What a thrill just to participate in a famous event like the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta! I was asked by my good friends, Chris Lamond and MaryLiz Hepburn, owners of Wandering Albatross, a 1976 Westsail 32, if I would be interested in helping them in the classic yacht race. They had spent months preparing the boat and had it looking really Bristol - lots of varnish both above and below decks, updated gelcoat, the whole nine yards. My racing experience was pretty limited so, after sufficiently warning them that I'm no racer, I happily accepted their offer. Our crew of four included Chris, MaryLiz, myself, and Chuck Hill of the catamaran, Maker's Match.

     I think I'm being honest when I say that we all had high hopes of turning in a respectable performance, but only vague dreams of winning anything. After all, Westsail 32's are not exactly known for their speed. However, after having a corrected time that gave us a first place in the very first race, we definitely turned it up a notch! The next two days we finished in first place back to back, actually crossing the finish line first in our class and hearing the winning gun from the committee boat.

      Thanks to a great job of skippering and strategizing by Captain Chris, a boat that may be a notch above the average Westsail 32 in speed, three days of virtually ideal sailing conditions for this particular boat, and hopefully some above average crewing on our part, we walked away with three first places and one second place over the course of four different races in four days. We finished with an overall First in Class in the 'Classics A' class (9 boats) and a third overall among all boats under forty feet in length (15 boats).

     Next time somebody refers to a Westsail 32 as a 'wet snail,' I'll have a story to tell. The comment we heard from somebody in the crowd when we were walking up to the stage to accept our trophy said it all, "....Wandering Albatross, that's that damn Westsail that kicked everybody's ass."

     Congratulations to MaryLiz and Chris and all of the other winners and participants in the regatta.