I have just returned to a Grey cold Blighty after two fantastic weeks in Antigua. The Hotel I was staying at was just 400 yards from Jolly Harbour Yacht Club (JHYC), so on day one I decided to check out the club and the Harbour. The Harbour area is about the size of Weymouth marina and is filled with hundreds of Sailing boats of all shapes and sizes many still situated ashore awaiting to be craned back into the water for the Winter season. I viewed the JHYC notice board and to my delight the annual club regatta "Notice of Race" was displayed & being held on the 20-21st Nov and crew wanted notices were also on display - I applied to one of the notices.
The Jolly Harbour Yacht Club is located in the Jolly Harbour Marina, one of Antigua’s safely situated harbours, with beautiful breezes and calm waters that provides amenities for most yachts, powerboats and mega-yachts. The Yacht club hosts two regattas annually at Jolly Harbour, the Valentine’s Day Regatta and the Jolly Harbour Regatta (Caribbean Annual Regatta) held in February and November respectively. At the Jolly Harbour Yacht Club all persons are welcomed as no previous experience is required to go sailing.
http://www.jhycantigua.com/index.html
After just 60 minutes I received an email from a J30 Skipper (Tanner Jones) who invited me to crew on his Yacht “Blue Peter”. I attended the Skippers Briefing at the West Point Bar at 1700 the evening before the race and met our Skipper and crew and many other club members (everyone was really friendly). For info I tipped my hat to the Club Commodore “Graham Williams” a great guy who also introduced me to some very useful contacts.
Racing commenced at 1000 on Sat 20th with 3 races planned for each day, there were two classes rather similar to our IRC 3-4 (About 5 Boats in the cruiser class and 7 in the faster class) a 5 minute gap between each class starting with slightly different courses. The duration of each race was approx 75 mins.
Weather conditions- 15-20 Knot North easterly trade winds and Temps of 28-30 deg C - with fair weather Cumulus clouds forecast for the 2 days (it will probably not change much till next May). So no Gloves, Sailing Boots or Wooley hats required, just plenty of slap (factor 30 - min).
The Skipper "Tanner Jones” is a Canadian - from "Yellow Knife" who has lived on the Island for 12 years his day job is the Director of Engineering at Caribbean Helicopters based at the International Airport VC Bird. He lives in Jolly Harbour and his veranda incorporates a mooring with a lift out facility so “Blue Peter” is dry sailed every day. His wife Sherry is also one of the fore deck crew. It didn't take long to realise that Tanner is very competitive and that is putting it mildly!
Day One Race one - We had a great start and rounded the windward mark in 1st position closely followed in pursuit by a J120 “Liquid" who hit the mark. after completing their penalty they were unable to catch us - so Race one was in the bag. Races 2/3 the J122 beat us on the water but not on handicap - so after day one we had three 1st positions.
Day Two - Was equally as exiting with some very close racing but we managed two 1st positions and a 2nd in the faster class.
So in summary two great days of sailing, I met some fantastic sailors and have made some great friends. The season is just started in Antigua so if you fancy some winter sun and sailing - its the place to be (The Rum and Wadadli) is not bad either!
Events for the season below. I will certainly try to give the Valentines Regatta a go on 12-16th Feb 16 - Any Takers !?!
Submitted on 27th November 2015