Mountgay Round Barbados Race Series kicks off the season

The Regatta season has got underway with the first major event of the season in Barbados. The traditional Mount Gay Round Barbados Race has evolved into a series of 3 inshore race days followed by the big event itself [always on the 21st Jan], some more parties followed by the inaugural 300 nm Barbados to Antigua Race; oh and of course some more parties.

Our crew this year wa a very mixed experience team led by skipper Steven Ginger. It included 3 Canadians … 2 from Saskatchewan [which isnt easy to say after a Mount Gay Party .. six Sakatchewan sailors sailed the seven seas .. try it! ], one each from Scotland, Hungary , France and a couple of Brits. For one it was first real time sailing and 2 others had a couple of days experience with us the previous week. Anyway a very respectable 3rd in class in the main event and 7th overall for Spirit of Venus and we await the result of the B to A Ocean Race which departed this morning and due to arrive early hours Sunday

Young Antiguan Crew get International Accolades

Great feedback for our young local crew that have come through the training programme and of course a not so young Taff Pearce

“Many Thanks for the sailing experience last week with Joel and the rest of the FAM group.

I felt very safe being in the hands of Lincoln and Simon and would like to extend my thanks to them for making the sailing experience even more memorable and enjoyable. They are a real credit to On Deck! ”

Elegant Resorts 

 “Sailing with Taff was definitely an education and not just about sailing – fascinating bloke. Really appreciate the work you and the rest of On Deck put in, it’s a great product in a perfect location and of course the articles will say so! Simon will get a good write up too – he’s going to be an outstanding skipper one day.

Hope to see you again soon, maybe even for Race Week! ”

Ian H. Journalist

PS Accolade is not a rum and ting!

ARC 2013 Last minute place

Due to a drop out we have a place available on a beautiful and very fast Grand Soleil 43 “Quokka” on the ARC from Gran Canaria. Meet 18th-20th Nov race start 24th Nov. ETA St Lucia 8th-14th Dec.  Depart yacht by 16th Dec

Its not cheap but hey its a bucket list thing and Quokka will be Antigua’s entry in the Caribbean 600 skippered by Bernie Wong this year so a great yacht 

email atlantic@ondecksailing.com

Success for Yachtmaster Offshore candidates

We had three early season wins  for Mike Horn, Mathieu Bre and Iain McConnachie who all successfully passed their Yachtmaster Offshore exams. Mike and Mathieu had sailed in their aluminium exploration yacht, Pangaea and livened up the harbour with some of the ‘Boys Own’ exploration stories and a few beers. For those that haven’ t heard of Mike’s exploits have a look at http://www.mikehorn.com/en/mike-horn/who-is-mike-horn/ as it defies any description I could give. 

Plenty of courses coming up for those that are interested

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Grey hair [just a little] training

We have a lovely lady who is 60 and wants to do her 5 day RYA Competent Crew course for novices on 3rd Feb 2013.  So if you would like to join , are feeling active but dont want to be surrounded by teenagers then this is the course for you. Its just US $920 for 5 days, living on board with 2 meals per day and plenty of time to enjoy our beautiful island

Crew Training week

This was the week to get our existing and prospective crew out to blow off the cobwebs and learn some new sailing skills in preparation for the coming season. All of the crew get to at least RYA Day Skipper and we are proud of our track record of training young Antiguan men and women through to be professional skippers opening up many opportunities within Ondeck , other operators and the international yacht industry

RYA Certification, Yachtmaster and Boatmaster Courses – not our average September in Antigua

September is usually a quiet month for Ondeck Sailing in Antigua and gives us a chance for us to catch up on paperwork and old friends but this one doesn’t appear to be working out that way.

We have just completed a Yachtmaster Offshore Course (congratulations to Roger on passing) and are in the middle of a very busy STCW 95 Basic Training Course.

Also, because its a quiet time for visitors, many of the captains and crew that work on commercial vessels in Antigua and Barbuda are taking advantage of the downtime to acquire their Boatmaster qualifications that are becoming a requirement by the year end.

Finally, a further bit of good news in that we were successful with our annual RYA Official Inspection and have renewed our Training Centre license for the delivery of Powerboat and Sail Training courses from RYA Start Yachting Course for novices to RYA Yachtmaster Offshore, RYA Yachtmaster Ocean and lots in-between.  Details of all our courses are on our website.