GOOD START TO FIRST DAY OF 38TH SAILING WEEK
24 Apr, 2005
Surprising few, Tom Hill's R/P 75 Titan XII romped home first taking
the day on elapsed and corrected time in Big Boat II. She beat
Mari-Cha's time last year by 12 minutes with an elapsed time of 2 hours
and 21 minutes. Showing good form today, Bill Alcott's Andrews 68
Equation was second. Les Crouch's R/P 44 Storm from Trinidad topped
Racing III. Antigua's Jamie Dobbs and his Lost Horizon crew on their
Olson 30 – the smallest boat in their class - surfed their way to a win
in Racing IV.
Danilo Salsi's Dasian, the Swan 75 on her first regatta outing and
loaded with Italian talent, got elapsed and corrected in Performance
Cruiser I. Dasian's crew includes America's Cup veteran Lorenzo
Bortolotti as tactician, round the world sailor and Star Olympian,
Pietro D'Alt, as mainsail trimmer, and Gigio Russo of North Sails Italy
as headsail trimmer. Second-placer Genesis, a Next 57, is now full of
Maximus crew after her delivery delay and includes co-owners Charles St
Clair Brown and Bill Buckley.
There was upset in the Bareboat class where last year's all-conquering
Phil Otis placed fourth in class sailing BVI Yacht Charters/HIHO. His
class, Bareboat V, was won by an all-girl crew on Seabiscuit.
Class winners for today:
Racing Big Boat II - Titan XII, Reichel/Pugh 75, Tom Hill, Puerto Rico
Racing III - Storm, Reichel/Pugh 44, Les Crouch, Trinidad
Racing IV - Lost Horizon II, Olson 30, Jamie Dobbs, Antigua
Racer/Cruiser I - Murka, Swan 48, Mikhail Mouratov, GB/Russia
Racer/Cruiser II - Tarka, First 40.7, Nicholas Jones, Great Britain
Performance Cruiser I - Dasian, Swan 75, Danilo Salsi, Italy
Performance Cruiser II - Wayward, Beneteau 43, Jerome Mcquilkin, Trinidad
Performance Cruiser III - Finn, Finngulf 391, Diederik de Mesel, Belgium
Cruising I - Mustang Sally, Farr 46, Warren Batt, Australia
Cruising II - Arc Angel, Swan 36, Elizabeth Jordan, Antigua
Bareboat II - Nanuk of the North, Beneteau 50, Patrick Festing-Smith, Canada
Bareboat III - Heliodore,Dufour 50, Christophe Nielsen, Germany
Bareboat IV - Justice, Beneteau 47, Justin Barton, USA
Bareboat V – Seabiscuit, Sun Fast 37, Pat Nolan, British Virgin Islands
Bareboat VI – Durley Dene, Bavaria 36, Alsop Thompson, British Virgin Islands
As the fleet anchored in Dickenson Bay the Virgin Atlantic Beach Bash
kicked off with a water ski demonstration by the Stars of Florida water
ski team accompanied by the pumped up and pumped out James Bond theme
on the beach side sound system. Virgin Atlantic's Sir Richard Branson
made a guest appearance in the Bath Tub Derby but didn't rank in the
final three – throwing his crew overboard and jumping ship himself may
have had something to do with that. After the Derby prize giving, which
saw some leg wrestling for additional tickets on Virgin Atlantic, Abba
One closed the proceeding for the afternoon by opening their set with
Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!
Tomorrow, division A yachts will race Olympic courses off Dickenson Bay and Division B will race to Jolly Harbour.
For more information on Antigua Sailing Week visit:
www.sailingweek.com. Stanford International Bank Limited is a diamond
sponsor of the event. Platinum sponsors are Cable & Wireless,
English Harbour Rum and Yachting World. Virgin Atlantic and LIAT are
silver sponsors.
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