Race Crew - Antigua January 2012

Sailing is a passion … and here in Antigua I have race crewed on a variety of yachts. Single-hander dinghy Laser, 34 foot racer / cruiser Seal, 34 foot racing yacht High Tension and 141 foot Spirit of Tradition Superyacht “This is Us”. A good cross-section of yachts then.  A cross-section of crew and skippers too!

Two weekends ago was the Round-the-Island race. Last year I sailed a very eventful race on Seal with William Allen. Unfortunately we only got a ¼ way round due to having to help a yacht in distress. This year it was eventful for a different reason.

Seal wasn’t racing so I needed to find another boat to sail on.  At the briefing Chinese Bernie (a dentist on the island) needed a crew for High Tension and, as I was the only volunteer,  I was on.  I am ashamed to say I have no idea of her make, except she is a racing 34foot yacht with a  CSA rating of 0.934. She was last years winner so we were defending her place. We were a very international crew. Rasta man from Antigua,  Michael from Trinidad, Joe Canadian, Matthew French, Colin white American father and black Antiguan mother … just see the picture.

It was a very exciting race at times. Two ripped sails (so two sail changes),  the main pulley lost its nuts and pulled out of the deck and lost us 20 minutes, squalls with cold rain, burning sunshine, high seas with water breaking over us all, Frenchman Matthew and I took over foredeck (no one else seemed to be up for it ..and to be honest I am too old for foredeck) while Bernie would not relinquish most of the other jobs – including fishing with two catches en-route. At one point he was steering, doing mainsheet AND sorting his fishline at the same time and would not accept help!! On the rail we chatted and argued about race, colour, religion, fishing, food  …. One day I will try to write it all down but it was a fun day! We came 9^th – which, given the conditions and events on board, wasn’t bad!

This weekend Andy and I have been race crew on “This is Us” for the Superyacht Challenge in Antigua. We are very privileged to be invited back as race crew by the owner every regatta but this time I really felt I earned my race stripes. They are black and blue and they are all over my body!

We raced over four days – day 1 practice with the new big BIG spinnaker and new big main stay sail. Over the next 3 days we raced four races. The 13 yachts (the smallest 80 feet – up to Adele coming in at 180 feet) start in pursuit fashion with the aim of a spectacular finish with all crossing the line at more or less the same time. They achieved this result and we had some photo finishes!

Andy and I do Port and Starboard front runner winch and release of back runner preventer. The forces on all halyards and sheets are enormous on these Superyachts and “This Is Us” (http://www.charterworld.com/index.html?sub=yacht-charter&charter=sailing-schooner-skylge-1060) coming in at 141 feet is no exception.  

Saturday – race 2 (1^st race on Saturday) we were short-handed on the foredeck so I found myself on staysail halyard and big-spinnaker bucket-line as well. Andy was on foredeck helping with the grunt stuff. Big spinnaker up – bloody fast broad reach 15 knots or so - buoy close – Bucket down.  I was told to feed the line from the winch (being worked by T) back to the bucket. Not hard. Shout from foredeck, need help with last bit of spinnaker not going in bucket. T leaves station taking bucket line off winch… bucket starts to scream up the spinnaker… line whips around me and takes me along the deck with it – I bump into every winch and cleat on way towards the mast . …. S….t I am going to go up the mast “HELP ME!!!”. Many hands untangle me, I scrabble out of the way and lick my wounds. Feeling sick, faint … no time, “TACKING”,  “RUNNERS!!”

As I say .. I earned my stripes. Apparently a photographer has it all on camera and she was surprised I did not end up in hospital. I was very very lucky. Dan lost the tip of his finger and two guys broke their legs. Bruises are expected but mine are spectacular and extensive – see the pictures.

Despite my bruises and subsequent stiffness it was a brilliant weekend and the crew on This is Us are fantastic. I have learnt my lesson and will ensure that I could not possibly get myself in that position again – I was sitting in the wrong place. The owner is always concerned about our safety as number 1 priority, boat number 2 and he is always noticing me do stuff and forever asking me if I am safe.  Fortunately he did not see this incident!

I have had another exciting adventure which I cannot say too much about but involves Pete “Who??” Townshend, a phone call (from him - he has my number!),  a 2 hour meeting and a kiss!!

So our rock and roll life continues!!