The West Indies Regatta part 3

The second day of racing in the West Indies Regatta started out with the usual pre race jostling. The night before Georgio had looked at the weather forecast for Monday and decided that he wouldn't stick around. Before we left the dock we said our farewells to him and his crew. Now the race for top honors was more focused on our boat, Ocean Nomad and Alexis Andrew's Genesis. The other boats even with their new ratings would have a hard time beating us overall, but anything was possible. We all took on extra crew as interest among both St. Barts visitors and locals had peaked. We had one more local friend of Loulou and Gaston come with us. "Gi" hadn't done much sailing but was up for some fun. We also took on two tourists who were very much in awe of the beautiful Caribbean boats. Alexis had a big crew of mostly the same makeup as did Frank on Tradition, and the Nevis boat "Alexander Hamilton". The plan was to race around one of the off shore islands and finish at a lovely beach called Colombier where we would all have lunch together. I was eagerly awaiting that but we had to first win the race!! All the photos here were taken by Bruno De Benedicts who runs the lovely shop KOKON in St. Barts. He raced with Alexis on Genesis and loved it. Here you see their crew getting ready before the start of the morning's race.

We didn't have the best start this time after being caught up in some traffic on the tight start line. Charles Hambleton on Summer Cloud killed me at the start and covered me very well up to the first mark. Tradition seen above with Frank Pierce shot off the line like a bullet and Alexis on Genesis was right next to him. We were in trouble and hadn't been in fourth place in a race in some time. At the first mark we just managed to pass Charles before putting our big down wind sail up. We had good winds and I was seeing speeds of up to 8.5 knots on the GPS very quickly. There was no doubt that the angle was perfect for us and we were reeling in the two boats ahead. By this time Genesis had pulled away from Tradition, but Frank was still going very well. We tried to pass upwind of her but Tradition would have none of that. Reluctantly we kept a more straight line to the island and Genesis up ahead and very slowly pass below Frank in his wind shadow. Finally we pulled out into clear air having passed Tradition and set our aim on Genesis up ahead. We were gaining on them which made all on board excited. Behind us we could see Martin Dudley on "Good Expectation" giving some good battle to Charles on "Summer Cloud" with "Alexander Hamilton" and "Plumbelly" a little further back. "Plumbelly" seen below is an amazing story in itself. The little 24 foot wooden boat was built ages ago in the Grenadines on a beach in Bequia and had sailed right around the world two times! It had also sailed across the Atlantic 26 times. The current owner, a 30 year old American guy sails normally by himself and was sailing through the Caribbean his brother at the moment after coming over from Africa. Talk about adventure!!!! The boat was tiny, but obviously designed and built very well.

After rounding the island we had to sail upwind to Colombier, and the wind was blowing at about 12-14 knots which is ideal for Ocean Nomad. We were catching Genesis and they knew it. We could see them carefully monitoring us trying to figure what to do. I have been in that position hundreds of times during windsurfing regattas, and you are always unsure of how to stop that boat behind you. The winds up under St. Barts started to get light and shifty and Genesis decided to tack away from the land into better air outside. I think they thought that I would tack to avoid getting his bad air, but I saw that the boats anchored up on shore above us were pointing in a way that would suggest a good wind direction change for us. We ducked his stern as he had right of way and kept going up in search of the magic lift. Sure enough we got it and got it good while looking back at Genesis sailing away from us. Finally when we had drank as much of that wind shift as possible we tacked to get us closer to the finish line. We were no very much safely in the lead and waited until we couldn't miss the finish even with a big wind shift before we tacked on our way to our second win in the regatta so far. It was time for lunch and a swim!

Genesis took a mooring and we pulled alongside him so we could share our beer and food with each other. The awening was a must as it was pretty sunny and hot. You can see us starting to put it up here.

LouLou the commercial fisherman from St. Barts who was sailing with us had brought along some lovely mahi mahi steaks which we had grilling on the back of our boat in no time. With all the food and drinks we all brought along it was going to be tough to race home in the afternoon.
In fact, by the time the start line for the final race was set, both "Tradition" and "Alexander Hamilton" hadn't set their sails. I think they were more set on enjoying the wine and relaxation than racing. Summer Cloud had also opted for the delicious attraction of rosé back at the beach. That didn't mean it wasn't going to be a battle between the racers left and as you can see from these photos taken just before the start, it was tight.

We knew that we would be able to just about use our big down wind sails but it was going to be tight. Since we started just below Genesis we waited until he had put his up before we did anything and then pushed him up in order to get above him. We then put our sail up and managed to stay in front on the way down to the island we had to round. It was close action and plenty of fun.

When we rounded the island Genesis got a huge lift and managed to pull alongside of us.

For the next few miles we sailed neck and neck until the winds picked up a bit allowing us to point slightly higher than them. I pushed them up for a while until finally cracking off to reach towards the next island we had to round in the lee of Gustavia. From there it would be a beat up to the finish. Once again we got to the island in front of them with them right behind us. The winds died for us as we expected in the lee of the island but then when they kicked back in we were pushed off or "headed" by a huge wind shift. Only about three boat lengths behind us Genesis was in good wind and managed to get a huge lift sailing about 90 degrees higher than us. Within about 10 seconds she was a good distance above us and we would have to work to catch her. The winds had gone much lighter and far more shifty and we managed to catch them again half way up to the finish before almost getting becalmed. We decided that the north side of the course had more wind and Genesis decided to sail on the south side. Unfortunatly we picked the wrong side and had to watch Genesis find some good air while we sat almost motionless. She finished ahead of us in the end which actually wasn't a bad thing. A win is a win and although she and her crew could be happy that they won the final race we could uplift this loss with the joy of the overall win. Two firsts and a second got us the trophy and what a lovely one it was. If you ever get to St. Barts make sure you look for the fantastic artist David Wegman who did our trophy. Guilli and Jason came up on stage to collect it with me and we were all very happy. The regatta was such an awesome time all in all with the most amazing hospitality from all the local people on the island who remembered these lovely sailing vessels coming into Gustavia to trade in the old days. The West Indies Regatta had now been born and was there to stay.

West Indies Regatta part 2

So in my last blog entry i spoke about our sailing trip down to the West Indies Regatta and our arrival on the beautiful island of St. Barts. The next morning we woke up super early and took the little tender over to the north side of harbour where we could have a short walk to the boulangerie (bakery) which is owned by my fishing friend "Eric" seen in the pic below.

I have to admit that until you have been to a french bakery you haven't been to a good one. There were what looked like hundreds of different items to pick from and we kinda just guessed and took a huge variety of things. B'fast in St. Barts every morning was fantastic because of this place and we usually were there before 7 am each morning. Everything was excellent and if you ever go there ask for Eric's boulangerie. I can't remember the name at the moment tho. In the photo above of "Wa'appen" you have Christian (the owner of the boat) on the far right, then LouLou next to him, a friend who i can't remember in the middle and then Eric on the far left. I had spoken to Christian about the regatta and it happened that he was going to Antigua the same weekend. He told me to give LouLou a call. LouLou wanted to come sailing too. The night before I had seen another former fishing tournament friend, Gaston, who also said he would come out with us. We had a good crew and with the local fishing boys with us I knew we would give the rest of the fleet a hard time. Gaston and LouLou had been sailing many times before and were a huge help. There was only going to be one race on Saturday, and all the boats got ready just outside the harbour sailing back and forth near the start line. We had a great start and were leading off the line. There was a quick reaching leg with a gybe leading to a very broad reaching leg. We took a very long time to get our big down wind sail up and Alexis who had his up very early managed to catch up and pass us slightly. The winds were very shifty and light and we managed to catch up once we got our big "jenny" up. At the mark Alexis on Genesis gybed slightly wide trying to keep his spinnaker up. We had dumped our "jenny" and gybed tight passing him quickly. It was then some upwind work to a tiny mark of the north west end of Gustavia and then a long reach up to the south end of the island to tack around a mark and tight reach back to the finish. Our lead was never properly threatened again and we crossed the line very happy indeed. We were back on the dock by about noon and ready for some lunch and a swim once again at Shell Beach. Gaston insisted that we all come to his lovely home for some food and relaxing. The hospitality from the locals was fantastic and after far too much food and some great red wine we decided to hit the beach once again. Shell Beach was close to the boat and this time we walked. Nik and I chilled in the water while Guilli and Jason drank beer and relaxed in the Brazil beach bar or whatever it's called. LAter that night we hit Le Select where Tuey and some friends were playing. They had flown in especially for this regatta being family and friends of one of the boat's owners. The jam session was excellent and at the end of the night some of the crew from the boats joined in the last song. "You can't always get want you wan't" was the chant that even Jason managed to join in with. What fun! Race number two and three the next day were going to be a little tougher with Alexis on Genesis and all of the other boats determined to better.

All of the photos seen here except the one of my fishing friends were taken by Bruno De Benedicts from St. Barts who raced on Genesis.

www.adventureantigua.com

Our trip to The West Indies Regatta part 1

Alexis Andrews of Antigua, the owner of the beautiful and fast Carriacou Sloop Gensis got together with LouLou Magras of St. Barts and came up with the idea of having a regatta dedicated to boats built in the West Indies. The West Indies Regatta was born. Some day they could have boats from the Bahamas in the North all the way down to Trinidad coming to this event. We know that all of the islands built wooden sailing vessels historically which were used to quickly transport cargo from one island to the other, and recently we have seen a resurgence of the passion involved in the idea of sailing these magnificent boats. It was that kind of passion that Alexis and Loulou shared in coming up with the plan for this regatta. Antigua already had a bunch of boats built on the Grenadian island of Carriacou and almost all of us decided to take our boats to the inaugural event in St. Barts. Our boat, the Ocean Nomad, still glowing from it's win at the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta a few weeks before was ready for battle once again. Genesis and Sweetheart who we had narrowly edged out to win the event were as eager to finish on top this time too. Martin on the newest boat in Antigua "Good Expectations" had learned plenty about his boat and was ready to get some better results too. The event was scheduled to officially start on Friday May 1st so we got some of our core crew together and set sail from Jolly Harbour on Thursday night after dinner. The winds had dropped down to almost nothing and in order to get there in time to register, clear into immigration and have b'fast we decided to motor sail down. I hadn't done motor sailing down wind on Ocean Nomad before and although it wasn't as quiet as I had liked it to have been, the constant noise from the engine somehow helped me to sleep in between my watches. In fact, it was the best sleep I had had while at sea on the sloop since we had left Carriacou a year before. Our crew for the ride to St. Barts was Iain of http://www.acquafilms.com/ who was going to be shooting the event, Nik my former partner in http://www.kiteantigua.com/ and our "rock star" crew member, Jason the Ocean Nomad "first mate", and Guilliano our dedicated Adventure Antigua fishing and sailing adventurer. The sky wasn't always clear with some upper level clouds streaming above us for much of the time, but when there was a break in the clouds the stars were overwhelming. Sailing down wind from Antigua is always extremely enjoyable and coupled with the phosphorescence, the shooting stars and flashes of fleeing flying fish we all enjoyed the ride immensely. About eleven hours later we were dropping sails in the lee of Gustavia and dodging the huge green turtles that seem to live there without fear of all the boats that also share the beautifully clear waters. To be honest, although the waters were clear, there was a tinge of green that managed to find it's way into the harbour from outside. Mykl was telling me about a huge "bloom" of algae which had found it's way up here from the South American coast and I doubted the facts surrounding the article she read to me. Now i was seeing it first hand. Anyway, thankfully it was gone by the next morning. Here is info about it from the Virgin Islands.
After clearing in and getting some food in us we decided to take the tender over to the famous "Shell Beach" where we could have a long swim and cool off. With almost no wind we were overheating quickly. Shell Beach didn't disappoint and Guilli and Jason who hadn't been to St. Barts were blown away by the new beauty of it all. It wasn't just the pretty shells that caught their attention. Later that afternoon we hung out on the pier where all of the boats were docked stern to and watched slide shows which presented old photos of the traditional boats sailing and carrying cargo to and from St. Barts as well as the Carriaco Sloops presentation done by Alexis. One of the sponsors was The Grenada Chocolate Company which also showed a video of their excellent "green" company. The chocolate was very good too. I think i would like to get some to offer on my tours in the future. After a BBQ right there on the dock we migrated over to Baz Bar for some "ti punch" and some great NYC live jazz. It had been a long night and day and with all the excitement it didn't take long for us all to be tired and ready for bed. There was racing to be done the next day...

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.

Francis Gobinet: "larger than life"

Yesterday news spread around the world quickly of the tragic and untimely death of Antiguan superstar Francis Gobinet. Francis had been such a big part in the lives of so many people that this news is hitting many of us very hard. Reports are that he was at work over the side cleaning the boat bottom in the BVI and didn't come up. His brother Serge was doing the same thing on Ocean Nomad at exactly the same time with me here in Antigua. Anyway, this lead many to think he suffered a shallow water blackout which seems to be more and more common these days. If you like to snorkel of free dive you should read up on it on the link above.

I first saw Francis with his brother, sister, Mom and Dad on their little boat as they pulled in close to the Lord Nelson Beach Hotel beach back in the early 90s. It was where I grew up and spend most of my time windsurfing and at that time I was running a windsurfing event there. The little boy jumped over the side of the little odd looking boat and in no time was windsurfing with some of the other tiny kids there hoping that we would see him. We all saw him. How could we miss him? Nobody could ever miss Francis. If you didn't stop to look at the handsome profile he wore so well you would stop to see the amazing feat he was in the middle of.

There wasn't anything that he couldn't do and all who knew Francis will have almost unbelievable stories about him.

Books and books could be written about the adventures that he got up to and how he didn't get killed so many times before is a story in itself. He was an exceptionally brave man and as strong as he was brave. Growing up as a white "frenchie" in Antigua wasn't an easy thing to do and life for Francis as a young kid wasn't always easy. Some of the stories we have are not all happy ones and there was no surprise when he got into trouble while growing up.

I remember one year back when he and Stevie Mendes were 12 years old I was organizing a group of windsurfers to go down to compete in the HIHO windsurfing regatta. Andre Phillip was a year or so older. I chartered a 45 foot catamaran and loaded up all of our windsurfing gear and sailed down to the BVI. My brother Ali was there as well as my cousin David and a bunch of others. We were charged of course with looking after the youngest windsurfers. They amazed all the adults at this competition doing extremely well. Francis and Stevie managed to sail the 200 mile week long race around the BVI with no problem. One day after racing we were hosting a party on our yacht for some of the other windsurfers and were all on deck having a good time. I had to go below to grab something and caught Stevie and Francis pounding some beers. If there was trouble Francis was sure to find it back then and secretly we loved that side of him too.

I'm not sure if getting in to trouble had much to do with it, but his parents decided to send him to boarding school in the UK during his later teens.

When he came back he was a young man and I almost didn't recognize him. He worked at various places and got a job at Sunsail's "beach" watersports team where he taught sailing and entertained guests and coworkers with his amazing stunts. Sometime around then I had started Adventure Antigua and modeled the tours we do after childhood adventures that were a big part of my life and the lives of many who grew up on the water here in Antigua. After a few years Francis came to work with me. All of my guests loved him and for every teenage girl who immediately fell in love with his dazzling blue eyes there was a mother on the boat who did the same. IT was funny how many Moms would want their daughters to pose with him for photos. I loved doing the eco tour with him because he understood why we were doing it. It wasn't just a job..... it was what we did for fun. Like many of the crew who has worked with me over the years, boats and the North Sound were like second nature to him. He was tougher than most people and guests would be amazed with his barefoot antics on the sharp rocks of Hells Gate. There was never a dull week with adventures happening just as much outside of work as during work hours.

Finally Francis got a job working for a big boat in the mega yacht industry. He was in heaven on these big boats that could carry him onto bigger and more exciting adventures. Over the next few years he lived an exciting life crossing the Atlantic to work in boating hubs in various places touching the lives of many in every spot.

The thing about Francis is that when he was with you he was part of your life and you felt a close friendship. What is more is that your life was usually uplifted in some way. He had an amazing quality to brighten spirits and give you some extra kick to what would have otherwise been just another day. When people describe someone as being larger than life they are speaking about people like Francis.

Francis came back to work with me back in 2007 for a short stint and once again touched people around me in a profound way. I wrote a short blog about him coming back to work with us then. In the water on a day off free diving are Tony and Francis and the ugly guy on the boat is me.

Over the past 24 hours that particular blog entry has been getting hundreds of hits. According to my private web tracker hundreds of search engine searches for "Francis Gobinet" were directed to the page from Italy, Germany, Holland, Spain, the UK, France, Australia, all over the US, Antigua and many other areas. People all over the world heard the very sad news and wanted to find out if it was true. My phone didn't stop ringing all day yesterday with calls from people wanting to find out if it was really true. Someone so young and so much larger than life couldn't possibly be dead could they?

When i was told that he had died I thought of the hundreds of ways that it could have happened. My immediate though was a motorcycle crash, then a car crash, and other ways flashed through my thoughts until my Dad told me he drowned. Then i thought he must have been swimming through a deep underwater cave without tanks or doing something else totally crazy which was typical of Francis. To learn that he died from what looks like a shallow water blackout was more of a surprise than anything. Passing quietly and peacefully into the afterlife while doing what you love with so many people all over the world loving you is a blessing. Francis died way to young and many of us will be angry and sad and lost now that he's gone, but he had a good life and so many our lives are better because we were lucky enough to have been touched by him.

Live every day to the fullest and be thankful for what time we all have together.

Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta news

The Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta this year will be from April 16th to the 21st with four days of racing which will be the most racing in this particular event to date. Once again our Carriacou sloop "Ocean Nomad" will be racing in the ever growing Traditional Class together with many other traditional wooden boats from the Caribbean. Last year we raced here in Antigua less than two weeks after our maiden voyage 300 miles to the south seen here off the lee side of Carriacou in the Grenadines.

On our first day of racing we went over the line with paint still drying and with equipment being used for the first time. It was quite a learning process the first day with many things going wrong and somethings failing altogether. When we put up our asymmetrical (big downwind sail) for the first time we could immediately see that something was wrong. We later found out that the sail designer had sent the wrong info to the sail manufacturer which lead to us having a totally defective sail. It wasn't good to find this out during the race! Anyway we did better and better to end up finishing second overall in the Traditional Class.
Over the past year a huge amount of work has gone into our sloop with a total repaint of the exterior and the construction and painting of the interior. She is now registered in Antigua, insured and licensed to do day sailing charters and tours here around the island. See a bigger version of the image below by clicking here.


Our website is http://www.sailing-antigua.com/ and of course you can find The Antigua Classic Yacht tour listed on our main website http://www.adventureantigua.com/
We started doing tours and charters in January and they have been going well with people as happy afterwards as they are normally on the other tours we offer.
For the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta we are going to be racing again, but this time we will be taking small numbers of guests on board to compete with us. To be part of the crew guests will pay a per day fee of US $170 which will include a t-shirt drinks, b'fast, lunch and plenty of traditional rum punch at the end of the day. We have already had one person reserve two people for one of the days so if you are interested please email me directly on elifuller @ hotmail .com or call me on +1 268 725 7263.
You can decide which day you would like to join us by looking at the main regatta website here. From there you can see the race schedule which is also on this link here.
Here is a short vid clip of some racing action from 2006:

And another piece from 2007 done by the boys at http://www.acquafilms.com/ here:

As you can see the racing is so beautiful and exciting. I will post more images and news about the upcoming event over the next month.