The panoramic Maundays Bay Beach, on Anguilla’s southwest coast, was the scene of an exhibition B-class boat race, an annual event specially arranged for guests at Cap Juluca who are not usually in Anguilla for the delightful August boat races.
The exhibition race is usually small, so it was not surprising that only three boats participated in the event. They were two from Island Harbour: De Storm, captained Gerard Smith; F5 Tornado, captained by Orris Smith; and, from West End, Kedro Pride captained by Urban Fleming.
The race was organised by Cardigan Connor, a staff member at Cap Juluca, in cooperation with Atrene Pemberton, Chairperson of the Anguilla Boat Racing Committee.
“It is the fourth year that this race has taken place and it is an initiative we came up with so that our guests can have a better idea of what our national sport is all about,” Mr Connor explained. “A couple of our guests will be crew members. Our guests at Cap Juluca, around this time of the year, don’t generally get a chance to see the boat races during the racing season. It gives us at Cap Juluca a great opportunity to showcase our national sport to some of our guests.”
The boats did two races to Anguillita Cay (at the western tip of Anguilla) and back to Maundays Bay.
Apart from providing some traditional sailing fun for the visitors, the event had some financial gains for the captains and crew members of the boats. Cap Juluca provided cash prizes amounting to US $2,000.
The individual prizes were: De Storm (first place): $750; F5 Tornado (second place); $650: and Kedro’s Pride (third place): $600.
