After just two days, competition at Antigua Race Week is hotting up. Roy Disney’s Pyewacket is strutting her stuff on the racecourse but, with Chippewa snapping at her heels, she’s got a lot of work to do before the end of the week
After the first big beach party of the week at Dickenson Bay last night, where steel bands played and dancing continued well in to the early hours, Antigua Race Week competitors were greeted with fresh north-easterly breeze and blazing sunshine this morning (30 April) for the second race of the week.
Once again the two racing divisions, sailed two separate courses with Division A (racing boats and sportsboats) racing a windward/leeward course in the morning and an Olympic-type triangle in the afternoon. Division B sailed one race along the coast finishing just off Jolly Harbour, the venue for the second evening’s entertainment.
In the Racing Big Boat class, Pyewacket took two more wins to add to yesterday’s first race victory, despite being pushed out at the start line on the committee boat end in the first race. Having tacked round to clear the start line correctly, she took the bit between her teeth and gracefully powered through the fleet to take her first race of the day. She then repeated her powerful performance and took her third win of the regatta. But it wasn’t all plain sailing for Pyewacket who had the ever-threatening Chippewa snapping at her heels throughout the two races. Spirit of Jethou was also giving the leading two boats a hard time and in both races finished in third place overall.
With a second in the first race of the day and a first in the second race, the British boat Noonmark VI has done enough to retain her overall fleet lead. But with her closest rival Lolita winning the first race over the windward/leeward course, the competition is set to become burning hot over the next few days.
Richard Matthews’ Oyster Catcher XXI, with Rob Humphreys and Harold Cudmore calling the shots, took another win to add to yesterday’s first race victory. However, despite her shining set of results, she’s still only lying in second overall in Division B to the Jeanneau 38 Gaid Prat sailed by the Frenchman Christian Denuit.
The overall leader of the Bareboat division is the Beneteau 44 Waisters skippered by Jan Soderberg from Sweden.
In Racing Class III the local boat Lost Horizon II, an Olson 30 skippered by James Dobbs, won both races today after some tough competition with the two Mumm 30s Twisted Lizard from the USA and Red Fever skippered by Gilberto Lopez.
Tomorrow’s racing (1 May) starts from Jolly Harbour and finishes off English Harbour on the south of the island – the sailing area for the remainder of week’s races.