Bareboat brawl

Alaistair Abrehart reports from the concluding part of Antigua Sailing Week

The battle of the top bareboats took place today in the second annual Bareboat Championship Race. Conditions were still demanding with 20-25 knot winds and 6-8 foot seas. 18 boats - the top three from each class - lined up on the start line and DSD Carnival with Phil Otis on the helm emerged victorious.

First across the line in the 12-mile race was Jan Soderberg's Rosco in just over two hours, followed by DSD Carnival four minutes behind. DSD Carnival got them on corrected time to make it a record-breaking clean sweep. Winning six out of six races, they took their class (Bareboat III), overall bareboat and today's Bareboat Championship Race. Rosco, a Dufour 50, was second and Durley Dene, a Bavaria 36 and the smallest boat out there today, was third.

"We thought the conditions here would favor the bigger boats, we were particularly worried Rosco," said Otis. "We set ourselves up to have a conservative start and to more or less control where we were relative to him. And that was probably the best thing we did tactically. We had a very good clean start and he was down below us. We stayed in front of him for probably the first hour, just about all the way to the windward mark. That's when he first passed us and we stayed right on him going downwind and prevented him getting that differential that would have meant the race for him."

DSD Carnival has been campaigning the Caribbean this season, competing in the St Croix International Regatta and St Maarten's Heineken Regatta as BVI Yacht Charters where she won class and Most Worthy Performance.

DSD Carnival sailed in Antigua with the same core crew as the other regattas who between them have built up their crew work and their experience of Caribbean conditions. "I don't know what the other boats sail in at home but it's probably not like here. Having done three races here we knew what to expect," Otis concluded on his win.

One protest was filed post-race.

The Lord Nelson's Ball and prize giving wraps the 37th annual Antigua Sailing Week tonight.

Stanford International Bank Limited is a diamond sponsor of the event. Platinum sponsors are Air Jamaica, Cable & Wireless, English Harbour Rum and American Express. LIAT is a Silver sponsor while Sticky Wicket Restaurant and Going Places Travel are Copper sponsors.