2018 Onion Patch Notice of Series Posted
Two regattas connected by the 635-mile Bermuda Race will once again spotlight the best boats and teams across inshore and offshore disciplines.
The official notice has been posted with the rules and conditions for the 2018 Onion Patch Series and the Onion Patch Navigators Series. These two series for individual boats and teams run in parallel for boats entered in the 164th New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta, the Newport Bermuda Race, and the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club Anniversary Regatta, commencing June 9th and ending June 22nd.
Onion Patch Series competitors are drawn from among boats that sail in an IRC class at the Annual Regatta and also compete within the St. David’s Lighthouse or Gibbs Hill Lighthouse divisions in the Newport Bermuda Race.
Onion Patch Navigator series competitors are drawn from among boats that sail in the Navigators Division at the Annual and Anniversary regattas, and from either the St. David’s Lighthouse or Finisterre divisions of the Newport Bermuda Race.
All entries will contend for individual boat honors, which include the Henry B. du Pont Trophy (Onion Patch Series) and Richard Kempe Memorial Trophy (Onion Patch Navigators Series). In each series, any three boats from the same country, yacht club or other sailing organization may also join together to be scored as a team and compete for team honors.
See the Onion Patch registration page for race documents and entry information.
On the side of youth
By Chris Museler
When the Chilean-flagged Swan 57 Equinoccio powered through a Gulf Stream squall last weekend during the Newport to Bermuda Race, the speedometer pegged 15.7 knots, a record for the boat. As the sheets strained, a tiny voice rang up from the companionway, “Usted debe tomar la vela hacia abajo o irá en el agua!”
What little 3½-year-old Larry Westcott was saying to his father was this: “Take the genoa down or it’ll get ripped off and blown into the water.”
Father Martine Westcott obliged. He dropped the genoa, took in a reef, and the boat galloped along under shortened sail until the squall passed. “That was a precise call he made,” said Martine, recalling the moment.
The teeny sailor has sailed more than 5,000 miles with his mother, father, Uncle Philip, and crew. Yesterday he was cheerfully greeted by Royal Bermuda Yacht Club Commodore Leatrice Oatley.
First Chinese Entry
By John Rousmaniere
Dateline Newport RI: June 24, 2016— The Newport Bermuda Race’s international race course has long attracted sailors and boats from many countries. The 185-boat entry list in early June included sailors from 23 countries and 21 boats with non-US sail numbers. Fifty-five of the crews included sailors from outside the USA.
This year the race had its first-ever Chinese entry, Spirit of Noahs (sail number CHN 323). A J-44 chartered from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, the boat was sailed by 10 experienced Chinese sailors from Noahs Sailing Club, described as the first professional team based in Shanghai. Last October, Team Noahs raced in the Audi China Coast Regatta in Hong Kong and then in the Audi Hong Kong to Vietnam Yacht Race. In December, the team competed in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race in their very own TP 52.