Jol Byerley's Feb 06 Letter from Antigua
Just a short while ago it seemed as if the season would never arrive. However, now with the Antigua Boat Show well under our belt and the New Year holidays already over, it makes me realize just how quickly time flies by. Before we know it, the summer time and its attendant storms will have arrived and once again there will be hardly any yachts here in Antigua.
Oh well! Anyway, 108 yachts actually attended Antigua’s 44th annual Charter Yacht Show although over 130 actually entered. The ones that didn’t make it were held up by the appalling weather on both sides of the Atlantic. So it would appear that the Charter Show was a great success. The yachts themselves were very professionally run, and the agents were somehow the epitome of professionalism themselves. This means of course that very little time was lost in the hunt for charters, and already a great number of yachts have left the island with guests onboard. There were 237 agents from 17 different countries, and the bars and restaurants sounded like a meeting of the United Nations. It’s a fact that most of the agents believed this year to be one of the best ever boat shows on the western side of the Atlantic.
The biggest sailing boat was the 250ft Stad Amsterdam built and designed in Holland, and a regular competitor in the Antigua Classic Regatta. She is styled after a clipper ship of the Cutty Sark era and was an entry in the Rolex Trans Atlantic Race. Only the prevailing head winds stopped her from being a real threat and eventually causing her to retire. The biggest motor yacht was the 235ft R.M. Elegant and most people believed her to be perhaps a naval vessel of some sort when she appeared in Falmouth. Perhaps it’s worthwhile to appreciate that most of the charter vessels are of 80 to 90 feet in length and have about 5 or 6 crew. All of which are very professional and whatever they are doing it’s generally done in complete silence. During the Show there were of course prizes for the best chef. The judges for this competition were completely speechless! They admitted that a top hotel would be made to look like the average hamburger joint by the men and women who sometimes have to deal with head seas and storm conditions.
As you all probably know, for 42 years the Antigua Charter Show was run by the Nicholson Family. But all good things come to an end and last year this really successful event was taken over by Sarah Sebastian and Afsenah Franklin. It had a back up committee of Antiguan Nationals, one of which of course was Rupert De Verteuille who only very recently, sadly passed away. Rupert spent most of his life in Antigua and his enthusiasm for the yachting way of life was obvious. Anyway, there are many people who believed that without the Nicholson Family in command, the Boat Show would be doomed. Well, believe it or not, this 44th show was one of the best there has ever been and Commander Nicholson would be a very proud man if he was to know how well this one has been received.
It would be very remiss if I were to not mention the tremendous leap forward of the fabulous old Nelson’s Dockyard. It has now been totally reconstructed and is perhaps the finest working Dockyard in the world bar none. To see it full of the yachts from the boat show, and this means big sailing vessels and motor yachts, made my heart sing and it would have done so to yours as well.
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