Our boat Alexa – a Dufour Classic 41 – had been wrecked in the September 2004 Category Five Hurricane Ivan and had been part of the boat ‘alphabet soup’ in Spice Island Marina, Grenada. It took Goodacres (of Portsmouth) – who set up camp in Grenada – six months to rebuild her. Apart from the broken rig, she had hull piercings, the interior joinery work had moved, bulkheads broken, the keel matrix was distorted and so forth.

It was touch and go that she would not be written off. But they saved her.

Alexa wrecked in Spice Island Marine Grenada, after Hurricane Ivan

In at the deep end

The following May she was relaunched, and we were heading to Tobago, 90 miles to the south-east. We had decided the way to test the new rig, structural repairs and so on was to race her in the cruising class of the Angostura Tobago Sail Week regatta! So three of us – my wife Marj and friend James – were beating overnight down to Tobago in the usual fresh trade winds.

Alexa is the full deep lead keel Grand Cruiser version of the 41, and was a flyer to windward, even in a big sea.

Crew James breaking out the Trinidad & Tobago courtesy flag

Dawn was breaking as we motored into Store Bay. No marina was available, so the regatta fleet was supposed to anchor there. We made our own mooring by laying out the full 30 metres of chain and tying two fenders to the bitter end – easy to cast off and then pick up again. We hoisted the Trinidad & Tobago courtesy flag and our ‘battle flag’, and dinghied over to attend the boozy pre-regatta briefing and meet an arriving crew member, Tim.

After dinner, the crew headed to the boat and Marj and I headed to the adjacent five-star Coco Reef Resort. Marj then decided not to race, opting to watch the regatta from the hotel beach bar.

Next day was race number one (of four) and James putt-putted up to the hotel beach in our dinghy, as I sauntered down after a leisurely breakfast. All very 1930s ‘gentleman goes yacht racing’, as I imagined it. Indeed, when I climbed on board the sprayhood was down, and the bimini rolled up. That was it – full racing prep!

Leading the fleet and looking to tack and lay the finishing line

We had the complete cruising complement of food, tons of kit, 40 gallons of diesel and 80 gallons of water. We were off to Trinidad and the Orinoco Delta after the regatta. We were heavy!

We arrived at the start line half an hour before the first gun and reached up and down as you do in pre-race mode, sizing up the competition. We may have been on a cruising boat, but the three of us had done a huge amount of racing around the Solent in previous years. Just before the 10-minute warning gun we heard faint shouts. ‘Help me! Help me!’

Overtaking a boat with a lot of crew and expensive sails!

About 50m to starboard we saw a distressed Rastafarian on a tiny kayak, seemingly drifting in the direction of Panama. No paddle. We restarted the engine and headed over to him, radioing the committee boat who sent over a rescue launch. On tow, the local cried out his gratitude to us. ‘Wa’s de boat name, mon? Am going to make her famous on de island!’ We waved back, happy for him.

So, by the time he had departed, the starting gun had gone and about 20 yachts were heading smartly off on the first leg. Somewhat depressed, we gave chase. Did I mention that Alexa was a deceptively fast boat?

The full racing crew with our race number

By the end of the first four-mile leg we had overtaken 10 boats. Some of these were serious enterprises with black sails and matching T-shirt crews lined up on their rails. We looked very under-crewed and very ‘cruisy’. By leg three of the five we seemed to have no-one ahead of us.

Paul DALE has sailed out of Chichester Harbour for 40 years, on a variety of boats

‘Give me a course to steer, James,’ I shouted. ‘Follow the boat ahead while I work it out,’ he replied. ‘There isn’t anyone ahead!’ I shouted. ‘You must have taken a wrong turn,’ he replied. There were now 19 boats on our stern.

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The perfect tack

At the last mark Tim was taking a turn at the helm. He had rather over-refreshed himself the evening before, so I can’t really blame him for hitting the inflatable boat mark as we rounded it. Which meant we had to do a 360° turn to expiate our error. Argh! Two boats overtook us during this manoeuvre.

Happy ending!

On the final run to the line, we overtook both and James called the perfect tack so we laid the line perfectly and finished with line honours. In the four races of the regatta, we had two firsts and two seconds and came second overall in the cruising class.

We got this cup which I still occasionally polish. At the prizegiving dinner the skipper of the winning boat, (eight crew, matching blue T-shirts) said: ‘We only saw three of you – where were the others?’ That was it, we replied.

So, we did good, and she did good. Phoenix-like, Alexa had emerged from near destruction. And we resumed our cruising life in Trinidad and the southern Caribbean.

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