Hamilton Bermuda, June 29, 2014— Ask anyone who has done it… The Onion Patch is one tough series to win. It is a challenge to yacht, skipper and crew to prevail in these three spectacular events and venues.
The Onion Patch series had two winners in 2014, Jim Madden’s Swan 601 Stark Raving Mad VII won the traditional IRC series and the Henry B. DuPont Memorial Trophy. William Riley in his Pearson 39 Simpatico won the new ORR scored Navigator’s Race Series and the new Richard Kempe Memorial Trophy. Mrs. Neil Kempe presented the new trophy in her husband’s memory. Dick Kempe, a past commodore of the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, was instrumental in introducing the Cruiser Division into the Newport Bermuda Race in 1990.
Organizers had added a new, more relaxed Navigators Race Series format for the 25th running of the traditional series. The NYYC and RBYC each added a round the cans flexi-course for each day of racing. The new series for cruiser oriented race programs was scored under ORR ratings.
In the IRC series, Madden’s Stark Raving Mad had a 6 in the NYYC Annual Regatta, a 3 in the Newport Bermuda Race among the Onion Patch Entries, weighted at 1.25 and a 2 in the RBYC Anniversary Regatta for 11.75 points. Second place went to the US Naval Academy TP52 Constellation skippered by Josh Forgacs scoring 11-1-1 for 13.25 points. Third place was Rives Potts’ McCurdy & Rhodes 48 Carina with 5-4-5 for 15 points.
Save the Date: Newport Bermuda 2016
June 17th… 110th year & 50th Race
By Talbot Wilson
Hamilton, Bermuda, June 29, 2014 - Royal Bermuda Yacht Club – It's a quiet Sunday after the Saturday evening prizegiving, crew dinners and the last party at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club for Newport Bermuda 2014. Return crews are now packing groceries, topping off tanks and clearing Bermuda Customs for the long cruise home. Time now for some 1600 racers and their guests in Bermuda to return to the ‘real’ world.
Although the prizegiving had to be moved from it’s traditional spot on the Governor’s House lawn to the Pier 6 on the Hamilton waterfront, it was certainly a gala affair. Prizewinners enjoyed a happy half-hour with Gosling’s Dark ‘n Stormy cocktails before His Excellency the Governor of Bermuda Mr. George Fergusson presented 112 regular prizes.
The Governor also presented three special recognition awards on behalf of the Bermuda Race Organizing Committee...
By John Rousmaniere
Hamilton, Bermuda, June 28, 2014: Actaea, skippered by Michael and Connie Cone from Philadelphia, PA and Shockwave, a 72-foot Mini-Maxi sloop owned by George Sakellaris from Framingham, MA, are the big winners in this year's 49th Newport Bermuda Race.
The 635-mile race across the Gulf Stream had 164 starters on June 20 at Newport, RI, in five divisions, each for a type of boat. The race has no single winner (only division winners), although the winning St. David’s Lighthouse Division boat is generally regarded as the race’s top boat. The fleet was started in 15 classes, each with its own prizes. Ten boats retired from the race due to damage or to tight schedules brought about by slow going in erratic winds. The conditions made for challenging racing that favored both smaller boats and crews who accurately analyzed the complicated conditions and kept their boats sailing as fast as possible toward Bermuda. Boats were often tightly clumped, with reports of 30 or more boats nearby or within sight.
The St. David’s Lighthouse Division, for normal cruising-racing boats with amateur crews, was the largest division with 99 boats. The winner is Actaea, a modified Hinckley Bermuda 40 yawl sailing her tenth Newport Bermuda Race under the command of Michael Cone (Philadelphia, PA). After finishing dead last in his first Bermuda Race, in 1996, Cone began a multi-year upgrade of the boat. He summed up the metamorphosis with two concise points. “We had a great working crew and a fine tool.”
Actaea sailed in Class 1, for the smallest boats in the division, as did the second and third-place boat - Flyer (Douglas R. Abbott, St. Michael’s, MD) and Sinn Fein (Peter Rebovich, Sr., Metuchen, NJ). After five days of racing 635 miles, the margin between the three boats on corrected time was just 45 minutes. This is Sinn Fein’s seventh trophy-winning performance in as many Newport Bermuda Races since 2002, including victories in the St. David’s Lighthouse Division in 2006 and 2008. The fact that she was even sailing was a triumph. After being nearly destroyed in Hurricane Sandy in 2012, she was rebuilt by her crew.