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55th Family Island Regatta
Georgetown, Great Exuma
Island, Bahamas
21st - 26th April 2008
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Excitement mounted in Georgetown as ships began
to arrive in the harbour laden with small sailing sloops, participants in
the 55th Family Island Regatta, a highlight of the Bahamian annual calendar. Suddenly the government dock was lined
with shacks which would be offering all kinds of refreshments to crew and
spectators for the duration of the regatta.
The first races were scheduled for Tuesday.
On Monday, the crane arrived on the dock to lift the racing sloops ashore,
to be rigged ready to race.
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Of course, in true island style, things did not
go quite to plan. There was a hydraulics breakdown on the
crane, causing considerable delay. Once repaired, somehow
the crane managed to tip over with the boom and one of the racing boats
ending up in the sea. Somehow, however, the boats
managed to get rigged in time and the crews began practising for the
races
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Setting up the masts.......
Ken on Badgers Sett gets a
good photo opportunity as a practising crew pass perilously close!
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Our particular interest was in the Class C boats
entered by Christopher's friend Hughrie from Barraterre.
Three class C boats built by Hughrie were racing for the village, captained
by himself and his sons. Hughrie's "Fisherman's
Inn", Fenton's "I've Tried" and Headley's "Golden
Girl" made up our team, as well as one smaller class D
dinghy. These were the two smaller classes of boats with no foresail, just a
mainsail.
Christopher was to be in charge of the team's
chase boat, the power boat which assists the racing boats prior to the
start, if necessary, collects any crew who may fall overboard and be unable
to continue racing and collects any discarded ballast of lead or sandbags,
on the way around the buoys. On the first day
of racing he took Phil along as his crew with Zappa and Shelley, the
dogs. Zappa was quickly fired from the team for being
afraid of the starting gun!
The start line was always a little
chaotic. The boats all had to be anchored behind the line
before the starting gun and on hearing the start signal, the bow man began
hauling frantically on the anchor line, whilst the rest of the crew made
sail as quickly as possible. Of course, with around thirty small
boats sailing to the start line and dropping their anchors close together
ready for the start, there was always some rearranging and reshuffling of
boats. This was where the chase boat sprang into action if
the boats needed to re-anchor in a different
position. Often the team's boats would be anchored
ready in a good position, when a competitors boat, arriving later for the
start, would anchor dangerously close or in a perceived better position,
leading to many incomprehensible, high volume exchanges between competitors and
frequent re-anchoring manoeuvres with assistance from the chase boats.
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The crew of Golden Girl
eagerly await the gun
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Pull!!!!
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With this type of boat, once the race began, you
sailed with whatever sail you had set up. Sometimes
the decision to reef the sail for higher winds was made at the last minute
before the gun and proved to be quite a perilous operation, unless carried
out from the relative safety of the chase boat. The
decision on how many crew to carry could also be made at the last
minute. Whilst it was permitted to discard excess ballast
of lead bars or sandbags during the race, crew ballast was not allowed to be
thrown overboard!
The major strategic decision by the skippers
of which tack to begin the race on could also lead to chaos, if
neighouring boats headed off in opposing directions. The
occasional collision was a normal event.
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Last minute sail reefing
operation
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Hughrie's boat in collision
shortly after the start
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The smaller D class boats would race the same
course at the same time, starting a little behind the line for the class C
boats. There were fewer boats in this class,
normally only three for each race. This 55th annual
regatta was, for Jack skipper of "Regret" also his 55th annual
regatta!
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Barraterre's Class D boat
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Jack's 55th regatta
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The course for the races varied depending on
wind direction, with normally a couple of laps from the start to a windward
mark and back, the finish line being off the Government dock which was lined
with spectators. Strategy proved important as boats clustered to
tack around the windward mark, with boats battling to be on the starboard
tack and have the right of way. The long
over-hanging booms of the boats sometimes became tangled as boats squeezed
close together around the windward buoy and one one occasion this ended in
disaster with a broken boom for one participant.
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Approaching the windward
mark
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Collision chaos and a
broken boom.
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Successfully around the
mark
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As the week went on, it wasn't only the racing
which became more intense. The partying also seemed
to get tougher and it was noticeable that the start time seemed to become a
little more flexible towards the end of the regatta, with racers often
having to wait at the start line for somewhat hung-over stragglers to
arrive.
Life in the start boat was occasionally
fraught with peril. It seemed a daily occurrence that the
chase boat was handed over with insufficient petrol for the outboard,
leading to tricky re-fuelling operations in the swelly harbour during the
races.
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Decisions to re-locate the racing boats' anchors
at the start line proved particularly dangerous for the crew of the chase
boat. After taking up the dinghies' anchors, the full
force of the weight of the racing boat would be on its anchor line, in the
hands of the chase boat crew. Luckily Christine and Vivian
always kept their heads down for this operation as, on the last day of
racing, a re-anchoring operation ended in disaster.
The anchor line of Hughrie's sailboat was taken up as a result of a last
minute strategic decision. During the challenging task of
repositioning the anchor ready for the start, the anchor line caught on the
throttle of the chase boat, the force on the line not only completely
tearing off the throttle lever but also leaving us in full forward throttle,
with no lever to slow the boat down, As we swung around
the race boats at high speed, nearly taking out the start line buoy, Chris
quickly pulled the engine kill switch, averting more serious
disaster. For the rest of the race, the teams had to go it
alone as the chase boat managed to limp slowly back to safety!
Of course, during the week the chase boat
crew also managed to fit in some partying, sampling the local fare and
beverages on offer from the shacks on the
dock.
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Christopher and Vivian
embarrassed by Phil!
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Christine and Vivian strut
their funky stuff......
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......and end the evening carrying
Christopher home!
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