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Full spectrum… The diverse Newport Bermuda Race fleet ranges from cutting-edge racers (left) to immaculate wooden classics like the 1938 Sparkman & Stephens yawl Black Watch (right)
The 50th Newport Bermuda Race starts on 17 June
Few tests of blue water seamanship are as iconic as the 635nm Newport Bermuda Race. The next start, on 17 June 2016, will be the race’s 50th and will also mark the 90th anniversary of the partnership of the organisers, the Cruising Club of America and Royal Bermuda Yacht Club.
Sailed almost entirely out of sight of land, the Bermuda Race was created in 1906 by Thomas Fleming Day, an American yachting writer who believed in the then radical idea that amateur sailors in small yachts could sail safely in blue water. After English yachting writer Weston Martyr sailed in the seventh Bermuda Race in 1924, his and others’ enthusiasm for ocean racing prompted the founding of both the Fastnet Race and the Royal Ocean Racing Club. Fast forward 48 years and in 1972 the RORC entry Noryemawon one of the roughest Bermuda Races ever.
The 100th Anniversary race in 2006 had the largest fleet in the event’s history, 265 boats. Today international fleets of more than
4 SEAHORSE
Racing to Bermuda – a driver of innovation
160 boats compete in the biennial race as the key component of the Onion Patch Series, a parallel inter-club and international team race event
In a typical race a chilly first night brings the fleet out into the Atlantic. Then, as the sailors enter the realm of their new lord and master, the Gulf Stream, the race often makes good on its nickname, ‘The Thrash to the Onion Patch’. Once across the rough Stream, the sailors press on to the finish off St David’s Lighthouse. Inhaling the sweet smell of oleander, they motor up the winding channel to Hamilton, where the Dark ’n Stormies flow until the prize ceremony on Government House’s spectacular hilltop. Prize or not, any crew can glory in the satisfaction of having raced to Bermuda.
The fleet
The 2016 Newport Bermuda Race will have seven divisions, each with its divisional and class prizes. The race has no single winner.
ALL PHOTOS TALBOT WILSON
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