All Things Wet

Clare Cupples

Putting on a three or four race regatta on the south coast of Antigua is easy, all you need is to get a few boats together in the same place, find someone to shout 3-2-1 “Go”…… and off they go, right? Wrong!

Here in Antigua, although we are blessed to have some of the best sailing conditions in the world, with a warm climate and normally steady Trade Winds, a good 90% of the preparatory work is done before anyone even sees the water in order to have a successful Regatta, with happy competitors. Those boats taking part need to know where they’re going to get together, who’s eligible to enter, when, and how the races are going to be organised. This is all covered by a Notice of Race.

Then they need to know what rules will apply, what class they’re going to be in, when their start is, where they’re going to go and, most importantly, where they’re going to finish. Sailing Instructions (SIs) cover all these details and more. There’s a standing joke amongst Race Officials that if they ever wish to keep a secret from competitors, they publish it in the SIs.

An efficient start involves a Committee Boat (CB) anchored near the start and a Committee Boat Team viz. a Race Officer (RO), who hopefully knows what the heck he’s doing, and several other people identifying the competitors, doing the count-downs, flags, sound signals and recorders. This team has a secret weapon up their sleeves, called an AP Flag. If there’s a sudden shift in the wind or anything happens that will affect a “fair start”, they can display AP and everything starts again….simple!

I’ve already mentioned that it always helps if the competitors know where they’re going.The actual courses are published in advance and turning points are marked with anchored buoys.

On the south coast of Antigua, the sea bed drops away rapidly in a series of shelfs, so the inshore marks are laid in 30-50m of water, the outer mark being in 150m of water. All marks are laid and recovered daily by Winston (inshore) and Archie (offshore). One of the perks of the job for the CB Team is that Archie, having to stay offshore all day, fills in the time fishing and many a time has delivered wonderful fresh fish to the CB, which is cervich-ed and devoured with enthusiasm. Not many ROs have a lemon/lime and a red onion in their race bag!

Then, always assuming that boats have got that far, they have to finish, be identified, a time taken and given a cheerful wave. Many years ago, I managed to take a photo of the 37ft Hillyard cruising boat, Lady Corinne , taking “line honours” from the magnificent 135ft J Class Velsheda; the fact that they’d sailed completely different courses went unmentioned.

So, we now have elapsed times, but for hugely disparate yachts. In order to try and work out fairly who actually won, the boats are each given a Rating before the races (which, in one race series I was involved with, was called top left: Tim setting the finish line top right: Caroline “drying” flags during the Parade of Classics (there is never a time when those flags would be flying simultaneously!) bottom left: Anne and her all-important watch bottom right: Mike and his trusty radio the Time Correction Factor, or, more commonly, the Time Confusion Factor) which is multiplied by the Elapsed Time, giving a Corrected Time and bingo, you know who won.

Yacht Racing is what’s called a “Self-Governing Sport”, i.e. under normal circumstances, there’s no referee out on the water. Even in the most Gentle(wo)manly sailing, there’ll always be mistakes or different interpretations of the Racing Rules of Sailing. When these are identified or there’s a suspicion that the Race Committee made a boo boo, the problem is taken to The Protest Committee, comprising three or more people who have an in-depth knowledge of the rules, who do their best to identify what actually happened and make a decree as to who was less wrong and find in their favour.

Most folks involved with running Yacht Races are Volunteers. In the case of Race Officers and International Judges, they spend many years gaining experience in many parts of the world in different conditions and with many different types of yachts, from Optimists to Superyachts. Others may just do local regattas, or even one specific event each year.

The Committee Boat Team for Antigua Classics could be described as Classics in their own right. For many years they’ve turned out and guarded their roles jealously. As a result, they’re very good at their jobs but woe betide anyone who wants to join them….as I found out in 2012 and was honoured that I got that far.

This year, having had four years off, the “old gang” are back in force.The Voice of Classics, Mike Rose, with his positively arid sense of humour is manning the radio again, Anne Morcom is timer and Tim and Caroline Degavre are on flags. They are joined this year by newbies (to the Classics CB) Chris & Pam Mansfield, Helen Brayley and Alexandra Blakeman-Early

Sorely missed are Fran Nobbs, spotter extraordinaire, John Nobbs, Assistant RO and finisher, and Steve Spanis, guns. Also, Stephen Parry, RO and Luiz Kahl, results, who have both sadly passed away.

This year we have a newbie Race Officer, Neil Andrews. Neil is based in Falmouth, UK which also has an extremely successful annual Classic Regatta and Neil is experienced in running that and anything else that is thrown at him.

Canadian David Pelling is our International Judge, which is a paltry title for a chap who keeps us, and particularly me, on the straight and narrow for All Things Wet, and is one of the best diplomats I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.

Over the years there have been many memorable incidents on the CB from spectacular i.e, Athos running downwind on leg three of The Butterfly under a huge spinnaker with the rest of the fleet scattering; 60ft Spirit Yacht Spirit of Rani literally leaping 10 feet sideways to windward out of 82ft 1902 gaff ketch Coral of Cowes’ way when her lee runner got jammed after a gybe (well, that’s what I say - nothing to do the fact that she was pushed sideways out of the way by Coral’s bow wave…) to the somewhat slower, more gentlemanly sailors clawing their ways to windward and the finish line, willed on by the CB Team (who can’t have a beer until racing is completed), and last but by no means least, the heartwarming moment when the CB Team scattered bougainvillea bracts across the finish line in memory of long-time stalwart of Antigua Yachting, Jan Santos and dolphins came to play.

Then I haven’t even mentioned the Dinghy Wranglers, Single-Handed Race, Parade of Sail and Prize Giving, all of which come under the umbrella of All Things Wet.,,,maybe next year……