Trofeu Quebramar Chrysler 2004

A Regatta with Style

We first heard of this regatta whilst we were visiting Cascais in 2003, there were lots of posters in the Marina Office and we thought it would be fun to include it in our 2004 programme. We didn't expect too much but we got the WORLD! It was difficult not to walk around without your eyes popping out your head and remembering to take your chin off the floor!

The first piece of good news was that racing starts at 1pm or later each day, then there was the Beer Tent, I've never seen anything like it, sofas, tables, plasma screens in every direction, great music, they called it the Chrysler Villa and was the meeting point for breakfast and after racing. What is it about the Cowes' Week organisers that think everyone enjoys Madness and Abba tribute bands?? The crews started rocking up on Thursday Morning all with matching everything, then there were the Spanish & Portuguese rock stars being followed round by TV crews and reporters. We had a few photos taken of us as we were the only British team there, we even made it into the daily glossy brochure that published each day's results.

The racing was fantastic with 2 afternoon races, we came in off the water about 6 every day. The breeze varied from 12 to 34 knots depending if you were at the windward or leeward mark. We saw some amazing broaches with bodies flying over heads and being dragged in the water. No one was seriously injured although there was a queue at the ambulance that night! Most of the fun was captured by the press boats, helicopters and sponsors so was there for all to see back at the villa on the Plasma screens that evening.

We all felt very lucky to have been part of such an amazing regatta. The sponsors did a fantastic job and a great time was had by everyone. The free prize giving dinner for 800 people on the Saturday night was spectacular. Starting with pink Moet we moved to our table for Foie Gras, followed by salt cod, followed by steak, followed by dessert, followed by coffee & whiskey, not to mention the bottomless glass of wine that sat in front of you! We did our best to try not to look like a rabbit caught in the headlights and kept expecting a bill to be produced!

Forget Cork & Cowes and being part of a huge herd, trying hard to get to the bar, paying outrageous prices for food and beer and then there's the rain. It really brought us to our senses and is making us wonder what is so great about racing in the UK after another summer of disappointing weather, postponements and early mornings! Cascais put on the finest regatta, we can't thank them enough for reminding us what racing is all about.

No doubt you are wondering if you can come next year? I'd book as soon as possible as places for this amazing regatta are going to go faster than Antigua Sailing Week!

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