Congratulations to Clay Burkhalter of Stonington, CT who recently completed the grueling 4,200nm Atlantic crossing in the Transat 6.5 race (formerly the Mini Transat) in his Rod Johnstone designed 21 foot "mini" Acadia. By crossing the finish line at Salvador Bahia, Brazil on Oct. 25, Clay realized his goal to complete the race and placed a respectable 12th overall out of 86 boats and among the elite tier of European mini specialists... Here are a few bullets from his experience.• Fastest speed: 17.5 knots in the first few days – during the first several days of the race when in squalls the wind would increase to as much as 50 knots.
• Scariest moments: Climbing the mast twice to untangle halyards. And, a few days into the race, when one of many squalls hit and Clay found himself moving so fast downwind that, as he put it, “All I could do was kneel in the cockpit, struggle to keep control of the rudders and hope it would pass before things started breaking all over the place.”
• During this year’s Transat 650, Acadia did not suffer a single crucial equipment failure that Clay was unable to fix enroute. His sails are intact, but for a small rip in one. However, plenty of hardware broke – from turnbuckles and blocks to a spinnaker pole, and by the end of the race, Clay was substituting hardware from one part of the boat to another. For more info, links to interviews and video clips please visit the Team Acadia web site.
