Catch Me If You Can Regatta in Nassau – Fast and Fun and Chaos! A day in the life of a Bahamian Sloop Racing Committee Chairman By Jan Pehrson Cover: Tightly overlapped Class-A sloops, Running Tide and Red Stripe (in the foreground), compete on Montagu Bay. Stafford Armbrister starts the Catch Me If You Can Regatta with a shotgun.
“W
hat’s that shotgun doing on the race committee boat?” I wondered. More than a little apprehensive, I calmed my nerves and climbed onto Stafford Armbrister’s power boat. Armbrister, commodore and race chairman of the Catch Me If You Can Regatta held in Nassau on February 19, picked me up at the dock a bit late. He’d stopped by the bank first to pick up the prize money for the winning skippers, and—as he needed bills in small denominations—this took a little time. Let me explain. I’ve become increasingly intrigued by the sport of sloop racing while sailing in the Bahamas with my friend Capt.
Ken on his Morgan Out Island 36, Slowpoke, and writing articles for SOUTHWINDS Magazine. Ever-growing in popularity, the indigenous sport of sloop racing is on the fast track to become the national sport of the Bahamas, replacing cricket, a holdover from the colonial period of Bahamian history. Appealing to youth as well as their grandparents, this thrilling extreme sport morphed out of workboats used traditionally for Bahamian fishing and transportation. Sloops are made and sailed by real people using their hands and their skills, not technology. The sport is governed by special rules—the International Yacht Racing rules don’t apply here. Hulls and spars must be made of wood,
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