YACHTING WORLD ROUND ANTIGUA RACE

Antigua Sailing Week 2012 will re-introduce the now-famous Round Antigua Race, once again sponsored by Yachting World Magazine.

The Yachting World Round Antigua Race has been exciting and popular with many Antigua Sailing Week participants in past years.  Traditionally held as the first race of the week, it saw all boats in the racing classes race anti-clockwise around Antigua, while the performance cruising and cruising classes raced in the same direction about two-thirds of the way around Antigua, finishing in Dickenson Bay.

In 2011 the Round Antigua Race was omitted from the program but for the 2012 event, Antigua Sailing Week will re-introduce the Yachting World Round Antigua Race as an optional race to be held on the Saturday before Antigua Sailing Week begins – Saturday, April 28, 2012.  This optional race will be open to all yachts, whether or not entered in Antigua Sailing Week, and will be scored separately from the week’s racing.

Classes are expected to include big boat and racing, sport boat, cruising, multihull, bareboat and classic classes.  With Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta concluding only a few days before the Yachting World Round Antigua Race, the race will provide an ideal way for many classics to complete their Caribbean racing season so all classic yachts are welcome and encouraged to enter this exciting one-day race.  The race will also provide an excellent day of practice for boats preparing to compete in Antigua Sailing Week’s full week of racing, without being concerned that the scoring of this race will impact their week’s results.

Round Antigua Race record holder, Sojana.  Photo © Chris Odom, www.chrisodomphoto.com.

Yachting World Magazine is once again proud to be the sponsor of the Round Antigua Race and encourages yachtsmen to take on the challenge of breaking the existing Round Antigua Race elapsed time record, currently held by the overall winner of Antigua Sailing Week 2011, the Farr-designed 115-foot, Sojana, which completed the race in 4 hours, 37 minutes and 43 seconds in 2009.

In 2012, the elapsed time winner of the Yachting World Round Antigua Race will be awarded the Yachting World Trophy at the awards presentation to be held in conjunction with the Antigua Sailing Week Welcome Party on the evening of Saturday, April 28, following completion of the race.  Trophies will also be awarded to the corrected time winner and to winners of 1st through 3rd places in each class.

Details of this exciting race will be available soon and yachts of all types and sizes are welcome to participate.

To enter the Yachting World Round Antigua Race online, go to www.sailingweek.com.