Unlike previous years, this year no one had to rush from the Anguilla Day celebrations at the Ronald Webster Park to Road Bay, Sandy Ground, for the round-the-island boat race. The mass crowd instead stayed all day on the park witnessing the rather long official parade, speeches and presentations during the first part of the day and then enjoyed the large amount of food and drink and musical entertainment.

A separate holiday was granted for the boat race, the following day, Thursday, May 31, much to the delight of the many fans of the national sport. The crowd quickly built up at Road Bay and eventually swelled into one of the largest gathering there in recent times.

Fourteen well-trimmed boats lined up for the start of the race which soon took off on what appeared to have been a fine day for sailing. The boats were Blue Bird, Miss Anguilla, NWO, Superstar, Sonic, De Tree, Light & Peace, De Chan, Eagle, UFO, Lady Maude, Satellite 2, Real Deal and De Stinger.

Mr. Ray crowded with boat racing fans

To add to the excitement, two locally-owned barges, Captain Chrissy, chartered by the Valley Boys and Mr. Ray, providing its usual Anguilla Day passenger trip, left the port laden with large numbers of people, food, drinks and musical bands to follow the racing boats around the island.

The boats sailed well for a time until, during their downward voyage, they ran into a squall as they approached Anguillita. The result was that ten of the fourteen boats had to be toured into Road Bay having dropped their sails and told by the Boat Racing Committee that the race was cancelled.

Excited crowd at Road Bay

Notwithstanding the situation four boats made it back to the finishing stake. They were Superstar which maintained its lead throughout the race and came in first; De Tree which placed second; Light & Peace, third; and Lady Maude, fourth. The main prizes for the first three boats were EC$10,000 for Superstar plus the Chief Minister’s Trophy; $9,000 for De Tree; and $8,000 for Light & Peace as well as two trophies from Social Security. In addition, Flavours Restaurant provided US$300 for the first boat reaching at the head of the land and a similar sum came from Summerset Car Rental for first position at the foot of the land.

The Valley boys and girls aboard MV Captain Chrissy

Lady Maude should have received $7,000 for placing fourth but there was some hitches to this in that, according to one argument, this boat was far behind the other boats: De Chan, Satellite, Real Deal and, NWO. It was thought that if they had continued the race Lady Maude would not have placed fourth. The decision was therefore taken to share the fourth prize of $7,000 and the fifth prize of $6,000 among the five boats.

Consolation prizes of $2,500 were provided for the participating boats. The prize money amounting to EC$80,000 was provided by the Chief Minister’s Office.
There have been some contentions about the race particularly the argument that prizes were awarded although the event was cancelled by the Committee and there have been calls for a re-run of the race later on.

The Superstar

A spokesman for the Committee said however that the situation had been settled amicably with the various captains and crews and that all concerned had “hugged, kissed and made up.” Meanwhile the Committee will be meeting on Tuesday, June 5, to iron out any remaining matters.

The members of the Anguilla Boat Racing Committee are Paul Romney, Chairman; Yuclid Niles, Vice Chairman; Carmen Oliveras, Secretary; Andre Hall, Treasurer; Hula Carty, Assistant Treasurer and Ira Richardson, Public Relations Officer. Others are Roland Hodge, Charles Webster, Mitchell Harrigan, Keith Robinson and Eileen Webster.

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