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Monday, April 29, 2024
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Toby Swann – The All Rounder

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Toby Swann is living on his boat, a 37′ sloop, in Antigua as I write, boat building full time in the Falmouth area. But who knows where the rolling stone will go next?

Toby began sailing British Moths and Cadets in the UK when he was about seven. He left school in 1975 and went to Canada where he raised a punk band called “Battered Wives” in Toronto (he sings and plays the guitar).

A pal was putting a boat together in Fort Lauderdale, so Toby went to help him and spent the winter there. By then he’d caught the sailing bug so he returned to Canada and bought a 31 footer Obstreperous. With fifty dollars and a girlfriend, he sailed her to Stuart, Florida. His dad had taught him how to build houses so he did that. But the lure of the sea began again to hold sway. In 1989 back he went to sea, armed with guitar, a tiny PA system, and his woodworking tools. In Key West, he played and sang on a day-charter schooner in day trips to many sunset bars.

But again he was hit by a desire to see beyond the horizon, so he sailed off to Isla Mujeres, near Cancun, then down to Belize, Guatemala and up the Rio Dulce to the marinas near Livingstone.

Waiting one day to be hauled out, a storm ripped through and his boat was beached. After three days of kedging and cursing he managed to get off. Despite friends who said he would never find a more interesting place to stay, he continued to the Bay Islands where he met Linda, now his wife.

She had to return to Germany so they sailed up to Xtapa in Mexico for her to catch a plane home. When she returned he had sailed up to Florida, from where they sailed to the Dominican Republic where they stayed three years. He got a job running La Pantera then served as skipper of Jungsfernsteig a 300 tonner from Hamburg, complete with parasailing and mini submarines, in Samana Bay in the Eastern DR.

They left for Tortola when Linda found she was pregnant and from there to St. Martin, where he ran one of the Golden Eagle Cats and drove the Heineken boat Bluebeard, a 63 passenger cat on a daily tourist and cruise ship run for two years.

Leon, their son, was born in 1998 so he sold Obstreperous for something bigger, a 37′ sloop in St. Martin. Soon after, Linda and the baby flew off to Germany so he ran across the Atlantic with a hitch-hiker as crew and he and Linda and Leon met again in Cartagena, where he worked in the renovated Naval Yard doing up megayachts.

But they tired of the muddy Mediterranean so off they sailed to the Canaries where Toby got a job in Gomera as a ship’s carpenter.

He’s now back in Antigua, arriving in 2003, where he works for Woodstock the Boatbuilders and where Leon, aged six, is in a
local school. Linda is a qualified Diving Instructor so they’re certainly making ends meet.

Whither away next, Toby olde salt? He’s sailed over 120,000 miles so I don’t think he can stop now.

 

St Thomas’ Yacht Haven Grande – Ready to Rise from the Rubble

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Cruisers who remember the 1970s and 1980s heyday of the Yacht Haven Marina will be heartened to hear that after nine years of derelict status this flagship property is ready to rise from the rubble of recent demolition.

“By September, expect to see every bit of the old hotel and marina gone and site work for the actual construction to be taking place,” says Elie Finegold, vice president of the New York-based Island Capital Group, the parent company of IN-USVI LLC and owner of the Yacht Haven Grande complex.

Phase I of the development, valued at $150 million, will be completed over the next 15 to 18 months and due to open by Christmas of 2005 or early 2006. This phase will include office space, 12 luxury condominiums, four restaurants of which three will sit on the waterfront esplanade and the fourth will be perched on the second floor of the yacht club situated out in the middle of the main marina base with a birds-eye view of the surrounding yachts. In addition, there will be retail space dedicated to marina services, and 5900 linear feet of marina with 700-foot of docks and 18-foot wide piers equipped with in-slip fueling and high-speed communications access.

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“We have a permit for a 30 slip marina, but we will have the ability to provide dockage for everything from dinghies to a 400-foot megayacht,” Finegold says.

The marina will have a public access dinghy dock.

Phase II, projected to cost at least another $150, will open by the end of 2006 or early 2007. This phase will provide more retail space, another restaurant, a 70-unit hotel, an additional 10,600 linear feet of marina, a convention center and parking for over 600 vehicles.

“We’re focusing on the first phase first,” Finegold said. “It’s an enormous development and a unique opportunity to impact the local economy and bring the yachts back.”

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BBC Remake Duran Duran Video of Rio in Antigua

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I think it was my Aunty Mabel who told me repeatedly that the first signs of getting old would be when I noticed the policemen looking rather young! Well, not only the guardians of the law it would appear. For just the other day the BBC sent out a team of very young film makers to recreate the video made by Simon LeBon and the band known as Duran Duran twenty odd years ago in Antigua. In particular, it was the song ‘RIO’ which made it to the big time way back in the eighties. Most of this video had been filmed aboard the 70 foot Fife built EILEAN and the sailing scenes of that lovely boat and the band were absolutely spectacular! Anyway, it now would appear that Simon and the boys have re-surfaced and in fact are booked solid at future concerts all over the UK. So the BBC had come back to Antigua to see if anybody around here remembered Duran Duran. Now, as Judy and I had helped on the original video we were once again roped in to assist producer/director Brad Hallam and the rest of the ‘kids’, And what a ball it was too! Luckily of course its very quiet here now so we had plenty of time to spare. Talking about the antics of Duran Duran to a lovely young dolly bird called Alex (the Beeb Presenter) who rates the pop stars of the seventies and eighties close to God.

On a less frivolous note our old friend Peter Hutchinson owner of the fine little ketch RAINBOW had a very serious accident while in St Marten recently. He has since been in a coma for some time, and all his many friends, as you can well imagine, are more than a little worried.

His daughter Fiona is with him, but if anyone would like to help old Peter in any way, please contact Fiona on email tonyjustkaty@sintmarten.net

With our harbours looking deserted and strangely forlorn (as they do in the hurricane season these days) I cant help but remember what it was like not so long ago before all the yachts were sent packing down to far away Trinidad, or the extreme south coast of Grenada. In case you don’t know the yachts staying in the Caribbean do this because their insurance companies insist they go. Now, yachtsmen really like spending the summers here in Antigua. It was more a village atmosphere for those that stayed but these days with most of the night spots closed (a few lead by Abracadabra, Life, Trappers, Dry Dock, Cactus, HQ, Jimmy’s, Caribbean Taste, Catherine’s Cafe, Jakies Quick Stop, Grace Before Meals and the Galley Bar are either on much reduced opening hours or stagger their opening nights) One can hardly blame these courageous souls for there is just not enough business to go round. So could it be that English Harbour, which has been considered a safe hurricane harbour since Nelsons days seems to be getting a bit of stick from the insurance companies? To be truthful there were one or two major storms such as hurricanes Luis and Georges etc which started the summer migration to the south. But an old friend of ours having taken a trip southward aboard his yacht to see the facilities for himself, is now on his way back to Antigua where despite the threat he feels more at home. Perhaps the presence of the two very large vessels, which appear to be staying with us in Falmouth Harbour, will encourage others to stay.

How to Remove Mildew from Sails

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Mildew stains on sails are a serious problem especially here in the Caribbean. Here’s some expert advice on how to remove mildew from sails AND a tip on how to keep it from starting in the first place.

Often the stains will appear after a period of stockage, which will be the case for many sails during these following months. For the sail maker this can be quite a nightmare, though arguably, it is a stain like the tar that scrapes off of pilings, or the blood from the spinnaker pole accident, somehow mildew is unique. Most cloths have an anti-fungal agent added and these are fairly efficient if the conditions that create mildew are limited.

Laminated sails due to the mylar film sandwiched within the cloth are often an ideal support for mildew development. Contrary to what we may think the growth is more on the surface of the fibres than deep within them. Though, small patches may disappear with a few days sailing, the development continues if untreated as soon as the conditions are united.

Moisture, heat and shade are the obvious factors.

Rainwater is generally far more dangerous than seawater. A colleague of mine in Auckland often drops new sails in clean seawater to protect them for fungus growth. Hence to wash sail is important but they must be stocked completely dry.

The prevention of mildew, short of planetary biological twilight, remains elusive, but we have a few techniques to at least partially remove it after the fact.

The following procedure should NOT be used with Kevlar or nylon sails.

Andrew Dove shares tips on How to remove mildew from sails
Andrew Dove shares tips on How to remove mildew from sails

How to Remove Mildew from Sails:

  1. Fill a tub or tank with water. It should be large enough that the sail you intend to wash can be fully immersed.
  2. Add Clorox or other chlorine bleach to the water, in a ratio of approximately 30 to 1. ‘Clorox’ is sodium hypochlorite in a 5.25% solution, so the resultant wash solution is slightly weaker than 0.2% (2 parts per 1000) of sodium hypochlorite in water. The exact solution does not matter however. We suspect that 1 part per 1000 is adequate, and we know that 5 parts per 1000 (10 to 1 Clorox in water) will not cause any damage.
  3. Place the sail in the bath for at least 48 hours (and cover the tank since the chlorine likes to evaporate). Longer is probably better, for stubborn and very serious cases. Make sure the sail is fully submerged. Stack rocks or bricks on it if necessary, to keep it from floating. Force out as many air pockets as possible and make sure the sail is fully wet out. You might want to stir it every now and then, or shift it around.
  4. Take the sail out of the sodium hypochlorite solution and check it. If it is not sufficiently clean, put it back in the bath for another day. When done, rinse it thoroughly with fresh water. Hang it to dry.

At the end of this, the sail should be almost completely clean and any remaining mildew will be absolutely dead, so lingering stains should fade fairly quickly when the sail is used.

Exceptions will likely be under corner patches, under insignia cloth, and maybe inside a seam, though these spots should be greatly improved. More time in the solution will improve them.

This is not a new idea. Tent cleaners have said for years that prolonged soaking will remove mildew, and there have been extensive anecdotal reports from North Sails New Zealand, to rename one source, that stains have been rectified by soaking the sails over the side in clean salt water for a day or so.

The Cleaning agent may vary but the indispensable element is time. The Mildew is microscopic and the longer it lives on a sail, the deeper it gets into the yarns and fibre bundles. It prospers in all sorts of wretched conditions so it is capable of withstanding quick but intense cleanings, even with fairly hot water and mild detergents. If the wash kills it, it does not have time to remove the dead bodies . No amount of scrubbing will reach a stain, without first peeling off the top of every yarn and a good part of the sail.

So be prepared to wait, and importantly be sure to air and dry your sails whenever possible and do not stock when damp.

Coral Reef National Monument

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Below the surface of the calm azure waters surrounding St. John lives a thriving tropical marine ecosystem. Humpback and pilot whales, dolphins, brown pelicans and sea turtles all use the waters to forage, breed, nest and rest. It’s a spawning habitat for commercially important groupers and snappers. Countless species of fish, invertebrates, and plants use the reefs and mangroves during their lives. Many of the animals that take refuge there are threatened or endangered.

In January of 2001 President Bill Clinton established more than 12-thousand submerged acres on the south and east sides of St. John be designated the Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument. Most of the Monument extends the line of the Virgin Islands National Park boundaries, as well as a large portion of Hurricane Hole. While the designation has been in place for three and a half years, a plan to manage the monument has not.

“It’s a very new monument, and the regulations provide enough protection for it,” says Art Frederick, superintendent of both the National Monument and the National Park.“It was mandated by law that the park service provide a plan in three years.”

In keeping with that mandate, the National Park Service has embarked on a major planning effort that will guide the future management of both the National Park and the National Monument. This new general management plan will create a vision for each park that will serve as a blueprint for the next ten to 15 years. The plan will address common problems that affect the parks and surrounding communities, while protecting the natural and cultural resources and giving visitors a quality experience.

“Will their experiences change as a result of this?

In general, the experience should remain largely unchanged for the general user,” says Thomas Kelley, the Natural Resources Manager with the National Park Service.“But the plan is a tool to guide the proper management of the reef from all perspectives into the future.Use patterns and types of use will be addressed in the plan.”

Frederick says they are constantly making difficult decisions about balancing preservation with public enjoyment, about competing demands for limited resources, about priorities for using available funds and staff, and about differing interests and views of what is most important.

“Hopefully we will develop a plan flexible enough to protect our cultural and natural resources, as well as allow visitors to enjoy the resource,” says Frederick.

This General Management Plan will be about two and a half years in the making.

The first round of public comment meetings have wrapped up, now the planning team will meet to study those comments, develop alternatives, and assess the impacts of those alternatives.

Next February, more public comment meetings will be held, and by summer of 2005, the first draft of the management plan will be written.By summer of 2006, the final copy should be in place.

“The beauty in the General Management Plan is that it gives birth to broad guidelines, but will give the park staff guidance on a day to day basis,” says Frederick.

It is guidance that will protect the marine habitat for generations to come.

“Reefs are the second most diverse ecosystem on earth, second to the rainforest,” says Kelley.“Ninety-five percent of all life on earth occurs in the ocean. Reefs add stability to shorelines. They have aesthetic and spiritual values. They must be protected and preserved for the enjoyment of future generations.”

 

All Eyes on French St. Martin

A recent burst of activity in St Martin has seen ‘the French Side’ grab a little limelight from its neighbour. For starters, the St Martin
Yacht Club has a new clubhouse at the top of the West Indies Shopping Mall, which played host right away to the inaugural Course de l’Alliance in July. The race, organized in conjunction with the St Maarten and St Barth’s Yacht Clubs, saw 17 boats enjoy three days of fabulous racing with a distinctly ‘Frenchie’ feel to the evening’s entertainment. Next year’s Course de l’Alliance will be brought forward to the second half of May and will include Anguilla as a fourth participating island.

Hot on the heels of l’Alliance came local hero Luc Coquelin’s entry into the famous Quebec-St Malo race, aboard Marina Fort Louis Ile de Saint Martin. Coquelin is a Route du Rhum veteran based in the French Caribbean. Another local legend, Jean Allaire, is also aiming to prepare an entry for the 2006 race, but first has to find the funds to purchase Rexona MEN, formerly Laurent Bourgnon’s record-breaking trimaran Primagaz.

This renaissance on the French side is no accident. According to Marina Fort Louis Commodore Jean-Paul Fischer, the Marina is another tool to open up the French side to tourism. The St Martin marine community and SEMSAMAR (Societe d’economie mixte) in particular are “trying to promote activities linked to the sea. In tourist islands, you can’t simply rely on hotel tourism.” And there is a role for elected officials, too, he emphasizes. “Boats consume. Whether it’s diesel or water,” so there is an economic impact.

From September onwards, the French sailing school Les Glenans will be visiting the island to teach children and adults. “We are
aiming to teach sailing to people who will then become professionals themselves,” explains Fischer.

This combination of renewed energy, long-term strategy and access to European Union funds could mean we’ll be hearing a lot more from St Martin this season.

 

Karl James – Leading By Example

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When some of the top sailors in the Caribbean, including Robbie Hirst, John Holmberg and Mike Green, gathered in St Maarten recently for the North Sails Regatta, the potential for a clash of egos was huge. Instead, it became a chance for those who thrive on the competitive edge to hang out with like minded souls. And few seem to thrive more on competition than Antigua’s Karl James.

Although James was not victorious in St Maarten, he was influential throughout. His rush for the line on the last wind shift of the regatta gave Holmberg first place at Mike Green’s expense. It was a stunning moment that is consistent with a majestic year battering the opposition in June’s Caribbean Laser Championships, and winning all nine races in the Laser Open division of the Caribbean Dinghy Championships.

Karl James Teaches in the BVI

Antigua’s Karl James
Antigua’s Karl James

If James, who turned 37 this year, is relentless on the water, on the dock he is unassuming and quietly spoken. His record speaks for him – 43rd in the Open Laser division of the 1996 Olympics and 39th in the Sydney 2000 games, a tantalizing three places behind fellow Antillean Cor Van Aarnholt. But James, who started sailing (holding fenders and putting on sail covers) in 1979 aged 12 on big Charter boats picks out his second place in the 2001 Sunfish World Championships as his biggest achievement to date.

His progress from charter crew, through Olympic competitor to youth sailing instructor is an inspiration. His first passion was for racing bikes, but with the encouragement of the late Paul Goss, he began dinghy sailing and started in Lasers in 1986. “I’ve never really been coached,” he says. “I’m the kind of person who sees it and does it, and learnt by trial and error.” Once it came to competition, this same single-mindedness was key. “I do not like to lose,” he adds. “I can replay a race in my head and it bothers me.”

When Antigua’s Karen Portch went to the 1992 Olympics, it was a boost and in 1993 James met Dennis Connor, who was staying at the St James hotel. They went sailing on a Hobie Cat and later Connor gave the Antiguan a Laser. With support from the Antigua Yacht Club, Karl was able to hone his skills and was soon mixing and racing with fellow Caribbean Olympians Mike Green, Robbie Hirst and Paul Dielemans.

For Regatta organizer Robbie Feron, Karl James, “is an example of how training does produce results. We so often have this culture whereby it is assumed that sailing is genetically endowed and cannot be learnt and skill development is not an issue. Karl is the example that proves so clearly the inaccuracy of this assumption.”

Antigua’s Karl James Wins Caribbean Laser Championships

Blue Beads of Statia

If the quiet island of St Eustatius is known nowadays more among divers and eco-tourists, it was not always so. The so-called ‘Golden Rock’ was famously the first foreign nation to recognize American Independence and used to be one of the busiest trading terminals in the Caribbean. It’s hard to imagine that this small island of just under 3,000 people once used to buzz with trading ships and plantation activity. Luckily, ‘Statia’ has protected most of its heritage and buildings and Forts from this period remain. Harder to find, however, are another remnant from the island’s past – the mysterious Blue Beads of Statia.

What are the Blue Beads of Statia?

The five-sided, dark or light blue Statian bead looks like many others, perhaps one of the reasons behind the myth that Dutch traders bought Manhattan from the Indians with 30 Statian blue beads. Legend has it that anyone lucky enough to find one of the beads, whether on the beach or underwater, will return to the island again and again. The rare beads are coveted by sailors and divers alike. If the exclusive Mount Gay cap appeals to the racing sailor, the more talismanic blue bead is one for the cove-hopping cruiser.

The mystery of the blue bead is how this particular type came to Statia in the first place. R. Grant Gilmore III of the St Eustatius Center for Archaeological Research takes up the tale. “Other similar beads are found across the globe – from Alaska to South Africa to Indonesia – wherever Dutch traders or their goods went. The question remains as to why these bead types are found only in Statia.”

Blue Beads of Statia. Image courtesy of St. Eustatius Tourism Development Foundation
Blue Beads of Statia. Image courtesy of St. Eustatius Tourism Development Foundation

Finding a solution to this riddle was initiated in the 1960s by the eminent Dr. WGN. van der Sleen, chemist and professor of natural history from Naarden, Holland. Dr Sleen contacted museums all over the world and, through tireless research, was able to trace back the Statian beads to a single glass factory in Amsterdam. The factory, owned by Han Henrixz Soop, employed glassmakers from Murano and Venice, making mirrors and beads “for the primitive people” between 1660 and 1680.

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How did the Blue Beads get to Statia?

But how did these beads get from Amsterdam to St Eustatius? Step forward the Dutch East India Company, busy pounding the seas from Indonesia to the Caribbean at the time. To cross-check the origins of the beads, Dr Sleen amassed samples from all over the world and had them analyzed. He found that the Amsterdam beads, made of potash not soda, were identical.

Given that blue beads have been found in slave sites all over the Americas, the assumption is that the beads were worn by slaves brought to St Eustatius from Africa. According to Elsie Bosch-Wilson, Director of the St Maarten Museum, whose bead necklace is pictured, beads have been worn for hundreds of years as a symbol of status, power and wealth. Young people hoping to get married would be eager to increase the bead count on their necklace, as only a heavily beaded one would impress a potential suitor. Likewise, one would have expected a tribal chief to have jewelry out of the budget or not available to his subjects.

Nowadays, the search for blue beads is still a popular pastime for visitors to Statia, and a walk along a Statian beach is best enjoyed with the head bowed and eyes towards the sand. Meanwhile, the diamond emporiums and showbiz glitter of St Maarten and St Barths just across the water provide a scintillating reminder that, whatever the century, nothing impresses like a heavy set piece of jewelry.

St Maarten Museum
Front Street, Philipsburg.
Tel (599) 542 4917

St Eustatius Museum
Simon Doncker House
Oranjestad
Telephone: (599)318-2693

The Wooden Yacht – A Classic Gift

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News that French actor Olivier Martinez recently purchased White Wings for his Australian singer girlfriend Kylie Minogue caused a flutter at All At Sea. Surely this wasn’t the Joel White-designed W-76 Class sibling to Wild Horses, a popular Spirit of Tradition competitor in the Caribbean? And if so, should we expect to see the 5’1”, 6-stone starlet at the helm of the 76′, 52,900-pound thoroughbred next year?

However, a few enquiries were enough to establish that Martinez and Minogue are in fact now the proud owners of an altogether
different namesake, the 1938 Alberg-designed 50′ sloop built by JJ Taylor and Sons of Toronto. In a typically Gallic display of impeccable taste, Martinez snapped up the yacht for his diminutive sweetheart in a St Tropez auction for 370,000 Euros.

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Since Minogue is more accustomed to Stiletto than starboard heels, (not on the teak deck!) are the attentions of the fashionable set about to turn away from gleaming, triple-tiered Tupperware towards the far more sophisticated Classic yacht? Are masts the new motor? Could the finish of one’s mahogany come to command more respect than the size of one’s helipad?

Wouldn’t it be poetic if, while the battle rages between the billionaires to build the biggest super-yacht, the real kudos turns out to be
in tracking down and owning a Classic that is, for the most part, one of its kind. Let Messrs Abramovich, Allen and Ellison raise each other up the LOA leader board each year, adding on cinemas, swimming pools, recording studios and tenders the size of car ferries to their vessels. Instead, here’s to the kind of discerning, stylish celebrity who likes nothing more than relaxing with a glass of 1961 Chateau Petrus after a hard day buffing brass.

 

Tony Maidment – The Skipper’s Skipper

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For a sixty-year-old salt, Tony Maidment has done more than your average skipper. His career started in 1968 — in a pub in the UK — when he and a pal were asked to sail to the Caribbean. Despite their lack of training, they both agreed and not long after arrived in Grenada without any mishaps.

There, Tony watched Don Street giving sailing instruction, after which Don taught Tony how to sail. Subsequently, Tony became skipper of the 90′ charter wooden sloop Gitana IV. From there, he progressed to skippering to Martinique in a variety of boats for Caribbean Sailing Yachts (the first charter company in the Caribbean). Those were the days when there were no boats to be seen in the Tobago Keys.

From 1972 until 1979 Tony sailed mostly in the Med as a charter skipper and many of his trips were on the 71′ Ksenija. There were no boats in Dubrovnik at the time, either.

Back in the Caribbean in 1979 (a time when day workers in Grenada were paid $EC3 a day and a maid cost $EC7 a week!) Tony was responsible for building a large dock for CSA from what the locals called “bulletwood” – heavy and hard enough to repel ‘teredos’ and ‘gribbles’. The trees, the size of telegraph poles, were brought down to the shore by many workers and plunged into the water where their own weight drove them into place. Tony saw the dock there recently and reports that it’s still in good shape.

Later in the Seventies, Tony lived in Hollywood, Florida, for seven years where he exported marine equipment to the Eastern Caribbean. Tiring of this, though, he finally settled for good in Antigua in 1987, having also fitted in two single-handed Transatlantic crossings.

In Antigua, Tony ran a fishing boat for five years, using a 25-mile long line (the first of its kind on the island) with 400 hooks. This was a big commercial success and often he was able to sell 3000lbs of fish, mainly swordfish, every week. Up to then, few had known that they even existed in Antiguan waters.

He has been with the Antigua Yacht Club for years and has, several times, been its Commodore. He is well known on the water as the owner of 33′ Tango Mike. These days, his main job, apart from building houses for friends, is that of Chief Measuring Officer at the AYC.

Tony has two children, aged 20 and 24, who are both, as you might expect, seasoned sailors.