Above: the Caribbean islands offer some of the best sailing conditions on the planet; and with complex currents and wind shadows to contend with, tactics can be as important as boatspeed. Left: plenty of bareboat charter
Bring Your Boat or Charter For those who want to bring their boats to race, yacht transport companies such as Sevenstar, Dockwise and Peters & May currently have autumn scheduled transatlantic crossings from the UK, Mediterranean and North America to the Caribbean. Depending on the company, ports of debarkation are St Thomas, the British Virgin Islands (BVI), Antigua, Martinique and Barbados. Most Caribbean nations opened their borders in the summer and have COVID-19 entry protocols in place for vessels and crews. Marinas and marine services are open as are hotels and restaurants, with requirements most prevalently for mask-wearing, hand washing, social distancing and the size of crowds. A dry sail operation out of St Thomas means boats have a campaign base along with easy access to shipping in and out at the
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beginning and end of the season. Meanwhile, a new dry sail facility is being developed in the Port of St John’s, Antigua for the season. Rallies such as the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) and races such as the RORC Transatlantic are still going ahead and offer crew bound for the Caribbean a sociable way to make the crossing. This year, the ARC will have more than one start and end destination to prevent overcrowding at any one location. More than 100 vessels were on board for ARC 2020 as of July 1. While the ARC is primarily made up of cruisers, several major Caribbean regattas do offer cruising classes. Also, Antigua Sailing Week added a Club Class in 2018, that is open to boats sailing with just jib and mainsail as well as those with spinnakers. It’s targeted at those less serious racers who’d still like to participate in a major regatta. Scoring is via the CSA (Caribbean Sailing
yachts are available in most regatta hotspots around the Caribbean – it’s a handy option for crews who are looking for low-hassle racing in large fleets of closely matched boats; while if you want a little more excitement then a good number of race yachts are also now available for charter
Association) Club Class Rating Rule. For those who are looking for a competitive race across the ‘Pond’ the 7th edition of the annual RORC Transatlantic Race has been moved to Saturday 9 January and the host port for the start is once again Puerto Calero Marina in Lanzarote. Organised by the RORC in partnership with the International Maxi Association, this 2,995-mile OSR Cat-1 race finishes in the beautiful island of Grenada where the fleet is hosted by Grenada Tourism, Camper & Nicholsons Port Louis Marina and the Silversands five-star luxury hotel. The RORC Transatlantic race acts as a feeder for the RORC Caribbean 600 in Antigua in February and moving the start to January enables ample time for those competing in the Rolex Middle Sea Race to get to Lanzarote. The race is open to IRC classes with a minimum rating 1.004. The last edition was won for the first time by a two-handed entry, competing on the smallest boat in the fleet, but the race attracts everything from maxis to multihulls, superyachts and Class40s to classics.
Race and bareboat charters are alternative ways to join in the fun. Advantages are the opportunity to fly in crew and jump on a turn-key raceboat. Many yacht bookings for events cancelled in 2020 have rolled over to 2021, but race charter and bareboat operators confirm there is still good availability.
On the race charter front, UK- based LV Yachting charters two high- performance catamarans, a TS5 and an Outremer 5x; plus racing yachts
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LAURENSMOREL
CHRISTOPHEJOUANY
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