ANTIGUA SAILING WEEK
EL OCASO TAKES HISTORIC LORD NELSON TROPHY VICTORY AT ANTIGUA SAILING WEEK
After a week of intensely close racing, Steve Rigby’s chartered J/122 El Ocaso, triumphed in CSA Racing Class 3, and claimed Antigua Sailing Week’s most coveted prize, the Lord Nelson Trophy. This recognises the CSA Racing 2, 3 or 4 class winner with the fastest overall corrected times calculated on a time-on-distance basis.
At the start of the final day of racing several boats were still in contention to win each of these classes. “We started today in second place, so we’re really surprised to win,” says Rigby, “but we had an amazing first race of the day and won the second as well. We’re delighted.”
“There are five boats that could have won this regatta,” he adds. “We’ve won four races and the next boat won three, so it’s been very competitive and it really could have been anyone’s regatta, so we’re delighted, despite the boat’s success in the past. It feels like the most competitive regatta that El Ocaso has ever been in.”
What’s the appeal of Antigua Sailing Week? “The seas are amazing. The weather’s amazing. It’s been rather rainy this week, but despite that, we had amazing racing, so we love coming here,” Rigby continues. “We love the people, we love what happens here and can’t wait to come back next year.”
Team El Ocaso accept the Lord Nelson Trophy at the final prizegiving © Paul Wyeth/pwpictures.com
El Ocaso is now one of a select group of only three boats that have won the Lord Nelson Trophy on three occasions. Sir Peter Harrison’s Farr 115 Sojana won in 2011, 2018 and 2019, while Larry Ellison’s Farr designed Maxi Sayonara was victorious in 1997, 1998 and 2000. In addition, an earlier El Ocaso, a J/120, won the trophy back in 2012.
This year competitors at Antigua Sailing Week were challenged by a wider than usual range of conditions, from light, shifty and tactically challenging race days down to some really windy squally days on which sharp boat handling paid dividends. Entries came from 17 different countries, with the 24 different race winners including crews from as far afield as Finland and Australia.
Over the course of the regatta 65 per cent of the fleet scored at least one podium finish, while Roy Disney’s turbocharged Volvo 70 Pyewacket, in CSA Racing Class 1, was the only boat to take both line honours and victory on corrected time in every race. Adrian Lee’s HH66 Lee Overlay Partners III won the Performance Multihull category.
