First Annual Crystal Cup at Atlantis

December 7-10, 2000 and the venue was a true fantasy land. Atlantis Resort at Paradise Island, Nassau, Bahamas is probably the most unique place we've been for a regatta so far!

For us it began with the preparation of the new Javelin...a Farr 49, just arrived from Italy where she had just taken 2nd place in the Sardinia Cup as Invicta...formerly Merit Cup... and before that, Breeze. We spent the day of her arrival at Port Everglades waiting for her to be unloaded from the ship. I'll keep this short by saying some damage was done to her by the shippers so the time schedule was pushed back while repairs were finished. With hard work by the captain and the Derecktor's yard in Fort Lauderdale and Crackerboy's yard in Palm Beach she was barely ready in time for her first scheduled regatta. That was the Wirth Munroe...in which we took a 2nd. Not bad for a first event! A brief practice the day after and then the crew was to meet the boat at Atlantis 4 days later for the first race around the marks on December 7th.

Except for a few of us crazy people who actually volunteer to sail 200 miles in a Nor'easter blowing up to 30kts with 10-12' seas! You guessed it....Stef and Tom! Ok...so we had a few others aboard too....the captain (Jan) of course, and Garrett, and our friends Larry and Jay Michael.

We at first had planned to do the feeder race over, but even the best laid plans often go awry. So from Palm Beach, straight across the "stream".. up the Northwest Providence Channel, around Great Stirrup and over to Nassau in 21 hours!!! It was quite the ride! We saw numbers in the 15.8kt. range on the "fun meter" and believed them! This boat loves to surf!

The wild fast ride gave us the advantage of having some time to see Atlantis and enjoy the resort attractions. This place is really quite amazing! The water slides are fast and steep and the whole atmosphere is like walking around in a sunken city with aquariums, fish and waterfalls everywhere you look.

Wednesday night we of the delivery crew went out for dinner in town and saw a pretty impressive limbo act! Only in the Bahamas!

Thursday morning the crew met at the boat...all except our bowman. We learned his flight had been canceled and he would not arrive until later that day. We did some position changes and headed to the start line. We have to give credit to Garrett for stepping up to the challenge of life on the pointy end. Tom did Mast and Stef was in her normal Pit position. Our lack of practice showed dramatically as we finished both of the day's races in 3rd place...which was also next to last.

Friday our bowman showed up so we had hopes for a better finish and though it was an uphill battle, we were pleased with our results of 2 second place finishes.

Friday night's outdoor bar-b-que turned into an indoor event due to rain but the Margaritas were fine and the food was plentiful...as was the Kalik beer.

Saturday the R/C decided to be kind to the sailors and give us only one race so we all had a half day off to play on the water slides and in the Casino and take advantage of all the attractions at Atlantis. Our second place finish combined with Strabo's 4th place finish put us in second place in class by 1/4 point.

The Saturday night party was an impressive buffet with steak and fish and chicken...all we could eat...yummy deserts too... not to mention the free pour Margaritas and Kalik again! Thank you SPONSORS! Stef's claim to fame for the evening was to be the first and only person there to ring the hook on the Bahamian Ring Toss game in ONE SHOT!