Coasters Harbor Navy Yacht Club

2012 NEWPORT-BERMUDA RACE LIKELY TO BE THE FASTEST EVER!!

When you awake to enjoy your Sunday morning coffee there will likely be a new elapsed time record for the 635 mi. Newport-Bermuda Race....the biennial thrash to the Onion Patch. I've been watching the progress of the yachts for the last several hours and a dramatic story is now unfolding. George David's 90ft. custom RAMBLER is now only 73.3 mi. from the finish line off St. David's Head. She has been sailing at 12.3-13.6 kts. on a course of 149-151 degrees. At this rate she's due to finish at approx. 0700 EDT and will smash the 2002 record set by Roy Disney's PYEWACKET of 53:39:22. The fresh nor'east breeze which has made the sailing unusually pleasant for us the last two days extends well offshore amongst the fleet of 168 boats racing to Bermuda. Well....not quite, as 4 boats have sustained damage and have dropped out of the race. There will be many wild tales amongst the sailors reaching Hamilton of dramatic spinnaker rides through a thrashing sea as the nor'east winds collide with the boiling, swirling Gulf Stream.

I can't help comparing these numbers to our 88hrs. to finish a fast Bermuda race in 1974 aboard the 2-time race winner CARINA. That year a new record was set by the 79ft. ONDINE at 68hrs....and in 2002 PYEWACKET had trimmed 15hrs off that time. Now RAMBLER appears to be poised to trim another 13hrs off PYEWACKET's mark....wow!!

Our thoughts, of course, are with the midshipmen aboard the Naval Academy entries of INVICTUS, DEFIANCE & SWIFT which have been based in our marina for the last week. Also, we send our best wishes to Sheila McCurdy & Capt. David Brown, USN (Ret.) aboard the McCurdy-Rhodes 38 SELKIE which berths at MWR on B dock.

(FINAL NOTE: At 0433 she is only 23.2mi. from the finish line and is now blasting along at 15.10 kts....at this rate she will finish at 0600 and will set an incredible record finish time)

Tripp

[b]THEY'RE IN.....the history books![/b] George David's [i]RAMBLER crossed the finish line off St. David's Head at 07:09:18 ADT this morning as First to Finish in the 2012 Newport-Bermuda Race. Her elapsed time of 39:39:18 smashes the previous record of 53:39:22 (set by Roy Disney's [i]PYEWACKET in 2002) by an amazing 14:00:04. A couple of hours behind, and just finishing a few minutes ago are [i]BELLA MENTE and [i]SHOCKWAVE----they finished an incredible 1min 57secs apart after sailing 635mi.....a dinghy race! I'm sure that the auto horns on the hill at St. David's Head have been blasting away in a salute to the racers with 3 of the 168 safely home. Four boats have retired, and one was scored DNS in this drag race down the rhumbline of 149deg to the Onion Patch. That means that 160 boats are still on the racecourse. Sunday appears to have a cruel twist for the middle and trailing groups as the windspeeds (you can view all this on the Race Tracker at http://www.bermudarace.com) are down and the boatspeeds have dropped off as well after the wild sleigh rides into and through the Gulf Stream. The USNA TP52 [i]INVICTUS still appears to be in good shape and we are watching them and the two Navy 44s [i]DEFIANCE and [i]SWIFT. Are any sailors from the CHNYC family sailing in this race this year? Please let us know.... Tripp

Jeff Schuldheiss is sailing on Isola

USNA boats excel in the 2012 Newport to Bermuda Race - BRAVO ZULU!!

RADM John Christenson proudly noted at the NWC graduation on 15 June that the USNA had three boats (two

Navy 44s and the TP52 INVICTUS) in the 635mile Newport to Bermuda Race which was

starting that afternoon, just two hours after graduation.



The results are in.....and RAMBLER indeed smashed PWEWACKET's 10-year old record by an incredible 14:00:04!!

The new elapsed time record is now 39:39:22....beat that! Of special note, SWIFT won her class (3rd in the

95-boat fleet), DEFIANCE was second in class (2nd in fleet), and INVICTUS was third in her class (11th in fleet) for

an outstanding performance by the Academy boats in the Bermuda Race. Edging DEFIANCE to win her class and

overall fleet honors was CARINA....the boat on which I raced to Bermuda in 1974 (CARINA reaffirmed her status

as a legendary offshore yacht as she has now won her class 7 times, division 4 times and won the overall Bermuda

Race St. David's Head Lighthouse Trophy 3 times to tie the famous yacht FINISTERRE, which won in 56,58,60).

Our B dock friends on SELKIE, Sheila & Dave finished at 0704 Tuesday morning. Also in Class 1 it should be noted

that 3 of the top four boats were Cal 40s----this William Lapworth design by Jensen Marine was the first production

fibreglass boat to win the Bermuda Race back in the 60s. Finally, our friend Jeff Schuldheiss from C dock finished

Monday night at 22:39.


Should be some great stories to tell about this one!

Tripp