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Sailing is not usually a spectator sport, but the start of the Newport Bermuda Race is different. Thousands of friends, family and curious spectators will all find a place on the lawn of the Castle Hill Hotel, yards nearby or on the rocks above the lighthouse and along Ocean Drive. Hundreds of other spectators will be up close on the water in private or public spectator boats. Some will watch from the Jamestown side of the passage at Beavertail State Park. On June 20th this year, an estimated fleet of 220 yachts will line up in Newport near the mouth of the East Passage between Castle Hill Light and the Beavertail Lighthouse. When the cannon fires at 10 minutes past noon, the first class of these yachts ranging from 34 feet to almost 100 feet in length, sailed by seasoned professionals and experienced amateurs alike will start the biennial Newport Bermuda Race, the ‘thrash to the Onion Patch’. The second century of yacht racing to Bermuda will begin.
About one-third of the yachts in 2008 will be new to the event and more than 45 of the skippers will also be new to the race in that role. Returning skippers and crew traditionally do this race as a rite of passage. They have sailed the course with their fathers; now their sons and daughters face the test, too. Still other skippers and crew are professionals sailing the newest designs right on the edge of endurance and technology. The Newport Bermuda Race is a true blue-water challenge, one of the top four ocean races in the world. The 635-mile course takes these brave sailors on the adventure of their lives. They will sail south through the cold waters off the New England coast, cross the often treacherous Gulf Stream current and then settle into the usual Bermuda high in warmer latitudes for the approach to Bermuda, sail around the growling reefs north of the island and on to the finish line off St David’s Lighthouse. In the first Bermuda race, sailed from Gravesend Bay back in 1906, the little 38-foot yawl Tamerlane defeated two challengers and finished the 668-mile course in 5 days, 6 hours and 9 minutes. In the 635-mile 2006 Centennial Bermuda Race, sailed from Newport, the 66 foot Bella Mente was first to finish over 264 competitors. Her elapsed time was 4 days, 20 hours and 44 minutes. Bella Mente’s time was not unusually fast. In 2002, Roy Disney’s 75-foot Pyewacket set current the course record for traditional yachts. Disney sailed from Newport to Bermuda in the course record of 2 days, 44 hours and 22 minutes. The Newport Bermuda Race has been sailed from Newport biennially since 1936 and has been co-organized by the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club and the Cruising Club of America since 1926. Before 1936, the racers sailed from various New England ports looking for a home. That home was Newport with its safe harbor, excellent marine industry support and proximity to the open waters of the Rhode Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean. The rush of the race begins to mount as sailors gather the weekend before, June 14-15th this year, for the New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta. The Annual Regatta is the first of three events in the Onion Patch Series that also includes the Newport Bermuda Race and the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club’s Anniversary Regatta, and it serves many crews as a great tune-up for the ocean venture to come.
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As the week between the annual regatta and the start to Bermuda unfolds, Bermuda Race crews arrive to make final preparations. In 2008 the race headquarters will be at the Newport Yachting Center on America’s Cup Avenue. Skippers must go there to finalize the entry and registration process they began back in January. Entry is detailed and includes providing skipper and crew qualifications, having the boat undergo a courtesy safety inspection and assuring that each yacht meets all the standards set forth in the rules of the race. Right in the middle of all this preparation, crews take time off to attend a traditional pre-race party. This year Gosling’s Rum, Tucker’s Point Club in Bermuda, and the Bermuda Department of Tourism will host the party at the Newport Shipyard. Famous Dark’n Stormy’s, made with Gosling’s Black Seal Rum and Ginger Beer, will be the toast of the town that night. Then on the evening before the start, it is on to the skipper’s meeting in Newport’s historical Jane Pickens Theater. Weather experts will give skippers and navigators their final predictions of wind strength and direction down the course. The experts on the Gulf Stream will show the latest thermal imagery of the stream and point out meanders and loops that will give positive or negative currents for good or bad on the way across the stream. Up early on Friday morning, for the sailor it is time for that last good breakfast with their mates ashore, to go aboard, to stow last minute gear and provisions, cast off from shore and make way to race check-in with the duty boat near Ft. Adams Park. With foul weather suits and floatation gear donned for the start, it’s time now to focus on the task at hand. The race to Bermuda is really four races: from the start to the Gulf Stream, the course through the Stream with the most favorable current, from the exit of the stream to 50 miles out from Bermuda and then the final approach to the lighthouse finish line. It all begins with the firing of a cannon and adrenalin flowing on the line in Newport. Sailors always enjoy the waterfront hospitality and the warmth of Newport pubs and restaurants. But it is the call for adventure and the camaraderie of the ocean voyage that sets the real tone for the Newport Bermuda Race. Yes, it’s America’s offshore classic.
Start of the double handed
class in the 2006 centennial race. Photo: Guy Gurney Talbot Wilson has been the publicist for the Newport Bermuda since 1989. He owns a PR/Advertising firm. He is also a freelance journalist and photographer. © 2008 Newport Harbor Guide. All rights reserved. return to Newport Harbor Guide Articles |
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