SUMMER 2019
SW
056
The glass sliding doors leading into the
salon part and our bearded boat captain,
who goes by the nickname “Burger,” steps in
with a wall of moist hot air. With a big smile
and a firm handshake, he gives us a warm
welcome, then gets straight to business.
“Today was a big day. Forklift day,” he
says with an air of calm and determination.
“We lifted 2 tons of racing sails on board and
took 3 tons of charter equipment o. We
have two more days to get everything ready
before the rest of the race crew joins us.”
This is not just any yacht we are about
to race. At 213 feet overall, with a 23-story
mast, the Perini Navi Perseus 3 is one of the
largest sailing yachts in the world.
Its 8,530-square-foot spinnaker is the
size of a football field, sheets are as thick
as my forearm, and at 639 tons, 40 feet of
draft and 70 tons of load on the headstay,
the only way to approach sailing this yacht
is with sincere humbleness and respect. The
event we are preparing for is the St. Barths
Bucket. From all over the world, the largest
sailing yachts have gathered at the luxury
French Caribbean island. With considerable
honor attached to winning the regatta, nei-
ther cost nor eort is spared in getting the
yachts ready for the races.
The invasion of the race crew signals the
start of four days of practice. It’s a reunion,
with hugs and reminiscing about the last
time we sailed together in St. Barths in- Crew morale is right where we left it
and refreshes our determination to put our
shoulders into the Herculean eort to race
this yacht to its full potential.
Race uniforms, caps, belts, rental cars,
room keys and the daily schedule are dis-
tributed and the camaraderie amongst
the crew is tangible. It’s a tight-knit family,
but still, trying to get such a large group of
free-spirited sailors all moving in the same
direction might be more dicult than get-
ting the yacht around the racecourse.
Thankfully, we have the stewardesses to
keep everyone in line—and eventually get
us all to the right place at the right time. It
might be two years since we last raced this
big lady, but by keeping the team mostly
unchanged, we swiftly find our racing feet.
With pursuit-style racing, where the
slowest yacht starts first and subsequent
starting times are calculated using each
yacht’s ratings, we are second to last tostart in our class. The first race takes us
counter clockwise around the island.
A well-timed start, good upwind speed
and a lucky shift brings us swiftly to the
top of the island. Downwind, we manage to
pass the similarly sized, ketch-rigged Perini
Navi Seahawk—and at the rounding of the
last island we’re not far behind the 183-footT