This gives every team a better opportunity to taste the sweetness of a podium finish. "Club Class boats use the easy and inexpensive to get CSA Simplified rating and is scored using the Variable Handicap, so your rating changes every day according to your prior performance. "Club Class is designed with a format that is affordable, inviting, and non-aggressive," confirmed Torres. JigSaw - Oyster 53 - Winners of 2019 Club Class - Antigua Sailing Week - photo © Paul Wyeth /
Back in the early days, Antigua Sailing Week was popular with cruising boats, enjoying a finale at the end of the Caribbean Season. The Club Class is really designed to be just like the origins of Antigua Sailing Week. I am very hopeful that we will have more sign-ups in the coming months as there are plenty more sportboats in the Caribbean." It is great to see we will have the biggest Sportsboat Class ever for Antigua Sailing Week. "We have made a big effort to reach out to the sportsboat community in the Caribbean and it has paid off.
One of the keys to success is going to be really good communication between the race committee and the sailors, to decide rest between races and the course style and length." Antigua Sailing Week is a challenging regatta for Sportsboats, you are basically offshore in big waves. The cruising boats will typically set off on long courses, leaving plenty of time and space to run multiple short, sharp races for the Sportboats. The plan is to start the Sportsboat Class from the same Committee Boat the cruising classes. Although racing under CSA we are considering offering prizes for classes with 3 or more boats that meet one-design criteria." continued Torres.
"The Sportsboat Class is open to all types of planing boats around 26-28 feet. Seven teams are already entered for the Sportboat Class, including three 1720s from Antigua and four Melges 24s from Antigua, St Bart's and Sint Maarten. NSA Spirit - Cork 1720 - Antigua Sailing Week - photo © Paul Wyeth / High Performance displacement boats include Adrian Lee's Irish Swan 60 Lee Overlay Partners, OnDeck's Antiguan Farr 65 Spirit of Juno, and the potent new British Swan 58 Omii, skippered by Shahid Hamid. While it is nearly impossible to create a class split that satisfies all racers, our most important aim is to create classes filled with boats of similar sail plans, planning ability and within a tight rating band."Įarly entries for the numerous CSA Racing Classes include Volvo 70 Green Dragon with a crew from CYC Seattle, led by Victor Wild and Steve Travis. This will create classes that will have really exciting boat-on-boat racing. "The race management team is looking at class splits based on boat type, rather than overall length. "The main criteria for racing class splits are performance and planing ability, length is a secondary parameter to speed." commented Torres, who has competed at Antigua Sailing Week in a huge variety of boats. ASW Racing Manager, Jaime Torres looks at the impressive classes set for the big regatta. A huge variety of sailors from around the world are relishing a grand return to action at the Caribbean's oldest premier regatta. With less than five months to the start of Antigua Sailing Week, over 60 boats are already on the scratch sheet including monohulls and multihulls.