Greek Charm

We join a Fred Shepherd ketch for glorious racing off the island of Spetses in a growing classic regatta.

- Kathy Mansfield

Two titans battled it out near the regatta finish: the 1930 John Alden schooner Puritan, 135ft with a new and partly novice crew being expertly bossed about by Malcolm Banks, former mate on Herreshoff schooner Elena; and 1947 Glaramara, a 50ft (15.25m) Frederick Shepherd design, owned and raced by Stratis Andreadis, once ranked 29th in world match racing. Stratis had noticed that the finish line was skewed to the direction of the light winds and was pushing down Puritan. Glaramara was ahead, then almost abeam, then ahead again, and as the line was crossed a cheer went up from Glaramara while the Puritan crew clapped in admiration, appreciating the drama even if losing the placing.

Refreshingly, this was not the usual haunt of classic regattas, we were not in Atlantic waters, or Baltic, or the French, Spanish or Italian Med – this was the Aegean, famous for sailing since the time of Odysseus. We were enjoying the Spetses Classic Yacht Regatta just south of the Peloponnese in Greece: the sky was blue, the sea sparkling clear aquamarine, the sea breeze cooling the summer heat, Hydra and other islands adding interesting wind shifts, what was not to like? It was late June 2016, a blessed escape from dull, wet Britain writhing in the aftermath of the referendum, and Greece, despite its own recent travails, was endowed to over brimming excess with sea and islands, sunshine and wonderful boats.