ANTIGUANICE YACHTING INSIDER NEWSLETTER

Written by Alison Sly-Adams

Having completed the rough sail from New York to Bermuda for 2017, Shannon Falcone and Team Falcon have set off within the last hour for the final leg of the journey home to Antigua onboard the brand new Falcon F4, a 46ft strict one design foiling cat.

THe F4 first took flight from New York with Jimmy Spithill at the helm and quickly went from pushing the boat for performance into survival mode, with vicious winds and unexpected conditions over the 66 hours and 3 nights during the 662 mile open ocean flight over water.

Onboard with Falcone are team mates Travis Rice, Tom Loughborough Cy Thompson and Justin Shaffer. They waited for the expected low pressure system to move in to get some wind and took off at just after midday today and are bringing the boat back to its Antigua home for the upcoming winter season.

Falcon will be one of the impressive boats on display as part of the upcoming Antigua Charter Yacht Show. The boat is going to be a thrilling charter experience based out of Harmony Hall at Nonsuch Bay. Exile Explorer will be the mothership and base for the Falcon charter ride while the intrepid will allow you to chase the foiling cat around Nonsuch Bay.The ex-mothership of Luna Rossa, Exile Exporer  along with the Intrepid Exile Escape arrived yesterday having been sailed down by Shannon's father and a sailing legend in his own right, skipper Carlo Falcone along with Marco Bava, Alex Sinclair, Shaun Falcone and Maurice Belgrave. They had a bumpy ride from Miami through the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos and Santo Domingo before arriving in Antigua. Carlo Falcone said, "Credit must be given to the team, it was a very rough ride and this team has ensured we made it safely and in time for the Boat Show, but it was rough!"

 If flying is your thing, this could well be the next adrenalin rush experience for you! More to come on that!

The boat build project has seen Falcone working along with Tommy Loughborough (together as Exile Expeditions) with the boat builders DNA to produce the most stable foiling platform in a production catamaran. In doing so they have created an accessible boat offering speed and easy handling for those passionate about joining the foiling generation. The boat has been specifically engineered with the intention of creating an affordable, stable, safe foiling one design class, the Tour de Foil (TDF), which will be managed by Exile Expeditions. Much focus has been given to cost and specific comparison has been made to a new TP52 the current hottest racing class. An F4 being more affordable to buy outright, sails at twice the speed and at a third of the operating costs than a TP52. The first F4 has now been commissoned by Bronco Sailing Team’s Michael Dominguez of Barrington, RI. Dominguez so watch this space on how the class develops.

Follow Team Falcons reurn to base mission for 1000nm journey from Bermuda to Antigua here https://share.delorme.com/ShannonFalcone.

See you soon Shannon - enjoy your first slug of English Harbour 5 Year Old Rum when you get here! Then it's time for more hard work and prepping for the RORC Caribbean 600!