Long Post part two

Here are some boaty pics from Antigua most from the days of the Classics week and race week.

This was the Carriacou built wooden deck sloop Free.

She broke her wooden mast on practice day and I got the pic of her heading into the boatyard.

They worked all night.

Here she is after completing race one the next day with an aluminium mast.

No such overnight miracles were possible for the Ondeck boat though.

The sandbanks inside Falmouth harbor keep catching the unwary. A passing big RIB was able to push them off.

They were lucky to be in Antigua and not the Florida Keys. There they fine you for running aground in such areas. 1000 $ US upwards. Fines in excess of half a million have been levied.

This is Ashanti IV getting ready for the single handers race which she won with her usual ease. It is a David and Goliath job though and in this case Goliath wins. Ashanti IV is 115 ft LOA and the next biggest is 52 ft.

One thing that was sadly missing was the participation of those magnificent relics of a bygone era the J class yachts. I was there in St Barts when Hanuman finally triumphed over her rivals. Well so she should as every possible turbo tweak had been employed to make her lighter stiffer and faster. I also remember when she turned up to race for the first time and got trounced so badly in practice her billionaire owner withdrew he from the races.

Hanuman is for sale. I wonder who can afford the base running costs ? 10 million US a year just to keep her in the water ?