ANTIGUA CLASSIC YACHT REGATTA

Antigua and Barbuda is all set to welcome Seefalke II, Oliver Greensmith’s 41-foot, wooden-hulled sloop for 2024 Classic Yacht Regatta which is scheduled to take place from April 17 to 22, 2024. The yacht was built by German boatbuilders, Abeking and Rasmussen with the help of the square meter rule.

The rule is the rating system that was first proposed by the Swedish Sailing Federation in 1907. Originally christened Seestrum, German for sea current, the yacht was launched in 1936 for the German Navy as an officer training yacht in the Baltic.

After World War II it was seized by the Royal Navy and taken to Portsmouth on the south coast of the UK where yacht was renamed Sea Sailor and served as a training vessel for the Royal Marines for many years.

Sold out of service, Seefalke II was renovated and sailed without an engine across the Atlantic to Antigua in 1996 by Welsh engineer Lynn Roach. 1998 was a year of highs and lows for Seefalke II.

The yacht was first overall in the Antigua Classic Regatta but later that year, as it was heading for Newport, Rhode Island, it got caught in the remnants of Hurricane Mitch and dismasted in what people can only imagine was a terrifying experience for its crew.

The yacht eventually returned to Antigua, but by 2012, it was in very poor condition and languishing on the hard at North Sound Marina. That’s when Oliver’s father-in-law, Griffith Williams bought the yacht and hired Oliver, who ran Antigua Boatbuilders and Carpentry, to begin an extensive restoration.

The rebuild was completed just in time for the 2015 Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta where it won the Woodstock Trophy for the best restored yacht. The yacht won her class in 2019 and now it will be out on the water again for the 2024 Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta.

Article and picture courtesy Associate Times