Tales of the Fleet

As Antigua Sailing Week ushers in its refreshed format — blending competitive racing with a cruising rally spirit — it’s the sailors themselves who bring the concept to life. From lifelong Caribbean campaigners and multigenerational family teams to first-time international competitors chasing sunshine and challenge, this year’s fleet reflects the diversity and energy that define racing in Antigua. Here, we spotlight a cross-section of participants embracing the adventure, discovery and competitive edge of this exciting new chapter.

While he may be among the older crew in this year’s Antigua Sailing Week fleet, Patrick Holloran, from Essex in the UK and who turns 80 in March, will be racing Caipirinha, his Beneteau First 40.7 in the inaugural Antigua Sailing Week regatta. The boat has lived in the Caribbean since it was purchased in 2000 and Holloran bought it in 2006 after his kids inspired him to race in Antigua following their first trip to the island in 2003. They stayed in a hotel and his daughter said to him one morning, “Do you know there is a race in April here in Antigua, I bet you would like to do that,” to which he  replied, “Yeah, I would.” The kids said, “Good, we’re coming with you.”

For the next two years the family chartered a boat and as Holloran notes, they had some pretty rough boats. “They were well-used!” he laughs.

Holloran’s Beneteau 40.7 originally had a different name; the purchase of an old derelict bar called Pina Colada with its own beach which the family found when they were sailing around the Antigua coast between Curtain Bluff Resort and Carlisle Bay inspired a boat name. They couldn’t keep the name of the bar for legal reasons and had to think quickly as they needed a name to get a liquor license. As Holloran recalls, he was in a pub with friends and said, “Give me a name quick that is sexy, that is Caribbean and that is a drink!” The name Caipirinha came up, it was a drink they used to regularly enjoy in Mallorca, and is the most popular drink in South America, so it seemed appropriate. He named the bar Caipirinha and called his 40.7 the same name to promote the bar.

Caipirinha lives in Jolly Harbor and the Holloran family use the boat when they are there on holiday for sailing around the islands and having fun with friends. They race the Heineken Regatta and are veterans of the former Antigua Race Week. While Holloran says he’ll have the oldest crew on board, he’ll also have a few young legs including locals Antiguan sailors who know the island coastal waters well. He notes that in the past the boat has been very competitive.

“Most years we make the podium in the regattas we compete in, but this is a new event with a different racing format and a mix of different boats racing so who knows how well we will do this time!”

Sophia Harper and her London-based crew of six friends do a combination of buoy racing in the Solent and around the south of England on mid-size keel boats and a little bit of offshore sailing. Antigua Sailing Week is the group’s first foray into Caribbean racing, and they’ve chartered Vildiur, a Sun Odyssey 45, for the regatta.

“We decided we’d like to do some racing outside of England and chose Antigua Sailing Week – we wanted to sail in Antigua and take part in competition,” Harper, an investment consultant, explained. “I thought the new format looked good, and we wanted to experience the social side of this kind of racing.”

Harper grew up sailing in Chichester Harbor on England’s south coast in dinghies – Optis, Toppers and Lasers – and her team-mates who are between ages 26-28 are also very experienced sailors. They’re not concerned about jumping aboard a charter boat.

“We feel very relaxed about getting on a boat we don’t know; we’re all good sailors so I think it’ll take us just a couple of days to get used to the specifics of the boat,” she says.

They’ll pick up their charter boat the day before racing and sail it down from Jolly Harbor to the start, which will be a good shake-down sail for the team. They have designated just one role – team-mate Charlie Whitaker will helm while the others will swap roles as they feel like it.

“We’re mostly looking forward to experiencing Antigua and the sailing conditions as well as some of the land-based activities and meeting new people besides it’s a bit cold and wet here so it will be nice to get away from that,” Harper smiles. “We have the boat for five days after the competition to do some cruising which we’re also looking forward to.”

When Sanne Lemmers-Bast and her husband Marijn found their boat Ilios, a Swan 65 designed by Sparkman and Stevens just two years ago, the boat had been on the hard in Trinidad for 16 years; one can only imagine the work that was required to bring her back to life. The couple had been looking for a similar boat for a long time but boats they were finding were always either way expensive or in very bad condition, and therefore still expensive, notes Bast.

“We were able to get her for a good price and got a good boat and although we had quite a lot of work to do on her, structurally, she was still in very good condition. We replaced all the standing rigging and most of the running rigging and of course, all the equipment; everything had just been sitting for such a long time.”

The Lemmers-Bast live aboard with their dog Heros, “the best ships dog ever who most definitely goes racing with us,” laughs Bast. They use the boat to take charter guests through the Caribbean cruising and racing. If they are racing from shore, they usually cater to 12 people on board but for Antigua Sailing Week, they’ll probably have just 7 guests on board as everyone will need a place on board to sleep. Originally from the Netherlands, the couple have lived and sailed in the Caribbean and other places for the past 20 years, and for the past 2 years since purchasing Ilios they have been based out of Trinidad where they are members of the Trinidad and Tobago Sailing Association.

When they are racing Marijn is the captain. He’s been sailing since he was a toddler and according to his wife, is an artist in how he sails. “I do believe good sailing is a true art,” Sanne smiles. They race Ilios hard but not without limits because it is their home.

“Nobody wants to break stuff, but we’re definitely not racing cruising style; when we’re racing, we’re racing, and we’re trying to squeeze every little bit out of the boat; we don’t like shouting, everything is calm and we like a fun atmosphere,” Sanne says. “But we are focused on getting the boat to go as fast as we can with the crew that we have and the resources that we have. Because that’s what makes it fun to race, right? You cannot think about anything else because all you’re doing is just trying to try to pay attention to all the small little, little details to make or just go like a 10th of a knot faster, right?”

The couple are looking forward to Antigua Sailing Week and hope that there are some similar size boats in the racing division to make the racing aspect more exciting for them.

“We hope that we have some nice competition and other boats to sail against, and I like the concept of being somewhere different each day and seeing different places in Antigua,” Bast says. “I hope there will be some spots that I don’t know of yet and that will positively surprise us. We look forward to meeting nice people and just having a great time sailing.”

Antigua Sailing Week will start and finish from different locations every day, adding spice to adventure, notes Principal Race Officer Chris Manfield. Mansfield’s been involved with racing events in Antigua for the past ten years both as a competitor and in the past five, he’s run different regattas held in and around Antigua and St Maarten. Safe racing while taking in the scenery is Manfield’s goal.

“We want to take people around the island so that they get to see the Atlantic coast as well so they can enjoy the coastline; the idea is to bring a fun element into the racing and give visitors an opportunity to see other parts of the island they may not otherwise see or be able to get to by road,” Manfield says. “We’re putting a few marks with waypoints to keep the fleet off reefs and other obstructions for safe racing, and we’ll use a combination of natural marks and set marks – in some places it’s pretty deep water so laying marks won’t be possible, even anchoring a committee boat could be hard work!”

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