ST. BARTH W
hen Christmas rolls around, we don't want any presents under the tree or any of that chestnuts roasting
The anchorage at Baie St. Jean — at the end of the runway, next to the Eden Rock Hotel, and rimmed by a white sand powder beach.
on an open fire crap. We want to be in the Caribbean, where the water is warm and blue, and the consistent trades make sailing great. Of all the terrific sailing destinations in the Caribbean, our favorite is tiny St. Barth in the French West Indies. It's safe, clean, has great beaches — and the locals don't give you the West Indian shuck 'n jive that's a little too prevalent down island. The best thing about St. Barth is that everything about it puts us in a state of perpetual bemusement. After a long year of hard work, that's the best state to be in. We go to the Caribbean for work as much as pleasure, another reason why St. Barth is our ideal destination. The island is not a major big boat center like St. Martin or Antigua, where mobs of crews and technicians slave over boats at cluttered docks getting them ready to go out, nor is it a crowded bareboat charter hub like the British Virgins. St. Barth is the place where the great — and not-sogreat — yachts go after they've been all fixed up and the owners/charterers want to enjoy themselves. We realize that some of you readers despise megayachts and the people on At La Gamelle restaurant, Chef Filou and his partner Mimi propose a tuna tartar salad and a delicious pumpkin soup. Mmmmmmmm.
them. We don't have that kind of envy, and like the fact that the owners — many of whom are entrepreneurs who have created great wealth and countless jobs — pour mountains of money into the marine industry and onto small islands that so desperately need it. Nonetheless, one good dose of megayachts a year is enough for us, thank you. The best time of the year for sailboats — be they 247-ft sloops like Mirabella V, or a Sunsail 40 sloop with eight bareboat charterers crammed aboard — to visit St. Barth is from late December to at least the end of the first week in January. This way you arrive early enough to tap into the buzz building up to the New Year's Eve crescendo, but are still around after the billionaires, investment bankers, and Hollywood folks have hopped back aboard their private jets to the money mines of the world. Being at St. Barth before and after New Year's is like visiting two different islands. By getting to the island just after Christmas, you'll also be in time for St. Barth's premiere sailing event, the Around the Island Parade on New Year's Eve. The event regularly attracts some of the fastest and most spectacular sailing yachts in the world. This year 31 boats participated, ranging in size from the Melges 24 Carib Melges, to the spectacular 150-ft gaff schooner Elenora. This year's fleet wasn't the greatest ever, but the seven boats in Class A that averaged 122 feet in length were nothing to sneeze at. In addition to Elenora, they included the 136-ft Anna Christina, 135-ft Victoria of Strathern, the 124-ft Freedom of Flight, and the 122-ft Midnight. The 247-ft Mirabella V was going to sail the course, but passed when the morning winds came up gusty. The Around the Island Parade is a pursuit race, meaning the slower boats take their handicap by starting earlier than the faster boats. The classic 22-mile course features all aspects of sailing — upwind in flatwater, upwind and reaching in the unfettered winds and seas of the Caribbean, downwind through a series of small islands, and back upwind in flat water. Since these big yachts are in private use or on charter, they're always a few hands short of even a minimal racing crew. This gives regular folks such as
ourselves a chance to sail on them. This year we were lucky enough to be invited to crew on the 97ft R/P Leopard of London, one of the fastest fixed keel boats in the world. We didn't get on because we're handsome, but because Doña de Mallora kept an eye on the boat for the skipper when we had Profligate at the island two years ago. Like they say, just being there is 90% of what it takes to get into the loop. Leopard is skippered by Aussie Chris Sherlock, who has to be about the hardest working skipper in yachting. The guy does everything, and makes the Energizer bunny seem like a slacker. The day of the Around The Island race was his 41st consectuve day on charter — and one of the charters had been taking eight Russians racing across the Atlantic. When it came time to flake the main at the end of the day — a physically demanding task that requires six strong bodies — Sherlock was right there.
O
ur primary talent on big boats is putting our foot in our mouth. On the same race about six years ago, when we were crewing aboard the great 135ft J Class yacht Endeavour, we asked a guy wearing a wife-beater T-shirt if he was the cook. He was actually Dennis Kozlowski, the owner, who was goodnatured about our faux pas. Although he would have loved to have done the race again this year, Kozlowski couldn't make it to the island this year — something about having to stay behind bars for eight years after being convicted of defrauding Tyco out of $600 million. You think we'd have learned our lesson, but when we saw a guy aboard Leopard who looked as though he might be the engineer, we asked him what he did. Instead of rightfully telling us to piss off, he cheerfully explained that he owned or franchised or in some way made money from 450 pizza parlors and delivery services in England and Ireland.
