After Thursday’s light air, the fourth and final race of Antgostura Tobago Sail Week – The Tidco Race – proved to be quite forceful with winds gusting up to 24 knots.

On Business Machine, primarily crewed by girls, we were much overpowered particularly because we counted on the wind dying after the start (as is usually the case). In this race, however, we made a poor call to keep up the number 2, instead of changing to the blade at the start.

The big sail helped us on the broad reach down to Power Boats Mark but despite a reefed main, we lacked weight on the rail to flatten out the boat. We came in 6th on the final race – our worst result for the regatta – perhaps because it was Black Friday! It also meant that although we tied with Sea Wyf for third position overall, we had to defer to their better ratings over the race week and took fourth place. In the racing class the competition was keen. The top five boats were within four points of each other and vying at the mark was aggressive. From my point of view, it seemed there were a few close calls when rounding the mark. In terms of points, Blazin from Barbados, was in the lead, followed by Enzyme, then High Tension and Storm tied for third place.

Unfortunately the carbonfibre mast on Enzyme buckled on the second upwind leg. It shattered in three places but landed clean of rigging and thankfully, crew. However, the team looked fairly disheartened as they dismantled their fallen rig and motored into shore. They headed straight for the committee boat, came up alongside and announced that they had officially retired from the race.

This left room for contenders lower down on the scratch sheet to place and added fuel to the fire on the last few legs of the race.

In the end Blazin seized the trophy in Racing class and Rapajam (another Barbadian boat) took first in Cruiser Racer followed by Nirvana in Cruising, Annie T in Charter Class and Eurasia in Comfort Cruising.

The prizegiving diner was followed by an open air party that went well into the early hours and finished with everyone promising to return next year.

Overall Results

Comfort Crusing

3 Pegasus David Lihou UK

2 Alexa Paul Dale UK

1 Eurasia John Clouston Scotland

Charter

3 Galasminda R. Lee UK

2 Team 1955 Davids Andrews UK

1 Annie T Colin Rudge UK

Cruising

3 Sea WYf Kevin Kenny TT

2 Hotel California Too Steve Schmidt USA

1 Nirvana Lloyd De Roche TT

Cruiser Racer

3 Wayward Jerome Mc Quilken TT

2 Petit Careme Rawle Barrow TT

1 Rapajam Ralph Johnson Barbados

Racing Class

3 Lucozade Sport High Tension Michael Rostant TT

2 Storm Les Crouch USA

1 Blazin Peter Burke Barbados