Hamilton, Bermuda, June 27, 2014 - Royal Bermuda Yacht Club - The US Naval Academy TP52 Constellation has won the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club Anniversary Regatta held Friday June 27 in Bermuda’s Great Sound and adjacent waters. Only the second race counted in the results and Constellation won that.His Excellency the Governor of Bermuda Mr. George Fergusson, who sailed aboard Constellation in both races, was at the helm of last leg of the final race. He drove the yacht from the Great Sound, through Two Rocks Passage and on to the finish off the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club in Hamilton Harbour.
Race 1 was a windward-leeward course that was eventually abandoned following a protest against the Race Committee that raised the point that boats had sailed the proper course. The Race Committee abandoned Race 1 under RRS32.1(e) “for any other reason directly affecting the safety or fairness of the competition.”
Apparently there was confusion over the course being sailed. The course posted on the signal boat was Course 1, a windward-leeward, three-lap course. Constellation rounded the leeward mark for the second time and then saw the Principal Race Officer sighting the line and the secretary in place to record finishers. They thought they needed to finish and returned, crossed the line and got a horn, signaling a finish. Boats them followed across the finish line and got the signal.
There were two misses… miscommunication and misunderstanding. The committee abandoned Race 1 as unfair competition.
Actaea won the St. David’s Lighthouse Division in the 2014 Newport Bermuda Race. Michael and Connie Cone’s Hinckley Bermuda 40 yawl raced in Class 1. They started in Newport, RI on Friday June 20 at 1:00PM EDT and finished in Bermuda off St. David’s Lighthouse almost 122 hours later.
She corrected her time ahead of Llwyd Ecclestone’s 66 foot Kodiak, the division’s line honors winner, 80hr 25min 58sec to 83hr 57min 40 sec and corrected ahead of the other 96 boats in the division. Actaea won her division by some 40 minutes of corrected time over Douglas Abbott’s Class 1 Cal 40 Flyer. The Cones are from Philadelphia PA and sail on the Chesapeake Bay.
Michael Cone was depressed when he walked into the awards ceremony for the 1996 Newport Bermuda Race. “I swore that I’d never ever do this race again,” he remembered. His Bermuda 40 yawl Actaea was the last boat to finish that year, which meant that his wife, Connie, would be presented with the Galley Slave Trophy as the cook who had sailed the longest time and, therefore, prepared the most meals.
Salvation for the Cones came in the unlikely form of that year’s race winner, George Coumantaros. After he was presented with the St. David’s Lighthouse Trophy, he told the crowd that he had been racing to Bermuda since 1952—26 races, all with disappointing endings until now. “We’ve been like Jason chasing the Golden Fleece,” he said. “I’d like to give all who sail for the Lighthouse Trophy some advice: don’t despair, keep trying, and if you don’t win it by the time you are 75, withdraw.”
Cone recalled, “I was really upset, and he addressed that feeling in his wonderful speech. So I decided to come back.”
Shockwave, skippered by George Sakellaris of Framingham MA, crossed the finish line in the Newport Bermuda Race at 6:34 Bermuda time Monday to take line honors in the 49th Newport Bermuda Race. All of the boats in the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse Division have now finished. Based on provisional results, Shockwave can be confirmed as the class 9 and division winner, taking home his second Gibbs Hill Lighthouse Trophy in a row. This is the first boat to win consecutive Gibbs Hill Trophies since the prize was dedicated to the grand prix,l division in 2002.
Hap Fauth’s Bella Mente and Caol Ila owned by Alex Schaerer finished second and third in the class and division.
For the St. David’s Lighthouse Division corrected time honors, first we thought the Class 2 Navy 44 Swift was the one, then as Class 1 boats began to finish. Five of the top 6 in the Division are in that class. Initially, it was the Tartan 41 Aurora, then the Cal 40 Flyer, before the Hinckley B40 Actaea stole the show.
Actaea is a classic cruising yawl owned by Michael Cone of Philadelphia Pennsylvania, PA.. Her crew are John Vj Chiochetti, Constance H. Cone, co-owner and watch captain, James Dalton, George J. Fallon, Rex Miyashiro, Stewart Rose, and Stanley Sneath. Cone is a member of Corinthian YC.