Like Ping Pong Balls in a Wind Tunnel
January 28 - Tortola, BVI
Antrim 27 sailor Tom Mullen writes, "My
A27, Rhumb Squall, USA17, is based in Tortola, British
Virgin Islands. Each winter and early spring, Rhumb Squall
competes in a number of regattas around the Caribbean and
folks come down from the States to jump on board, race and party.
The group includes some of the A27 crowd from California
along with that well-known party animal himself, Jim Antrim.
"This year we are doing the following
events: St. Croix International Regatta, February 14-16; the
Dark and Stormy, Tortola to Anegada and back, March 5-8, International
St. Thomas Rolex Regatta, March 26-28; BVI Sailing Festival,
Tortola to the Bitter End at Virgin Gorda and back, March 29
thru April 1; BVI Spring Regatta, around the buoy racing out
of Nanny Cay, Tortola, April 2-4; and the Puerto Rico Heineken
Regatta, around the buoys out of Fajardo, PR, April 9-11.
"Lastly, there's a group of us that
would like to compete in Antigua Sailing Week from April 25 to
May 1, but we won't take the Antrim all the way to Antigua. The
trip is too long from Tortola and the seas are too rough. The
last Antigua Sailing Week cost us a new mast, a new main, a new
rudder gudgeon and a new spinnaker. As a result, we're trying
to find a more substantial boat to do Antigua and there's a class
for large cats. Perhaps you'd like to enter Profligate
and have a ready-made crew for the event? My California soulmates
told me that you're in the Caribbean now on Profligate,
and that you might want to cover the antics of an Antrim doing
the circuit for your magazine. I and my crew need a Mothership
for portions of or all of the circuit with a few berths
for our tired heads and for the black and blue bodies we always
end up with following a day of being tossed around like ping
pong balls in a wind tunnel - that's how I describe racing on
an Antrim 27 to the uninitiated."
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