Antigua Sailing Week 2021

Yachts from all over the world will arrive in English and Falmouth Harbours to participate in the one of the world’s major sailing events, the Antigua Sailing Week. From small beginnings this regatta has developed over 50 years to become one of the preeminent yacht racing events in the Caribbean and one of the most prestigious worldwide.

Well over 100 yachts participate each year, ranging in size from 24 feet to over 100 feet. The Regatta attracts all types of yachts from serious racing boats including state-of-the-art, high-tech racing machines to a variety of performance cruising and cruising boats and even features a Club Class for less serious racers who want to be part of the on-the-water action.

The reputation of Antigua Sailing Week allows the event to attract some of the world’s top racing and performance cruising boats and some of the most famous professional sailors in the world.  

For five days crews are challenged with a variety of coastal race courses encouraging tacking duels around the buoys – all in the picture-perfect setting of the deep blue Caribbean Sea off Antigua’s south coast with the ever-present trade winds. The idyllic racing is enhanced by sailors retiring to Antigua Yacht Club for passionate post-race analysis and daily prize-givings which carry on into the evening. Hundreds of locals and visitors will continue partying well into the late hours but yacht crews know there is another day of racing so they leave the late night revelry for the others to finish.

After the week of ever-exciting racing, Antigua Sailing Week draws to a close in the romantic historic Nelson’s Dockyard with the final awards presentation attended by owners, skippers and crews, with their friends, well-wishers and race officials, alongside Antigua’s government representatives including the Governor General to present the awards.

This exciting event is followed the next day by Dockyard Day and the Beating of the Retreat as the Antiguan flag is lowered to signal the close of Antigua Sailing Week for yet another year. It is a truly fitting end to a week of glorious racing.