And finally

Alastair Abrehart brings this years Antigua Sailing Week to a close with a review of the action

The 38th annual Antigua Sailing Week held April 24 to 30, saw 183 boats representing 27 different countries competing in the granddaddy of them all. Although winds up to 20 knots were seen some race days, light winds dogged the event with Division A racing cancelled on Tuesday. Division A completed four races and Division B, five.

While the weather was unusual, spirits were high, Penny Bloxham of Team Club Colonna, a Sun Odyssey 451 in Bareboat IV, said: "We had a fantastic time - raced hard, partied hard, it's just a pity the wind wasn't hard! The organisation was slick and superb - you should be proud. We're all very sad it's over for another year."

"This year's Sailing Week may not have been one of the most spectacular but it was certainly memorable," added vice-chairman Jan Santos. "We're used to perfect conditions here but managed to get as much racing as we could under the circumstances. It was still a good year and we're looking forward to welcoming everybody back next year including all the big boats that are undertaking other endeavours this year."

Titan XII, Tom Hill's Reichel/Pugh 75 from Puerto Rico and always the favourite this year, won Big Boat Racing II with four points, the Lord Nelson's Trophy for fleet overall by four points and set the inaugural Round Island Race record with an elapsed time of 5 hours, 4 minutes and 45 seconds to win the Yachting World trophy. Titan also won Best Caribbean Yacht (Division A), Best Yacht Over 60 Feet and Racing Class, Caribbean Big Boat Series. The much-anticipated participation of the 'fresh out of the box' New Zealand supermaxi Maximus was foiled by engine problems with the transport ship and she arrived in Antigua as Sailing Week finished on Sunday morning.

"It wasn't the windiest day ever but it was a good trade wind day and there weren't any holes," said Titan's tactician Peter Isler on how long he thought the Round Island Race record would hold. "The key is keeping the marks in the same place. That [racing against the clock] has been the constant challenge for us throughout the Caribbean series," continued Isler, "except for St Maarten where we had Carrera to play with. The clock has always been foremost in our minds especially in Tortola where we were always within a minute on corrected time. We knew we had to keep the pedal down and that's the way we have been sailing all week. We didn't leave much on the table."

After her fifth place on the penultimate day of racing, Equation managed to take Sir Peter Ogden's Swan 601 Spirit Of Jethou to a tiebreak with a second place finish on Friday, the final day of racing. Bill Alcott and his Equation came out better to take second in class with Ogden taking the third place spot.

Les Crouch's R/P 44 Storm with the boat's builder Paul Amon at the helm also beat Edgar Cato's Hissar on a tie-break in Racing II - both had seven points each. Filip Balcaen's Swan 56 Aqua Equinox was third. However Cato took home the coveted Asprey trophy for winning the NetJets Swan Caribbean Challenge after a demanding week of racing against 22 other Swans.

Enzyme, the Trinidadian Henderson 35 comprised of old Legacy crew, paid Dougie Myers, their skipper who passed away last year, the respects they had hoped by winning Racing IV, the "Caribbean class". Antiguan Lost Horizon II was second having suffered a disqualification the previous day. EIB-Marina Bas du Fort, the Beneteau First 10 from Guadeloupe, was third. Russian Swan 48 Murka topped Racer/Cruiser III.

Tarka, the Cork and Cowes Week class winner, can now add Antigua Sailing Week to the list. The UK-based First 40.7 beat fourteen other boats including five other First 40.7s in Racer/Cruiser II and took the Sanhall Trademarks Trophy for best overall racer/cruiser. Having cruised and raced the Caribbean since crossing the Atlantic with the ARC, Antigua Sailing Week was the prize. Nick Jones, owner and bowman for the week said: "This [Antigua Sailing Week] was always the big one and this was the one that we went ball's out for to try and get all the boys out from home and do well. It's always nice to finish up a regatta with four points from four races even beating the mighty Titan which I think had six [in fleet] in the end."

Next 57 Genesis - full of Maximus crew, including co-owners Charles St Clair Brown and Bill Buckley, left high and dry by the 100-foot supermaxi's no-show - took the class win in Performance Cruiser I and Danilo Salsi's Swan 75 Dasian, was second. Swan 46 Milanto was third.

Dasian, on her first regatta outing since her launch last year and loaded with Italian talent including America's Cup veteran Lorenzo Bortolotti as tactician, round the world sailor and Star Olympian, Pietro D'Ali, as mainsail trimmer, and Gigio Russo of North Sails Italy as headsail trimmer, saw her class lead in Performance Cruiser I disappear before her eyes on the last day of racing. Some of the larger faster boats, including Dasian and YDL 96 Symmetry, suffered from the shifting winds on the Division B course when the beat back to the finish turned to a fetch for the boats at the back of the fleet. Swan 651 Burggolf took the day and Dasian was relegated to tenth place, Symmetry, eighth.

Warren Batt's Australian Farr 46 Mustang Sally took home two trophies for winning Cruising Class I and the overall prize for Cruising.

In a hard-fought week, Beneteau 44 Seabiscuit with an all-woman crew, took the overall Bareboat fleet prize and Bareboat V. "It has been a hard week all week long," said skipper Pat Nolan. "We concentrated really hard. We paid a lot of attention to our navigation, we worked very well together as a team and we kept our eye on our competitors the whole time to try and stay between them and the mark. We just tried to sail as fast as possible and as smart as possible – at the same time!"

The third annual Bareboat Championship Race (BCR) for the top three in each of the six bareboat classes was held on Saturday and saw Hans Petersohn and his crew onboard the Sun Fast 37 Ora emerge victorious in the three-hour race. With Seabiscuit having already won Bareboat V and the overall fleet prize, Petersohn managed to block Seabiscuit's hat trick with a BCR victory; Ora was second to Seabiscuit in Bareboat V.

For the first day of racing the fleet made its way to Dickenson Bay and the bad weather that sliced through the fleet as they prepared for the regatta the day before, held off. A dark sky welcomed participants but 14 knots of wind, with some 18-20 knot gusts, drove the fleet North and sunshine was eventually the staple for most of the day. The fleet started off English Harbour and after a short beat East, headed West and then North with those that could, carrying spinnakers for much of the way. Division B boats were given a little dog leg into Curtain Bluff and Division A was sent further out to sea.

Surprising few, 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, Bill Alcott's Andrews 68 Equation was second. Storm 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.

In Division B, Dasian got elapsed and corrected time in Performance Cruiser I. Next 57 Genesis was second.

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 proceedings for the afternoon by opening their set with Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!

The weathermen struck for the second day as the light wind that was forecast settled on the fleet. Unseasonably light wind postponed the races for Division A and B fleets for an hour and while it eventually filled in enough to start races, it never really held.

On the Division A course - further out to sea than Division B - the wind was in the region of 8 knots and 220 degrees. By the time the start sequence had completed the wind had dropped to four knots. When the racing was finally abandoned for the day, the wind was down to two knots and had shifted to 340 degrees - it reached all other directions in between. Titan XII was 300 yards from the finish when the first race was abandoned due to the wind shifts. Yachts heading to, and from, the leeward mark with their spinnakers up was the clincher for the race committee.

Further inshore, Division B sat in rain, which took the wind with it. The rain held off until the fleet had rounded the marks off Blue Waters on the northwest tip of Antigua. After an unusual spinnaker run to these marks, the fleet was heading back on an equally unusual beat when the heavens opened and the wind disappeared. The fleet sat bedraggled looking for wind, facing each and every direction. This same rainsquall, which had headed up along Antigua's coast from the south, hit the committee boat on Division A from the north. The yachts in Division B slowly escaped the wind vacuum and the race committee shortened the course.

Although it looked like a lottery on the water, a number of class winners from the previous day's racing also won in these trying conditions including Dasian, Mustang Sally, Nanuk, Justice, Seabiscuit and Durley Dene. Those that headed inshore got the wind when it returned first. "We just kept trickling along. A lot of the others just parked up," said Ollie Alsop, crew member on Durely Dene.

Another boat to head inshore was Dufour 47, SAP Lycee Blanchet. This yacht, crewed by students from Guadeloupe that had never flown a spinnaker before this event and skippered by their teacher, racked up a first place.

"The rain and wind went left and right and we played good," said skipper Frederic Fernandez. "After the rain came, everyone took their spinnakers down but we kept ours for three or four minutes more. During the rain we stayed in the right direction for the next buoy and we had a little wind, but enough, to go on. After we go to the left, inshore, we kept the wind and doubled [the distance] on all boats. We stayed in the wind but we were a little bit lucky."

None of the old-hands that have run Antigua Sailing Week were able to recall a similar race day for the event. "Late-80s or early-90s" was as close as it got. The race committee cancelled the inaugural Round Island Race due to take place the next day and the yachts in Big Boat Racing II and Racing 3 joined the rest of the Division A fleet on the South Coast Race.

The wind returned for the third day of racing and although not as strong as some Sailing Week days, the 12-20 knots that greeted the Division A racing boats was a pleasant surprise as they raced on the South Coast Race between Curtain Bluff and Shirley Heights. The Division B Falmouth Harbour Race started with lighter winds off Jolly Harbour. The course started with a short beat, which was followed by some deep downwind sailing, a reach and then a good solid beat in a freshening breeze with twenty-knot gusts to the finish off Falmouth Harbour.

In Division A, as it was for Division B towards the end, sailing the shifts - of up to 30 degrees - was the order of the day. As the fleet headed upwind "good size puffs" came off the island to the left and while following them was the thing to do, the key was to not get too close to the cliffs and get becalmed below Shirley Heights. Downwind these same puffs held further offshore and so the winning boats stayed further out where there was also a little more current to carry them back to the leeward mark.

Both divisions converged towards the end of racing at the Legacy mark off Curtain Bluff, the last windward mark for Division B, and the leeward mark for Division B.

Titan XII racked up another win to go into LayDay leading class and fleet with two points in each. Edgar Cato's Swan 56 Hissar won Racing III and shared class lead with Swan 56 Aqua Equinox and Trinidad's R/P 44 Storm, each with six points

"We got a good start and got out in the fresh air before the other boats did and then we had really good speed and legged out from the other boats" said Hissar's tactician Jack Slattery. "Once we got about 50 yards out we stretched from there and stretched all day."

Disco Inferno II, the UK-based First 47.7, racked up her first win in Racer/Cruiser I and Tarka won racer/Cruiser II to solidify her class lead.

In Performance/Cruiser I, Abbott Brown's 96-foot Symmetry finally got the better of the Italian Swan 75 Dasian. So did Genesis, Capercaillie and Burggolf. Dasian found herself fifth but remained top of the class with Symmetry only one point behind.

In the Bareboat classes, some yachts had started to entrench their positions: Patrick Festing-Smith's Nanuk Of The North racked up a third win and was leading Bareboat II by three points. Justice also racked up her third win to lead Bareboat IV by seven points as did Durley Dene in Bareboat VI.

Racing returned on Thursday after the Layday high jinks which included beach antics on Pigeon Beach and hockey Canadian-style on the Falmouth Harbour basketball court. The fleet was greeted by 14 knots on the start line and twelve boats in Racing Big Boat II and Racing III undertook the 44-mile challenge of the inaugural Round Island Race for the Yachting World Trophy which was re-instated after its cancellation on Tuesday.

From Titan's race-winning perspective, the weather was good for the entire way around the island: 14-18 knots as they beat up the south coast, 15-20 knots along the east side of the island on a jib reach that opened to a spinnaker reach and then a spinnaker run in 16 knots along the north side. By the time Titan had turned the corner at 'Sandy' on the north west side of the island, Titan hadn't seen the wind fade at all. A five-minute wind hiccup to 10 knots after 'Sandy' quickly built back up to 14-18 knots for the beat around the bottom of the island back to the finish.

In Racing III, Michael Finn's J/160 Kativa from the USA obviously revelled in the round island conditions and got her first gun with Hissar second and Storm third.

The rest of Division A sailed a South Coast Race looping between buoys off Falmouth Harbour and Curtain Bluff.

Racing IV saw some upset for the Antiguan boats. Jamie Dobbs' Lost Horizon II was disqualified for missing a mark which sent them to fourth in class. After a dismasting on Tuesday, Geoffrey Pidduck's Mermaid II did not return to the start line and neither did Caccia Alla Volpe after a disqualification on Tuesday. Trinidadian Henderson 35 Enzyme won to go into the last day leading the class by one point.

Mikhail Mouratov's Murka turned the table on First 47.7 Disco Inferno II to take the lead in Racer/Cruiser I by three points.

Division B beat to 'Standfast' out to sea and headed back inshore on a spinnaker reach to 'Willoughby', followed by another beat to 'Halfmoon' and a long downwind leg back to the finish off Falmouth Harbour. By Willoughby, the wind and seas had started to die a little and as the afternoon wore on the wind was down to 9 knots with puffs taking it to 11 knots.

The Italians onboard the 75-foot Swan Dasian, powered away from a good start and held off the YDL 96 Symmetry until the last windward mark but Dasian was faster downwind and beat the higher-rated Symmetry over the water to earn another first place.

In the bareboat classes, Nanuk and Durley Dene of Horizon Yacht Charters, together with Justice, topped Bareboats II, VI and IV respectively for the fourth time. The battle was on for the fleet prize with one race to go. Justice was leading Seabiscuit by one point, with Durley Dene five points behind her. Last year's clean sweep winners in class, fleet and the BCR, Phil Otis and crew, were third in class and tenth in fleet. Jan Soderberg was tied for first place in Bareboat III with fellow Swede Pereric Berggren with nine points each. Both were sailing Dufour 50s.

The light winds that had been threatening to return to Antigua Sailing Week did so for the last day of racing. Both divisions raced off the south coast of Antigua but Division A, on the eastern side of the island with a course that took them further out to sea, had a little more wind. By the afternoon, fifty-foot bareboats were traveling downwind at 2.5 knots. Although light, the wind did hold to give a final tally of four races for Division A and five for Division B.

The Lord Nelson's Ball held at the Copper & Lumber Store marked the end of the 38th annual Antigua Sailing Week. Rain brought an abrupt finish to the prize giving but filled the dance floor early. Stragglers were still heading home as Maximus' transport ship docked in Antigua the early hours of Sunday morning. Dates for Antigua Sailing Week 2006 are April 30 to May 6.

Division A, provisional class standings (Class, Name, Builder, Skipper, Country, Class Points):

Racing Big Boat II - Titan XII, R/P 75, Tom Hill, USA, 4
Racing III - Storm, R/P 44, Paul Amon, Trinidad, 7
Racing IV - Enzyme, Henderson 35, Paul Solomon, USA, 10
Racer/Cruiser I - Murka, Swan 48, Mikhail Mouratov, GB/Russia, 5
Racer/Cruiser II - Tarka, First 40.7, Nicholas Jones, Great Britain, 4

Division B, provisional class standings (Class, Name, Builder, Skipper, Country, Class Points):

Performance Cruiser I - Genesis, Next 57, Rusell Steiner, USA, 15
Performance Cruiser II - L’Esperance, Bobby Velasquez, St Maarten, 13
Performance Cruiser III - Finn, Finngulf 391, Diederik deMesel, Belgium, 12
Cruising I - Mustang Sally, Farr 46, Warren Batt, Australia, 7
Cruising II - Arawa, Columbia 50, Doug DeCluitt, USA, 8
Bareboat II - Nanuk of the North, Beneteau 50, Patrick Festing-Smith, Canada, 6
Bareboat III – Heliodore, Dufour 50, Christophe Nielsen, Germany, 12
Bareboat IV - Justice, Beneteau 47, Justin Barton, USA, 6
Bareboat V - Seabiscuit, Beneteau 44, Pat Nolan, BVI, 8
Bareboat VI - Durley Dene, Bavaria 36, Alsop Thompson, British Virgin Islands, 6

2005 Bareboat Championship Race Results:

1 Ora, Sun Fast 37, Hans Petersohn, Germany
2 Seabiscuit, Beneteau 44, Pat Nolan, British Virgin Islands
3 Fifty Feet Ahead, Dufour 50, Pereric Berggren, Sweden

For more information on Antigua Sailing Week visit: http://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. Oceanus is the official timer of Antigua Sailing Week.