Dragons In The Sun - From Aldeburgh's Rufus Gilday

While cruising around the Windies, before Easter, we fell in with the Cruising Club of America, who were on tour around Antigua. Over a few drinks, as yachtspersons occasionally do, it was decided that a fleet race in Dragons on Good Friday would be a good idea. Calls were made, deals were struck, and crews were assembled, before the sun had set on Thursday. Slightly bleary eyed we assembled at the bottom of Nonsuch Bay and listened to a tall suntanned Tuton explain the simplicities of rigging and then sailing the new Petticrow. It was with a certain degree of smugness that your correspondent watched the mounting look of horror on the face of one stalwart yachtsman who had proclaimed confidently the previous evening that he was an experienced Dragon helm as he’d raced in Hong Kong in the 70s. “What the hell are all those bits of string for” he wailed. The cruising folk were equally bemused, and it is a great credit to Harmony Hall that we were turned loose in their fleet of pristine yachts. Actually, experienced Blue Water sailors tend to be both competent and cautious so nothing untoward was likely to happen, and indeed nothing did.

Eight crews boarded their boats, which are all named after a different bay on the Island of Antigua, and an hour later some of them were still rigging. Meanwhile we were smugly blasting around the bay in 15 / 18 knots steady breeze, having a wonderful time. The venue is superb. The bay faces east to the Atlantic, with a reef across the top so that there is very little current and relatively flat water. There are low hills to lend some interest to the essentially steady trade winds.

Two races were run. Start, half way up the beat, starboard jibe mark, leeward mark, and beat to the finish. The starts were fun as there was a considerable fleet of cruising yachts moored close by. The racing was reasonably close and great fun. The Yanks beat the Brits, but had to resort to a former Olympic Dragon helm to do it. “Corinthian my ass” as they say in the USA. As the crews came ashore after the race a few of the ladies, who had fancied their chances, were looking a bit shell shocked as the reality of sailing these demanding boats in a breeze had quickly become evident. Still, nothing was broken, and there was plenty to boast about later over a Rum Swizzle.

All in all it was terrific morning afloat, all the more so for being entirely unscripted. While sitting on the dock, beer in hand, a distinguished looking chap strolled up to chat and talk about boats. It turned out he owns a big Classic yacht and it further turned out he also owns Harmony Hall and it was Carlo Falcone himself. He is to be congratulated for putting together such a wonderful venue.

I would certainly recommend that any visiting Dragon sailors get in touch and rent a ride for a few hours afloat. You might even want to just cruise the Bay which is very pretty at the top, and it would be great to drop anchor off Green Island and swim ashore or do a bit of Scuba. It would be highly ironic if the fleet of brand new state of the art Petticrows ended up as a day boat for cruising in Antigua. Or better still, how about having a race to the top of the bay, anchor, swim ashore for a picnic, then a Le Mans start from the beach for the run home. Either way it is a really lovely venue and well worth a detour, as the Michelin folks say.

I believe it was snowing in Britain … How sad.
Rufus Gilday