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The Unique Yachts and Gentleman SailorsOf the Antigua Classic RegattaBy Brooke Cunningham
Thursday: Practice The fourteenth annual consecutive Classic Regatta dawned clear and bright. Of course this is the beginning of the rainy season, and so there were five-minute increments of pounding rain, followed by intense rainbows. This was practice day.
Early in the morning I stood for a moment on the yacht club porch as the dock and its fingers glittered with thousands of gold and silver stars created by the brightwork we had seen being carefully cleaned the day before. The varnish and paint on each boat had been gone over with chamois until there was not a single fingerprint. Flags whipped in the wind, crews were in uniform, owners in blazers, intricate flowers adorned crystal table settings on deck, and all lines were wrapped in perfect symmetry as the judges began inspections.
Sunday: The Butterfly For a long time I have dreamed of seeing Endeavour, but I would not expect the fates to be kind enough to let me actually sail with her. Dreams do come true sometimes. Dana and I were invited to do just that. I had admired photos of this yacht, and read about Elizabeth Myer's consuming restoration of this proven racing machine. Having always believed that good design is a beautiful thing, she gleamed in the morning sun as proof. Janii was sailing with Ticonderoga that day, and we watched each other around a 20 mile course called "The Butterfly" through 30 knot winds over 12 foot swells. I had never experienced the sheer magnitude of power that these J-boats put out as they begin to unfold into the task at hand. "Steady as a Church" was the expression long ago for the kind of solid position she takes in the water when your feet are over her rail. Endeavour and Velsheda were alone in their class, and aside from all the traffic this might have been a match race for them. Velsheda has over a foot of mast height advantage, and therefore owes her only rival 40 seconds per mile. Endeavour responded to the masterful guidance from her captain and crew with bold elegant moves. It was a shock to all when suddenly with a huge noise Velsheda's jib sail lay on the deck in a heap. Her crew was flawless in its ability to replace the jib halyard with a lighter weight spare. Again the race was on as the two spirited beasts charged around the course. As we approached Curtain Bluff well within our handicap, that jib sail dropped to the deck again. During the Old Road leg the day before, Endeavour had a failure of the running blocks and lost by 25 seconds. This second race found Velsheda way long on time. With the third race offering no mechanical failures Endeavour won, winning overall her small class. Monday: The Cannon I had met the joyful captain of Sincerity on the dock days before, and he invited me to sail with them on Monday. It was a quieter day, with winds in the low 20's and modest swells. Built in 1928, the W. Fife Marconi ketch was fully restored in 1998. There is an exhilarating quality about sailing with her, rather like riding a wonderfully spirited horse. The owner sailed Sincerity through the long reaches of the Cannon looking as if he had been born doing this very thing. Actually, he had. Her crew is full of fun and masterful with their boat, cheering and joking as they rounded each mark. This 24-mile course has a layout that involves the boats sailing back through each other's laps. If you want to see the whole fleet performing at the various stages of the race, this is the day to be out there. This was the driest day of sailing during the races and the crew aboard Sincerity performed smoothly again, earning a 2nd place overall in the Vintage Class A. All this time Janii, Dana and I had been living aboard the Michelin Five Star rated catamaran, Douce France. Quite a departure from the assembled classics at 138' length and 50' width, she was an impressive silhouette in the harbor. As such, she peaked the interest of many sailors. In cooperation with Captain Eric Saint Plancat and his crewmembers we invited several crews that we had met during the week to join us for lunch and a sail. We had captains and crewmen aboard representing nine of the yachts which had participated in the three-day classic event. Most of these famous sailors had never been on a large catamaran. Jim Murphy, captain of Whitehawk said to me "See that four foot tall porcelain lamp standing on the deck over there? That wouldn't last five minutes on my boat." The captain of Ring Anderson told me that he looked at his watch out of habit when he heard the windlass start up. His observation was that this French crew got a very large boat fully under sail in less than 15 minutes. Impressive. I thought equally impressive was Brilliant's veteran captain, George Moffitt's comment just before he stretched out for a nap that "…this island sized boat gets 15k of speed out of 17k of wind". Without the pitching and rolling, there was actually a lot of napping in the sun going on among these hard working sailors. Everyone commented on the elegance, speed and comfort possible from the new technologies in boat design, which would never be possible among the classics. It was a friendly gathering of worthy sailors with appreciation flowing in both directions.
Classic Regatta Information © Article copyright 2002 Brooke Cunningham |
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Welcome to the Antigua Classic Regatta" were the words
that settled the generally rowdy assemblage of captains, owners and
interested guests on the small porch of the Antigua Yacht Club. There were
flags and banners fluttering as the commodore quickly reviewed a short
history of the event, a few rules and some words of appreciation for the
sponsors. As my attention drifted to the largest forest of wooden sticks
that I had ever seen in any harbor, words passed until I heard "… and
remember, these are unique boats and we are gentlemen sailors. We want no
aggressive racing tactics, no collisions, no protests, just friendly
competition and most of all, lots of fun." What a charming way to start a
race, often a fierce and lock-jawed event. 
Antigua's warm evening breezes blended perfectly with
the free-flowing rum punch and hors d'oeurvres as yacht owners who had flown
in from all over the planet greeted one another. From under the porch came
the sounds of crews of all these boats, doing the same thing only with the
addition of excellent live local dance music at the pub below. It wasn't
long before the groups mingled into a boisterous crowd of eager boat people.
Owners, captains, crews and locals were joyfully united in anticipation of a
thing they love most, sailing some of the world's most beautiful boats in
waters justly famous as some of the world's most beautiful sailing grounds.
For Dana, Janii and myself that meant sailing with
White Wings, of the W-Class. Rafted at the dock with Wild Horses, the two
Joel White boats brought to mind the phrase "an honest boat". Clean, elegant
and very pleasing on the eye, we boarded Wings filled with excitement.
Donald Tofias drove and was clearly the "fearless leader" of the crew on
board. We headed out of Falmouth Harbor for a practice drill. White Wings
spread her sails and leaped into the game as if alive, eager and responsive.
At some point Janii's round eyes found mine, then Dana's as the three of us
came to appreciate the power of this new boat. I began to learn about the
W-Class program, it seemed an interesting departure for yacht ownership.
When you buy a W-Class boat, you can just get your body to the designated
race location and all headaches of delivery, crew recruiting and training.
The W-Class Association takes care of that plus provisioning and
registration. An interesting concept for the owner who has the passion and
funding but not the organizational time for sailboat racing. 
Friday: Concourse d'Elegance. If you were a boat, this
would be the Easter Parade. You would put on your finery, and promenade up
the esplanade. Thursday we had seen the boats crawling with people armed
with sponges, solvents, chamois, and even tooth brushes getting ready for
this. On every boat there was fierce determination to polish anything that
shines, clean anything that shows, and perfect boats which already looked
beyond improvement to me. Amid this amazing amount of spit & polish was the
constant sound of friendly chatter drifting across hulls and docks. 
The spectrum of over 50 boats ran from understated
grace of the 130' J-class through the sweet charm of the 35' Cariacou
sloops. Ages spanned from the Falmouth Quay Punt Dunlin built in 1890 to a
cutter named Julia Catherina built in 1999. Playing judge, I tried to find
just one detail to measure a boat by. Strolling along the docks, I privately
inspected brightwork. Perfectly polished golden brass winches punctuated the
Concordia Sloop Savanna's majestic 90' sweep of deck. The Fife Yawl Latifa
made a lovely presentation with glowing verdigris throughout. Velsheda's
graceful J-Class deck glittered like a night sky with twinkling stainless.
The judges did arrive at decisions, but as the observer, I was the winner.
Saturday: The Old Road I had the distinct pleasure of
sailing aboard Ticonderoga during this first leg known as "The Old Road" in
winds that rose from 20 to roughly 30 knots and +/- 10' swells that grew
with each turn of the 20 mile triangular course. My introduction to
Ticonderoga as a racing machine began with their traditional chant repeated
three times. It focused everyone's attention on the race at hand, signaled
the start of the position assignments, opened the floor to a strategy
discussion and ramped up the joke meter. It was exhilarating to see Blue
Leopard, Belle Aventure and Whitehawk crossing the start line in close
proximity. All through the race our captain of the day brilliantly surfed
through the large swell with the lovely Herreshoff designed Ti gaining with
each passing wave. Ti is a charmer and combined with a crew that enjoys
sailing almost as much as they enjoy each other's company, it was going to
be a winning day no matter what the race results were. If there were a prize
for how much fun a crew could infuse into an event, these guys would get my
vote. It bears stating that this did not in any way diminish their ability
to sail, placing 4th overall in their division. 
Mornings at the Antigua Classic Regatta were about
distinctive and famous boats with a comfortable society of famous and
veteran sailors migrating around the docks greeting, working, admiring and
cajoling as they went along. Afternoon’s contained friendly rivalry in some
of the world's finest sailing grounds. Evenings were made up mostly of
informal cocktail parties and dinners with music and more friendly banter.
The statement made at the opening ran through the week, the classic is
certainly the ultimate annual gathering for unique boats, gentlemen sailors
and the promised "lots of fun". Next year the Classic Regatta will be held
between the 18th and the 23rd of April. Dana, Janii and I are getting our
reservations in early.