THE SUPERYACHT CHALLENGE

Name: The Superyacht Challenge
Start: 2027-03-10
End: 2027-03-14
Location: Nelson’s Dockyard, English Harbour

Early March · Nelson’s Dockyard, English Harbour · Five Days · Since 2011 · The Water

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Arranged by the Court

Big-boat rigs close together shortly after the start at The Superyacht Challenge, English Harbour, the March regatta — I · The Start

Dates: 10 to 14 March 2027
WhereNelson’s Dockyard, English Harbour
DressYachting attire
AdmissionOpen to the public
The weatherIn March St. John's, near English Harbour, reaches about 29°C by day and 23°C at night, and rain falls on about one day in four.
The tableThe Court dines afterwards at Pillars, Admiral's Inn, Dockyard Drive, Nelson's Dockyard, English Harbour (admiralsinnantigua.com).
In companyA member who means to go says so to the Secretary, and the Court seats its members together where the engagement allows.RSVP tells the Secretary that a member means to attend. Send passes the engagement’s name, its date and the address of its page to whomever the reader chooses, or, on a computer, copies the address; the Court itself sends and keeps nothing.RSVP

The Superyacht Challenge is four days of racing off the south coast of Antigua in early March, sailed by a deliberately small fleet of very large yachts.

A dozen or so boats, three hundred sailors, and no overall winner in the series.

A dark-sailed sloop rounding the mark with crew on the rail at The Superyacht Challenge, the small-fleet regatta off Antigua, English Harbour — II · The Mark

The Harbour

English Harbour cannot be seen from the sea.

That is why the Royal Navy chose it. From the early eighteenth century the fleet lay in it invisible to the French and to anyone else looking along the coast, and the entrance is still difficult to make out today. What gives it away now is the one thing the Navy never had to think about: the masts of moored yachts standing above the hill.

It is also extraordinarily sheltered. A hurricane in 1723 wrecked thirty-five ships in harbours around Antigua. The two lying in English Harbour took no damage at all.

The dockyard was built by the Navy and named for a young captain who served there and hated it. It is the only continuously working Georgian dockyard left anywhere in the world, and the regatta’s prize-giving is held beneath the pillars of one of its buildings.

A superyacht heeling on the beat with her crew sitting out on the rail at The Superyacht Challenge, English Harbour — III · The Beat

The Trophy

The series has no overall winner.

Boats race in up to three classes, and each class is scored on its own. The Round Antigua and Part-Island races are the exception: they are scored overall, without classes, and the Stan Pearson Trophy goes to the winner of the Round Antigua.

But the principal trophy of the regatta is not won on the water. It goes to the yacht judged to have shown the best spirit across the week, and it is voted on by the other competing yachts and by the race committee.

Which means a fleet of the largest sailing yachts on earth has arranged its own regatta so that the thing everybody most wants is decided by the opinion of their rivals.

There are also barrels of rum.

Superyachts running downwind under spinnaker in open Caribbean water at The Superyacht Challenge, English Harbour — IV · The Trades

What to Know

The fleet is kept small on purpose. A dozen boats or thereabouts, and the organisers have never chased a larger entry. It is the opposite of Antigua Sailing Week, the island’s April regatta, which takes a hundred.

The trade winds run twenty knots or so with an Atlantic swell behind them, which makes the racing fast and very wet for anyone on deck.

Racing is off the south coast, and the view from shore is from Shirley Heights above the harbour, which is also where the island’s Sunday evening happens.

The boats are open in a way they never are elsewhere. Owners and crews mix on the dock, and a person properly introduced is generally invited aboard.

Questions

When is the Superyacht Challenge Antigua in 2027?

The sixteenth Superyacht Challenge Antigua runs from 10 to 14 March 2027 in English Harbour. Yachts register and are briefed on Wednesday 10 March, racing runs from Thursday 11 to Sunday 14 March, and the prize-giving is held on the Sunday evening at the Admiral’s Inn, between the Pillars.

What is the schedule of the Superyacht Challenge?

In 2027 the first day of racing, Thursday 11 March, offers a Round Antigua Race or a shorter Part-Island Race, and three series races follow from Friday to Sunday. Ashore there are a welcome cocktail party, a Caribbean Night, a beach party, the Famous Cook Off and the prize-giving. The organisers may change the schedule for weather.

What prizes are awarded at the Superyacht Challenge?

The 2027 Notice of Race lists barrels of rum, suitably filled; the Stan Pearson Trophy for the winner of the Round Antigua Race; and the Gosnell Trophy, given to the yacht that, in the opinion of the competitors and the race committee, has competed in the spirit of the event, afloat and ashore.

What should one wear to the Superyacht Challenge?

The organisers publish no dress code for guests or spectators. Their social programme includes a Caribbean Night, with prizes for the loudest Caribbean shirts. The Court wears yachting attire.

A sailing superyacht seen from above, crew working the afterdeck under way at The Superyacht Challenge, Antigua, English Harbour — V · The Afterdeck

The Court

The Superyacht Challenge is not the Court’s own. Places aboard competing yachts, spectator boats and rooms in English Harbour are sought on a member’s behalf, and the Court arranges the whole of it: getting there, where to stay, and the table afterwards. The Antigua season runs from here to the Classic Yacht Regatta in April, and a member may take both.

How one becomes a member is set out under Admission.