B will be doing ending up at Ft. James:

Here's division A's race below. This one won't be such a big deal for some of the ultra fast boats in the division but for some of the smaller slower racing boats this one is going to be a killer. With the tacking I estimate this race could be as long as 70 miles and could take some of them 10 hours. I hope the forecast stays windy otherwise it could be 12 hours for some of them. Ouch!

Anyway, we are going to go out on Xtreme. Like many people who have power boats we are just going to have a look at some of the sailing and generally enjoy the Sunday. Forecast is windy but the swell on the lee side should be smaller. Last night was the Mount Gay Red Hat Party which is not an official party but is usually the best party of the entire regatta. It was yet again an excellent party. For more info the regatta (if you can navigate through the site) go to http://www.sailingweek.com/

A little Movie of Antigua Classics

The Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta just finished and Antigua Sailing Week is about to start up. Our boat Ocean Nomad won the big Traditional Class and Big John and Guilli took a few small video clips during the four days of racing. Mostly they were busy trimming sails and racing so it's not a huge movie. It's kinda cool though. Check it out here:

And remember you can read more about what happened in the Regatta in the previous two blog posts. Thanks!

Final Result in the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta 2009

In the last blog entry, I mentioned that we were leading. We had three guests on board who were giving the regular crew plenty of help. Andy Morrell who runs HIHO, the famous sailing adventure in the BVI, came along with his son Josh and ran the jib and geneka trim. We also had Harry Ingram from Aberdeen tailing the jib sheets and helping with main trim too. Unfortunately all of these guys had to fly out early and had only planned on doing the first two days. I had asked my good friend Nikolai to sail with us for the entire regatta because i knew he had been a yacht skipper for years and years and knew boats better than most people. He was our "rock star" who pretty much ran the boat when i was concentrating on steering. He used to run the kitesurfing school for a few years before going back to Yacht Surveying which he does full time these days. We still needed more crew and for race three we managed to get Charles Kenlock, the owner of Jolly Harbour Marina to sail with us. We were still short of crew for race three. The race was what many call the drag race which was a reach straight out 6 miles and straight back in, back out and back in to finish. I knew this wasn't our best type of course against the other boats as we like a bit of upwind sailing and a bit of dead downwind action too. The day before we had come a bit too close to the start of another class and before race three the race committee had sent out a written warning to all racers telling them to keep clear or to face a penalty. It seems as though Genesis which races alongside us didn't receive the new instructions and were given a 5 minute penalty in race three. On corrected time before the penalty the beautiful Carriacou Sloop "Sweetheart" owned by Georgio finished first with another Carriacou "Pipe Dream" in second, Genesis in third and us in fourth by 18 seconds. The smaller boats seem to do better compared to Genesis and our boat on the long reaches. Anyway, after the penalty Genesis finished behind us in fourth. On Monday we had the final race and my dad and sister, Rachel, came along with us too. We sailed a conservative race because i knew that all we had to do was to beat "Sweetheart" in order to win the Traditional Class and we didn't want to make any big mistakes. Genesis had what seemed like a perfect start and was ahead of us from the start. She pulled away from us on the long broad reach down to Curtain Bluff, but we were confident that we could catch her on the longest upwind beat of the regatta. After all upwind was our best point of sail. Things didn't work out. Our winches which were salvaged by Todd last year started failing the day before but on this beat seemed to fail on every tack. We couldn't get the head sail in quickly and on every tack we were extremely slow to get our speed back up. Guys had to leave the windward rail to come and man-handle the sail. It was wildly frustrating, but there was nothing we could do. Alexis on Genesis sailed very well and finished about five minutes in front of us. On corrected time (actual finishing time adjusted to "elapsed time" using a formula which takes into account each boats "rating" which is a number based on all of the boats measurements.), Genesis finished first with us in second and Sweetheart in third.
The final results for the overall position in Traditional Fleet were as follows.
Ocean Nomad 1st with a cumulative of 7 points
Sweetheart 2nd with a cumulative of 9 points
Genesis 3rd with a cumulative of 10 points

For some reason which i can't exactly figure out the organizers split the small Traditional Fleet into three groups A,B and C. This gave us another trophy but I don't think it was necessary. We were First in Fleet and First in Class. If it were not for his penalty, we would have tied with Alexis in the A Class, but would have still won the overall fleet with him and Georgio on Sweetheart tieing for second. The regular Adventure Antigua fishing and sailing crew of Jason, Big John, Trevor, and Guilli all were on hand at the awards ceremony and were all very proud to be a real local boat kicking ass. Of course we couldn't have done it without the help from our other crew and we are all eager to race again soon.
For more info on all the scores you can check The Antigua Classics website results here. And for way better fun check photos of the regatta on Tim Wright's website www.photoaction.com where you can search by boat name. Remember our's is Ocean Nomad. The next regatta where our team will be sailing is just 10 days away and will be held in St. Barts. The West Indies Regatta is a new thing which is starting up for the first time this year. Check the website for more info. We may need crew too, so if you are a good sailor give us a call!

Two days and two wins in the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta

Yes, our Adventure Antigua classic yacht "Ocean Nomad" is ahead in the Traditional Class after the first two races in the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta. We were neck and neck with Alexis Andrews' Genesis the first day and just beat her across the line. Yesterday we started ahead and pretty much stayed ahead for the entire race with one close call towards the end. There are two more races scheduled but today the weather is looking very light and there is even some rain on the radar too. The island is so dry and dusty that i suppose it could do with some rain, but it could make racing even harder. IT's been fun so far. The Antigua Classic Regatta is bigger than ever and is growing while most regattas around the world are shrinking in these hard times. It's an amazing sight to see all the beautiful classic designs on the water. Wish us luck! I'm off to the races.

Antigus Classic Yacht Regatta 2009 starts with a bang

Our boat Ocean Nomad managed to finish our birthday charter and get up to the start of the 2009 Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta just in time to get a spot on the dock next to all the other traditional Carriacou Sloops. This year there are a few from Grenada missing but we have a few more in Antigua to make up. In fact while we were still there my good friend Martin Dudley arrived in from his jubilant sail all the way from Carriacou on his beautifully refurbished Carriacou Sloop. It was dark, but from what I could tell the boat looked lovely.

Jason, Trevor and I did the charter but when we got back to Jolly Harbour Trevor left the boat and we were joined by Harry Ingram. Harry was put into a wheelchair by MS after he turned 40 and got into open water sailing then just to satisfy his need for adventure. Up until then he had been a rock and ice climber and instructor and needed something else to do. He ended up being a regular onboard the boats of the Jubilee Sailing Trust. Check out their website here. The Jubilee has a slogan as "Sailing for All" and generally invites people with all abilities to sail beside each other as a team. Harry made the Atlantic crossing to Antigua on board the Tenacious some time ago and wanted to be part of the Adventure Antigua sailing team when he heard we were looking for more crew. Harry is from Aberdeen and like most of the Scots men I have met he's full of stories. One tale he told me yesterday is that a bunch of his friends from the Tenacious read my blog, and to prove it he produced an amazing bottle of aged Scotch whiskey which was sent out to me from them. Thank you Harry and if he was telling the truth then thanks to the rest of the gang who are reading! I will enjoy it thinking of your team later! You are a brave bunch of sailors indeed! I have not sailed "over the pond" yet but can imagine what it was like.
We got our Mount Gay Antigua Classic Sailing hats and enjoyed some rum while watching the 2008 Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta video done by my good friends at www.acquafilms.com . It was a great vid and got us all in the mood for sailing.

Today we have a bit more work to do on the boat before going for a proper sail in the afternoon to get ready for the first proper race tomorrow. There is a single handed race today, but I’m not sure that we will have the boat ready. We are doing a tiny bit of $#@%^&!* today and I’m not sure it will be dry in time. I won't say the word because every time we do some $#@%^&!* it rains all over the job. In fact last week we had most of our work ruined by the first proper rains in 8 weeks. We ended up sailing over to enjoy the Easter holiday in Barbuda with a funny looking Carriacou Sloop.

Of course Barbuda was fantastic and most people didn't see how funny looking Ocean Nomad was. With views like this how would anyone care about what the boat looked like? Anyway, we came out the water for a fresh coat of you know what on Tuesday and of course it rained again late Tuesday. Somehow we managed to clean it up and make her presentable just in time to be launched yesterday morning at 8 am in Jolly Harbour. We were 2 minutes late for our 9 am day sailing charter for "J" birthday. "J" turned eleven yesterday and took a bunch of his friends out for some proper sailing. Ocean Nomad was scary fast on the way down and I am sure that the new bottom $#@%^ is gonna help us kick some other bottoms this weekend. Wish us luck!

extremely dry drought suffering Antigua gets a little rain today.

March 09 was the driest one in 12 years with no in April until last night(despite the stupid animated forecasts saying it was raining every day as they always do), and we have had a huge problem with bush fires. Animals are super skinny and there is little grass anywhere. The weather for beaching and boating tourists has been fantastic, but the government has been rationing water and farmers have been having a terrible time. A few days ago i went into what the taxi drivers call "the rain forest" to look for a piece of bamboo for the sail boat.

As you know we are getting our Classic Yacht ready for the big regatta which starts on the 16th. We still have space for Sunday and Monday's races. Click this blog for more info. There was no way anyone in their right mind could have called it a rain forest. Trust me!Anyway, yesterday we sanded and painted a huge section of the boat and what do you think happened? It rained about three inches last night! The north side of Antigua got very little at all but the south got loads. I am sure that 99.99 % of the population is very happy with the rain, and I am too i guess. I will have to sand and paint again!Radar and sat maps show that Barbuda just 26 miles away didn't get any rain at all and this particular cloud may be fizzling at the moment too. Adventure Antigua may now start getting fewer complaints from guests about how dry Antigua looks. Remember to understand why the US websites say it rains here 365 days a year and learn more about weather here, check this link.

sailing news

Two other Carriacou Sloops have been out of the water in jolly harbour getting fixed up for the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta which starts in just over a week. Our boat Ocean Nomad is also getting some work done at the moment and will be coming out of the water for fresh bottom paint next tuesday. We are off to get a big bamboo today which we use for polling out the big "reacher" seen here.

We have a new bigger one this year and we are gonna be fast. There are still a few seats to be had on the boat if you are interested to sail with us during the regatta. Please check this blog link if you think you'd like to be part of the team.

Sailing to St. Barts

Last Thursday night we were invited to a party to celebrate a friend's birthday over in Falmouth Harbour. It was a nice group of people enjoying the beautiful view of the harbour and all the yachts from high up just below Monks Hill's old British Fort. I must admit that the passing of Francis Gobinet had given me extremely itchy feet and while there a few of us hatched a plan to sail down to St. Barts the next day. Many of our friends would be there for the St. Barts Bucket which is one of the worlds most extravagant yachting regattas. Only luxury yachts over 100 feet long were permitted to take part in the four day regatta. Roddy and Iain of www.acquafilms.com had hired Greg and one of the Caribbean Helicopters to shoot the regatta and offered a seat to Mykl on the way down. The next afternoon I met my three crew at Jolly Harbour Customs and cleared the sloop out. Before we sailed off we decided to meet the Adventure Antigua crew for what is now our usual Friday company meeting at Foredeck Bar at happy hour. We were all very close to Francis and the week had been a tough one. Serge was home with his family and with my last minute sailing crew we all toasted Francis and had one too many rums. Of course one of the crew stayed away from the rum so that he could safely sail out of Antigua afterwards. We ended up leaving with some pizzas to go sometime around 9 pm. Powering out of Jolly Harbour into the brilliant star filled night with a happy buzz from the aged rum we had been drinking we felt that life was beautiful once again. Before i had much time to dwell on that sentiment a huge ground swell rocked the boat as we exited the harbour reminding me of the forecast for the weekend. Big swells had been pushed down from way up north and were giving all the shores on the lee side of these islands a good pounding. Just outside the harbour we hoisted the big sails that are typical of Carriacou Sloops. With power in the sails the engine was off in no time and our course for St. Barts was set. Tom Miller was first on the tiller and with his watch mate Joe Compton on deck it was as good a time as any for me and Louis Nicholson Sinclair to head below for a nap. Three hours on and three hours off was the schedule for our sailing watches. The wild and fascinating sounds one hears down below a dark boat at night are something you don't forget. While in the forward bunk trying to sleep I listened to the water against the wooden hull as we rushed though it. It's hard to describe, but it always sounds as though you are going much faster than you are with the waves and bubbly water filled with turbulence loudly flowing alongside the boat. As i lay there i remembered the last time that noise kept me awake. It was on our way back from Barbados with Francis, Xabier and Andre aboard the carbon fiber catamaran Cream back in Feb of 07. The noise on that boat was much louder. Images of Francis and our past adventures floated around with the fluid noise against the hull until it was my turn on watch sometime after one am. Louis and I went up on deck and took over from the other tired duo who quickly retired below to sleep. The phosphorescence showing itself on every bit of wake and wave crest was out of this world. I don't think i had ever seen as much of it before and as bright as the ocean around us was, the sky above was more so. Louis and I talked a bit and enjoyed the sailing. Broad reaching at night in warm weather with a brilliant sky is hard to beat, and with the atmosphere that you feel out on a traditionally built wooden boat I felt happy to be alive. I lost count of how many shooting stars i saw after a while. On a clear night when you are at sea the sky is something to gaze at and be fascinated with. With no artificial lights polluting the sky the true brilliance of what you see is breathtaking. I made one or two wishes while remembering a wish i had made about two years before. It was just after i started seeing Mykl and like a happy lovestruck teenager i had wished that we would be together forever. I smiled thinking about that shooting star as it's been two years and we are now engaged. I know I am a very lucky man. Call me silly or childish but i still believe in wishing on shooting stars.
We got into the beautifully clear waters of Gustavia sometime after 8 am dropped the sails and found a good anchorage. IT was time for a fresh croissant.

Burial at Sea for Francis

I have been getting some heat from the regular readers of my blog for not updating lately. I'm sorry but i had the chance to go sailing and off i went very last minute to St. Barts and then to St. Martin. It was a great trip and nice to be with some good friends on an off island adventure.
So many of us have been consumed with the passing of our good friend Francis that doing something fun like sailing to another island was just perfect.
Anyway, Francis' funeral will be this Saturday, and it will be just as I want mine to be some day. He will be carried out to sea by his friends and family as far as is legally required and allowed to return to the place he loved most... the sea.
Xabier Ross of Wadadli cats seen here driving the tender with Francis, me and Andre back in 2007 after arriving from our sail to Barbados...

has provided one of his catamarans to take people alongside the boats Francis worked on which will be carrying his casket and his family. For those of you who were friends of his and want to be there please contact me or Wadadli cats for more info. We will meet in Falmouth Harbour at 9 am.