When the extended period for entries closed on May 15, 193 boats had entered the 47th Newport Bermuda Race. The list fits the typical profile – big, high quality, and international – except that an unusually large proportion of boats, almost 30 percent, will sail their first “thrash to the Onion Patch.” One newcomer is Niklas Zennstrom’s Rán (Southampton, England), winner of the 2009 Rolex Fastnet Race and Class 1 winner in the Rolex Sydney- Hobart Race.The race begins on Friday, June 18, with the first class starting at 2 pm on the line right off Castle Hill in Newport, RI, providing spectators a good view from shore. Newport race headquarters will be the New York Yacht Club’s Sailing Center at Harbour Court.
The boat attracting the most attention is Sinn Fein, owned by Peter Rebovich (Metuchen, NJ). The St. David’s Lighthouse Trophy winner in 2006 and 2008, this Cal 40 from Raritan Yacht Club is a victory away from matching one of sailing’s most hallowed records – three straight Bermuda Race wins by Carleton Mitchell’s Finisterre in 1956-‘60. Sinn Fein will be challenged by two other Cal 40s, Douglas Jurrius’ Belle Aurore (Easton, MD) and Gone with the Wind, which Bill LeRoy (Tiburon, CA) is shipping east from San Francisco Bay.
The three-time winner in the Double-Handed Division, Richard du Moulin’s Express 37 Lora Ann (Larchmont, NY), is returning, as is Bermuda Oyster, an Oyster 435 owned by Paul Hubbard (Pembroke, Bermuda), who will defend in the Cruiser Division.
The fleet includes two Connecticut boats that have sailed a total of 34 races, winning silver in many of them. No boat has done more races under one owner, 16, than Emily, a 44-foot Aage Nielsen sloop sailed by Edwin S. Gaynor (Southport, CT). The record for most races by one boat, 18, is held by Carina, overall winner in her first Bermuda Race in 1970 under the late Richard S. Nye, and still going strong under current owner Rives Potts (Essex, CT). One award Carina, a McCurdy & Rhodes 48, is going after is the William L. Glenn Family Participation Prize for crews that include at least four members of the same family.
Also back this year are the first three boats on elapsed time in 2008, Speedboat (Alex Jackson, Piedmont, CA), Rambler (George David, Hartford, CT), and Il Mostro (PUMA; Ken Read, Newport, RI). Rambler is coming off a successful 2009 season with elapsed and corrected time victories in both the Annapolis to Newport Race and the Marblehead to Halifax Race, plus the Northern Ocean Racing Trophy. Il Mostro was second overall in the 2008-2009 Volvo Ocean Race, and this will be a crew tune-up for the next Volvo Ocean Race.
Visit BermudaRace.com for more about the Newport Bermuda Race, including its history, coverage of this year’s race, and the official race program. ✦
