Two Dozen J's Thrashed to "The Patch" For Silver!(Newport, RI)- The grand-daddy of all American offshore races, the Bermuda Race, sent 167 racing and cruising sailboats hurtling across 635nm of capricious Atlantic Oceans towards the gorgeous pink sand beaches of Bermuda in record-breaking time. For the J/44s the racing was tighter than ever.
A rhumbline race will produce a tight race in any class but no one could have predicted five J/44s exiting the Gulf Stream virtually within sight. Though the race didn’t end up exactly that way, even the crews who were nipped by minutes at the end were still ecstatic.
“We were within a few tenths of a mile from each other,” said Phil Gutin, who drove his 44 BEAGLE to first place. “These boats were really designed to race this race and all the teams were great this year.” Gutin decided to stay just west of the rhumbline to capture the most of the positive current of the Stream. In 2010 where he finished fourth, they had the same plan but watched, gutted, as the fleet sailed by to the east.
This year, the bet paid off for Gutin and his crew and they avoided some of the holes the rest of the fleet had to negotiate. “We thought the Low was moving and headed east after we exited the Stream,” said Jamie Ewing, the navigator aboard STAMPEDE who added that they were within 200 yards of RUNAWAY at one point. “That really motivated us. The last night the guys were trimming the kite so much I couldn’t even sleep in the quarter berth.”
The J/44 fleet, a one-design though they are racing under IRC, is known for close racing. With their long cockpit benches, and comfortable wood-veneered interior, it seems as though they would be hard boats to push, but Gutin said this doesn’t stop the teams from pushing hard. “We have relentless trimmers,” he said. “And our navigator only gave us bits of information so it would not have a psychological effect on us.”
With Jim Bishop’s GOLD DIGGER and Lenny Sitar’s VAMP always nipping at his heels, BEAGLE finally legged out to a 14-mile win. The rest of the fleet finished within hours and sometimes minutes of each other Monday afternoon. “In 2010 we had a respectable fourth,” said Gutin. “This was really respectable.”
The
race was remarkably straight-forward. For the most part, most of the
fleet joined the long parade aiming for the narrow gap in the Gulf
Stream between an eddy and the rhumb line. What caught everyone's
collective eye was a line of squalls making up near Bermuda. That was
the race’s game-changer. After that it was really all about the low.
When the wind backed through north into the northwest that afternoon,
Happy Valley became an extremely tactical playing field. Then the
crucial elements were good steering and clever choices of jibing
angles. Boats that didn’t spot the new weather missed out, but boats
that did gained large distances in the second leg. Good steering was
crucial in the shifting winds. Steer to maintain speed was the mantra.
In all 635 miles, many boats only jibed twice and some tacked twice to
the finish.Amongst the IRC St Davids Lighthouse Division, the J/Teams faired well. In Class 2 IRC, the J/40 MISTY sailed by Fred Allardyce finished 2nd. In Class 3 IRC the J/42 FINESSE skippered by Newton Merril was 4th place overall. One of the most competitive divisions was Class 4 IRC, which saw the J/122 CHRISTOPHER DRAGON sailed by Andrew Weiss finish 1st. Fifth was the J/120 ROCKET SCIENCE sailed by Rich Oricchio and sixth was the J/120 SHINNECOCK sailed by Jim Praley.
In the J/44 class, it was an incredibly tough race as was described above. In the end, it was Phil Gutin's BEAGLE that finished 1st, followed by Len Sitar's VAMP in second and Jim Bishop's GOLD DIGGER in third.
For Class 6 it was going to be a tough race for the J/133 sailors. In the end, it was MATADOR sailed by Mike McIvor that finished 2nd in division. Fifth was the J/133 JACKKNIFE skippered by Andrew Hall and seventh was the J/13 BACCHANAL skippered by Jan Smeets.
In Class 9, the fourth place finisher was the J/130 DRAGONFLY sailed by Colin McGranahan.
From an overall perspective, the differences amongst various sailboats are quite striking. While an S&S 48 called CARINA finished the race in an elapsed time of 75 hrs:56 min, the J/122 CHRISTOPHER DRAGON finished 2 hours faster in 73:53. The fastest J/44 BEAGLE was home in 71 hrs:55 min and the next J/44 home to Bermuda was VAMP in 73:58. So, it appears that the J/122 and J/44s (all 15-25 year old designs) continue to be competitive.
As has been the case for the past few dozen Bermuda Races, the double-handed divisions have been dominated by passionate, devoted J/Sailors who KNOW their boats can be one of the best performers across a wide-range of wind conditions. This year was not without exception. In ORR Doublehanded Division 14, it was again the masters of offshore short-handed racing, the J/35 PALADIN sailed by Jason Richter finishing first. Fourth was the J/40 EAGLE sailed by Dana Oviatt. In the ORR Doublehanded 15 Division, the J Teams nearly swept, with the J/120 MIRIELLE skippered by Hewitt Gaynor finishing first followed by yet another J/120 ALIBI sailed by Gardner Grant in third. Fourth was the J/46 SEA BISCUIT sailed by Nathan Owen, a great performance for all J/Teams sailing in the Double-handed divisions.
Finally, in the ORR Cruising 13 Division, the J/160 TRUE sailed by Howie Hodgson's team had a fantastic time in the reaching conditions to finished second in their division. For more Bermuda Race tracking and sailing information