no rest for the wicked as the Spitfire halyard
blew and our last head sail came whistling
down the stay to join the other two. With
only the storm tri-sail to play with and the
mid-day bridge opening in half an hour, the
crew concurred that our best option was to
go in and fix the damage done already! The
crew of a dismasted Mooring’s Beneteau
watched us go by as we charged for the
bridge.
Day 2 of racing was cancelled for all multis
due to the consistently high winds and
swell. With the boat parked back at the
dock by 9 am, there was now only one
place to go- the Sunset Beach Bar, uniquely
situated some 50 yards from the edge of the
airport landing strip.
A crowd was gathering. A spec in the
sky could gradually be distinguished as a
plane.‘Eoooosh,’ roared the body of the
plane mere METERS over the beach, to
touch-down on the runway. Then the back
Foredeck action on Sugar Daddy Sugar Daddy crew get in the rhythm!
blast came as holiday-makers hung on to
the airport fence, glasses barely hanging off
one ear with clothing flying at 90 degrees!
More familiar tourists braced themselves,
ducked their heads and endeavoured to
cover their cocktails. Another 747 was due
in half an hour!
The final day of racing was on Sunday,
where the highlight was the TS50 cruising
class catamaran’s attempt to roll upwind
of Cream. Peter Johnstone, founder of
Gunboat and the helmsman of Cream,
was having none of it! ‘Rhume,’ ‘Geev uz
rhume,’ cried the French crew on the TS50
as Cream hardened up and drove them
legitimately right past the mark. After the
mark rounding the TS50, rumoured to be a
‘Gunboat-slayer’ leewayed off to St. Bart’s
and was never seen again!
The beat was a real upwind beat as we
thrashed our way up to Tintamare through
the head on swell. Passing Cream, we
rounded the mark right before Sugar Daddy
Sugar Daddy at speed
and took the lead, which with some 300
square meters of spinnaker aloft, we were
hoping to keep that way! But no! Our
spinnaker was descending into the water!
With a chain of people, systematically we
hauled the sail onboard, right into the bag.
The stitching on the webbing which links
halyard to kite via the sock had blown but
with everything still to play for, it was worth
the risk of a un-socked re-hoist. In the end,
our big cat Safari didn’t quite get the Cream
and Team Safari made do with third place
on corrected time.
Gunboat 66 Sugar Daddy entertained
all with their 'Sugar Daddy' dance act
performed to AC/DC’s ‘Shoot to thrill’
emanating impressively from two foredeck
speakers! Sugar Daddy owner Bruce
Slayden had donned an interesting pair of
red hot pants and was hurling Sugar Daddy
Tough upwind conditions in a good swell
candy to crew on nearby boats as the two
jiggling female crew members danced on
either side!
30  MULTIHULL REVIEW : MAY 2009
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