Superyacht Challenge and an Upgrade

Like the news at home, COVID-19 is a also big deal here in Antigua since it has its first known case. Some cruise ships were turned away and we actually gave a dinghy ride to a french cruiser on a Swan that sailed from Guadeloupe that was not being allowed to check in. Our visitors that were arriving by cruise ship are now canceled so we are discussing our next port of call. The other big news here is the Superyacht Challange (all boats over 130 ft LOA). On the first day we noticed two J Yachts come in early from racing, Svea and Topaz. Watch this viral video to see why: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-Grv_euVv4 . When ashore this has been the the talk of the docks since it should have been avoidable. The scuttlebutt going around from the crews is that the port tack boat was being driven by the owner vs. the captain during the pre-start. We drove the dinghy past Svea at the dock and the bow damage is pretty extensive. Topaz lost her backstays among other damage. We have also heard that most all of the remaining Caribbean regattas have been canceled due to the virus.

We just completed a wheel recover project and it looks great. The old leather was worn and was like holding sandpaper. The hard part was getting the wheel off. Jim borrowed a wheel puller from Woodstock Boat Builders that got the job done. Woodstock are some great folks and did not even charge us a rental fee to borrow their tool. The awesome recovering was done by local Annalea Mills and we would recommend her if you have need for any leather work.