(This article was first published in the July issue  of Caribbean Cruising magazine. www.CaribbeanCompass.com.)

© 2010 David H. Lyman

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“Two minutes to tack . . .  ready the #2 Fisherman . . . “  The  news traveled down the deck of the 114-foot Bermuda staysail Ketch Aschanti IV as she neared the down-wind mark on the third days of races during this year’s Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta.

On the foredeck and amidships, just forward of the main mast, the crew of 16 red shirted men led by two white-shirted women, two of Aschanti’s four women permanent crew, went into action. The Genoa began to disappear on its headstay, the #1 Fisherman came rattling down, man-handled to the deck by a team of three men with Thea, Aschanti’s first mate, right in the middle, her dark shoulder length hair whipped by the 18 knots of wind. Halyards are rigged to the smaller Fisherman on the other side of the foremast, sheets are led back to the lee winch, all was now set.

“Taking . . “ came the command, then a single loud clang of the ship’s ran out, the Skipper’s signal to all that he was putting the helm down. “The bell is better heard than any voice command,” Aschanti’s skipper, Kalle, told me later. “ We use the ship’s bell for a lot of maneuverer. The bow is 100 feet away, and the bell can be heard with more reliability than voice or hand commands.” Kalle or Karl Peter Ebner, has been Aschanti‘s skipper for ten years, driving this 100-foot-plus steel schooner during each of the Antigua’s Regattas.

The schooner came slowly around the mark. “It takes time to tack her,” Kalle admitted. “We have to roll in the Yankee, take down Fisherman, rig and raise another then roll out the Yankee before be are on the new course. We lose a minute or two each time we change direction. That costs us, but on these longer courses, we can gain lost time over the other boats. This schooner was built to make fast runs on long tacks.” The staysail forward and midships and the main go over naturally. Steph, the cook, who does double duty as main sheet tender, adjusted the set to the new tack. The smaller fisherman is raised, flapping and dancing as it is hauled up the foremast, the sheets hauled in. Mean while, the powerful Genny on the forestay is unrolled, the sheets trimmed and the schooner settles down on a wind-ward course.    The black hulled schooner lays over and the speed rose: 8, 10, 12 knots. Jason, a professional skipper from Florida who had joined Aschanti’s volunteer crew the day before, was on the jib sheet winch to leeward, buried shoulder-deep in warm Caribbean sea water as Aschanti heeled, pounding into 4-foot swells, her lee decks awash, spray flying in 18 knots of wind.

Aschanti was built in 1954 in Bremen, Germany. She’s had a number of incarnations, with many of today’s experienced skippers serving aboard her as crew, mechanic, hostess, or cook over the past 6 decades. The rig is that of a staysail schooner, with the ability to fly a fisherman above her main staysail. There are three possible jibs forward, including the Yankee, the Genoa and the staysail on a self-tending boom on the inner forestay. The slot between the head say and the first inner stay is too narrow for the Genoa to be tacked or jibed. This large sail has to be rolled in on the hydraulic furrler and reset on the other tack. The decks are teak, as is all the trim, expertly varnished to a warm glow. The deck house aft is a raised coach house, with large windows, with a covered “patio” that features a large dining table with an inlaid map of the world, set in various woods. The wheel and control station are aft of the dining area, with a whale’s tail made of laminate woods for the helmsmen’s seat. The interior is traditional paneled mahogany with modest accommodations for a 114-foot yacht. The owner’s quarter features a large sleeping cabin, and adjacent office/library and en-suite head, all to starboard. To port is the Captain’s quarters. Forward is the crews mess, gallery and crew’s living spaces. The aft half of the yacht is devoted to mechanical spaces.

But while the schooner is impressive to observe underway, it was the crew that impressed me most.  Kalle’s management style is quiet and reserved. He never shouts. The large brass bell over he helm does his talking for him. Peter Fried, owner of Aschanti for the past 8 years, has a hands-off approach, content to confer with Kalle on racing tactics and sail management, serving as the skippers voice when orders are passed to Celine and Thea who are running the ship’s wind engine forward, the 5 sails that need constant tending. The crew during this ACYR was made up of Kalle's 4 women, all permanent, paid, staff: Cecil, Thea, Steph and Ping Morgan all dressed in white polo shirts. The all-male volunteer crew of 16 was made up of experienced sailors, many of them skippers on their own boats. Five were from Germany,  sailors who had sailed with Kalle on Aschanti before, but 11 of the crew, all dressed in red polo shirts, were picked up off the dock the day before the four-day series of races began.

My job, working on  assignment, was to photograph the race and find story to write.  While many interesting stories presented themselves, one stood out as unique--it was Kalle, Aschanti and her four woman crew and how they jibed with the volunteer crew. The four female crew showed the men they knew their boat, her rig and how to sail her in a race.  Their professionalism and focus was a joy to watch . . . and to photograph. Thea, 30-ish and a former interior designer from South African, has been on Aschanti for the past 2 and a half years  and the First  Mate for a year, ever since, Celine, from Avignon, France, relinquished the job to travel around Europe. “I needed to do something different. When Aschanti enters one of this classic regatta, Kalle calls me back and Thea and I share the deck work for the races.”

The two women led the 16 men more by example more than by instruction. The only voices that were shouted were those that needed to be heard above the cacophony a schooner make as it plunges through the seas in 20 knots of wind. There was no arguments, but frequent discussions as to procedures for rounding the next mark. There were no egos on the part of the men who followed the young women's’ lead.  The two women showed no uncertainly as to what needed to be done to get the boat on a new tack, and for getting her back up to hull speed as fast as possible.  They relied on years of experience in racing and moving this boat around the world.

“I knew it would be a challenge to manage this large a crew of men,” admitted Thea. “But it worked. We were lucky with the volunteers we were able to find walking the dock.” Of course Aschanti with her impressive lineage of winning regatta in her class, her gleaming brightwork, polished black topside and towering, vanished wood masts are a mecca for any sailor knowledgeable of classic yachts.

A schooner this large, with large sails and heavy rig is a difficult boat to handle. the crew of 20 was barely enough to sail her in the races, but Kalle took her out by himself for Thursday’s Single Handed Race, coming in second to Galatea, a slender 90-foot ketch built in 1899, shipper by Judd Tintinus. “It’s hard, but it’s easy,” he said Kalle. “We get away from land, give the boat some room, then the crew raises the sails and departs in the ship’s tender. I’m left alone with one other person for safety. There’s a lot of running around the decks,” said Kalle, an agile 56 years old. “Even the big J boats could be sailed single handed, once the sails are up. They just think they need a crew of 50 on board.”

“The next mark is a jibe . . .  5 minutes to the mark.”

Stephanie hauls in the main sheet, Ping, the hostess, release the  starboard running backstay, and as the yacht passes through the wind, rush to port and set up that back stay, then gets out of the way. Kalle is steering, conferring with Peter the owner. Thea and her crew working the fisherman and Cecile and her crew amidship working the Genny sheets and the other staysails, Aschanti rounds the mark, a settled in for another drive to windward. Aschanti carries a large spinnaker, but there are penalties for using it and the various legs of race course are too short to make it practical to use.

Kalle’s method of training his crew is practical. “We sail this boat a lot. When the owner and his family is aboard, we are sailing. When he’s not, we are delivering the boat to the Med, to the Caribbean, and this spring, up to Maine for a generator replacement. None of us have been to Maine before, and we hear it is the place to go . . . if you sail a schooner.”

“The girls know the rig, the lines, the systems and the procedures for setting and dousing the sails,” continues Kalle. “They could do it in the dark . . .  and they have. Besides, they all come from sailing families as did I, so sailing is in our blood. You might say, they learned at someone else’s expense.” Stephanie, who speaks like she’s from California, and is, but really from the Azores. She been on the schooner for 3 years, working as hostess on Aschanti for a year, then moved up to chef. “I can cook because I grew up helping my mother cook, who is from the Azores.  Ping, the present hostess is the daughter of one of Aschanti's former mates and engineers who served with Kalle years ago. A former fashion designer’s rep in the fashion industry in her native Melbourne, Australia, she is a born people person. ”When I finally give up this glob trotting  yachting life, I’ll move back to Australia and work in sales or the service sector . . . .”

Kalle likes his all female crew . . “there are no ego clashes,” and the ladies like Kalle,  who is part father, older brother and mentor. And the girls also like Aschanti, and who wouldn’t. She a classic . . . sleek, strong, fast and she wins races while providing a level of comfort in elegant surroundings for the owners and his family as well as for the crew..

Aschanti's won first overall in Class A Division with two firsts and two second places in this year’s Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta.

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