CLIENTS WIN PRESTIGIOUS AWARDS AT SAILING WEEK

An Exciting Finale For The Caribbean Series In Antigua

92-boats arrived at the scene for the 52nd edition of Antigua Sailing Week, giving sailors from all around the world a chance to race in one of the most beautiful sailing locations in the Caribbean. Bright blue waters and reliable 18-25 knot tradewinds provide pristine racing conditions for boats of all kinds, ranging from 24-115’ in length. Sailors raced on everything from small boat one designs to high-performance speed racers and elegant megayachts. Antigua offers utmost hospitality for sailors during sailing week, with social activities and fun post-racing award ceremonies allowing competitors to meet and make new connections and talk about their fun day on the water. Between the race committee officials, organizers, and onshore teams, the hospitality and event organization at Sailing Week did not disappoint this year.

North Sails clients had a solid showing at sailing week, winning prestigious awards and overall recognition. Sir Peter Harrison’s Sojana* won the honorable Lord Nelson Trophy for the third time. “ “It was a fantastic week,” commented Sir Peter. We won the trophy last year and in 2011, so this is a hat-trick win for us. Sojana* has been powering along and there hasn’t been a day when we haven’t done well. I am absolutely delighted with our team’s success.”

Sojana* won six races total, claiming the overall win for CSA and in CSA 1. Antigua Race Week concludes a successful Caribbean season for Sojana, who adopted 3Di into their inventory in 2018.

CSA 4 team Liquid, with owner Pamala Baldwin, won the Travellers Trophy this year for outstanding results over the course of the entire Caribbean racing series. The final test was Antigua Sailing Week, where the team showed off their talents and secured the trophy, and second overall in their division.

In CSA 6, Jules Mitchell’s 26-footer NSA Spirit, a dominated in class despite breaking a rudder and retirement in race six. After a quick fix, Mitchell and his all-Antigua youth team were right back at it after a quick fix. NSA Spirit won their division by six points and claimed Henley Cup Trophy for highest placing local team and first place in their division.

“This is my sixth Antigua Sailing Week and the third as skipper of NSA Spirit. It’s been awesome! Antigua served up amazing tradewinds that we capitalized on and the regatta had excellent organization. A true test of sportsmanship and big respect goes to NSA Valiant, for lending us their rudder when ours broke.”

In the double-handed class, client Philip Asche on American Swan 44 Freebird, won the National Parks Trophy for taking the bullet in the final race of the regatta, and winning overall in class. “We are feeling really good having won our class. It’s strong sailing down here, which we know. The boat was built for these conditions, but we are not quite as built for it as we used to be! It’s been a very good week and we have enjoyed it a lot,” said Philip.

The North Sails loft in Antigua was working in overdrive throughout the week to ensure all teams were race ready. It was a lot of late nights making sure repairs were completed in time to get all sailors back on the water to take on the next day of racing.

“Everything from batten pockets to luff tapes, leech tapes to clew reinforcements,” commented loft manager Andrew Dove. “A lot of these teams have been to the loft multiple times this week with miscellaneous things that needed attention. 3Di is by far the easiest and fastest sail material to repair because it does not have delam issues. We’ve seen many laminate string sails come in each day for repairs.”

A short race day for SHK Scallywag turned into a long overnight for Andrew and his team. Just after the start of the around the island race, Scallywag got tangled upwind, hooking their backstay and part of their mainsail on a TP52. Note to self, a carbon TP52 mast is no match for any sail! The North loft was proud to share they were quick to take on the task of getting the 100’ speed-demon back out on the race course, having their repaired 3Di sail delivered at the dock first thing Monday morning.

Future Fibres pulled off some tricky logistics to get Scallywag a backstay delivered to the island in time for one final day of sailing. The team finished Antigua Sailing Week in high spirits and went out on the final day to take second place in the last race of the regatta.

Congratulations to our clients for an outstanding showing and perseverance throughout the week of windy-blue water sailing.