Racing an Atlantic 72 at Antigua Sailing Week
[Narrated by Olly]
This week was something special — we got to race a Chris White-designed Atlantic 72 around the track for Antigua Sailing Week, with all ten of us kids helping crew her. We raced against the Gunboat 68 Tosca, with Alex Thompson on board as skipper, and a Volvo 70 called Ocean Breeze. Against a boat with that much raw power, keeping pace felt like a genuine ask — and there were moments out there when we honestly weren’t sure we could hang with her.
What made this boat work
A few things stood out about the Atlantic 72 that made her a genuinely great boat to race, not just a fun one.
She’s light, which keeps the loads manageable — the winches don’t need to be oversized to handle what the rig throws at them. The galley-saloon layout gave everyone somewhere to sit, eat, or relax while sailing, without being in the way, and it meant we could always see when we were actually needed on deck rather than hovering around waiting. The foredeck made trimming sails straightforward, and the helm sat right in the center of everything — close enough to every position that the whole boat could be sailed with a small, efficient crew.
Duncan ran the helm for most of the racing, though every one of us kids got a turn steering at some point. Dad ran the mainsheet and called tactics. When a 13-knot squall came through mid-race, we were still able to keep racing in real comfort, with a clear eye kept on everyone working outside. There’s also a below-decks steering position for when conditions turn properly rough — the trade-off being you lose the ability to trim sails from there, so it’s a last-resort option rather than a normal mode.
The backstays mean she can’t carry a square-top mainsail, which is a design trade-off worth knowing if you’re comparing rig options across different performance cat designs.
Every position, every kid
Tommy and Aidan ran headsail trim together — one on the sheet, one working the traveller. Aidan also ran the kite trim. Mum and the younger kids worked the bow for spinnaker hoists and drops, and lifting the daggerboards was an all-hands-on-deck job every time. Higher wind actually made the boat more comfortable underway, not less — there are three core positions on a boat like this: helm, jib trimmer, and mainsail trimmer, and with practice, any of us could slot into any of them.
How it went
We came first in a few races across the week — genuinely competitive results against boats with professional sailors aboard, not just a fun showing. The best part wasn’t the results, though it was a nice bonus. It was proving that a boat with ten kids on deck can be a properly competitive racing boat, not despite the crew, but because of them. We made new friends, had more fun than words really cover, and got to watch a Gunboat 68 cross our bow more than once — which, against a boat like that, isn’t something you take for granted.
