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.

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. 

NavigatorsBy John Rousmaniere

The Newport Bermuda Race has long been well known for the variety of the challenges it throws at sailors.  Sometimes there are calms, at other times storms, often there’s overcast, and occasionally there is the distraction of a stunningly beautiful night. This year, a full moon rose over the fleet with such brilliance that one sailor (Bermuda Race Organizing Committee Chairman A.J. Evans, sailing in Vamp) took a break from his steering and sail-trimming duties to send out an email at 2 o’clock one morning saying, “Spectacular evening of sailing here on a gentle sea with a decent breeze under a full moon and stars.”

The sea is not always so pleasant. When weather forecasters predicted before the start on June 17 that the entries would be battered by brutal storms, 50 crews dropped out, leaving 133 boats start the race off Newport, RI, on June 17.  The grim forecast turned out to be correct, but only in the far eastern part of the race course. The few boats sailing there survived the 45-knot winds with discomfort but no reported damage, and sailed on to Bermuda. 

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