basis of prudent seamanship. “I didn’t want to stop but
the big issue as we went round the top of the course,
which has some lee shores, was what if we had a man
overboard and there was no engine?
Though disappointed, Passmore didn’t feel short-
changed. “This race was not for the faint-hearted. It was
pretty brutal, but it is awesome stuff. When I was off
watch, I couldn’t wait to be up. I loved it. The leg from
Barbuda to Nevis, surfing down at will with a full main and
big kit, will stay with me forever.”
By the time the leaders had rounded Nevis and were
heading to the northern end of the course, night had
fallen. There was no moon and it was very dark. Saba, an
island that rises to 900m, is known for producing strong
wind acceleration. Shannon Falcone recalls wallowing in
the lee, with almost no steerage, then suddenly being hit
by a bullet of 40-plus knots.
Just such a sudden gust caught out Greg Slyngstad’s 53ft
catamaran Fujin. The boat had a crew of eight on board,
including Olympic medallist Jonathan McKee and the
yacht’s Seattle-based designer Paul Bieker.
“We were ripping along. It was very windy but things
were going well until we reached Saba and as we were
going round the west side we got into the lee,” remembers
Slyngstad. We still had our staysail up and reefed main
and we coasted through that because we knew it was going
to build as we came round the island and as we did we
started heating up and started getting big lifting puffs
over 30 knots.
“One of those just caught us off guard. We didn’t react
quickly enough and the boat went over incredibly fast, in
two or three seconds. It paused momentarily when themain hit the water and that lasted for about two seconds
and then the mast gave way and we turtled.
“I was driving and I fell to the leeward side. I thought: ‘This
is going to hurt when I hit,’ but because I had the tether on
I slid down the jacklines slowly. Almost immediately there
was trash on top of me and my PFD inflated. Those first
few minutes were pretty frightening, because I was
underneath now with my tether attached and my PFD
blocked my ability to get the release on the tether.
“I finally got it released and swam out the transom and
we all climbed up on the bottom of the boat and took a
headcount. We had VHF in our grab bag but it was 3ft
under the water and as we tried to cut it loose it floated
away before we could get it. But we did all have personal
AIS and we agreed to set off two or three.”
Jens Kellinghusen’s Ker 56 Varuna was ahead of them.
Navigator Mike Broughton had just been looking at the
race tracker when he saw the AIS distress alarm.
“I struggled to find the source. I had three navigationXXXXXXXXXX
George David’s
Rambler 88 was
optimised with a
new and longer
keel fin and lighter
bulb. Just look at
the 7.5m keel here
Volunteers from Antigua Yacht Club meet every single arrival