(Marblehead, MA)- Building upon the 110 year race history, The Boston
Yacht Club hosted the start of the Marblehead to Halifax Ocean Race off
Marblehead Neck on Sunday, July 5, 2015 just before 1pm EDT. More than
65 yachts from Canada and around the U.S. took ogg on the challenging
363 nautical mile race ending at the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron.“Our rich partnership with the Boston Yacht Club goes back to the first race in 1905,” said RNSYS Race Co-Chair David Stanfield at the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron. “Our long history of collaboration is an important reason the Marblehead to Halifax Ocean Race continues to be one of the most respected regattas in the sailing community.”
The co-chair of the 2015 edition of the Marblehead to Halifax Ocean Race, David Stanfield likes to call this ocean race “the Grand-daddy of them all”. Stanfield is referring to the fact that the Halifax race goes all the way back to 1905, a year before the Newport Bermuda Race started and several decades before races like the RORC’s Fastnet or Sydney-Hobart were conceived.
“When
I talk to people about ocean racing, it always seems with sailors, it
comes down to the classics,” says Stanfield. “Those other races have
their challenges – the weather between Sydney and Hobart, the Gulf
stream on the Bermuda race.” But, Stanfield points out the 363-mile
Marblehead to Halifax course has multiple challenges too. “The Bay of
Fundy has the highest tides in the world and you have to be able to get
across the Gulf of Maine to Brazil Rock (a shoal off the tip of Nova
Scotia) without being sucked up into the Bay,” explains Stanfield. “Then
there’s a whole different kind of coastal racing that goes on up the
coast of Nova Scotia. You can almost always count on the fog appearing
somewhere along the way. If you want to get challenged, this is the race
that has it all.”A number of J teams have sailed the Halifax race multiple times. As a result, the PHRF 1 Class is ginormous, with 32 boats on the starting line and 12 of them (1/3 of the class) being various J/teams. Many of the boats are coming off a week’s worth of sailing at Storm Trysail Club’s 50th Block Island Race Week. There are five J/120s in the class all with offshore pedigree, such as Jim Praley’s SHINNECOCK, Gardner Grant’s ALIBI, and Stu McCrea’s DEVIATION. In addition, two J/109s are sailing, Eliot Shanabrook’s HAFA ADAI and Paul Rafuse’s WISC. Joining them are two J/111s, Jon Green’s EAGLES DARE and Marcel Cote’s SURVENANT from Quebec YC (a J/111 Worlds participant). A surefire class spoiler could be Evan Petley-Jones’ J/35 HARRIER from Halifax. Finally, two J/130s are sailing- Jeff Eberle’s CILISTA from Manchester YC and Kris Kristiansen’s SAGA from Boston YC in Marblehead, MA.
ORR Class features Scott Miller’s J/122 RESOLUTE and Fred Madeira’s J/44 RESOLUTE.
J/130 SAGA skipper Kristiansen had this to say about the race, “Our crew aboard SAGA has taken the Marblehead to Halifax challenge three times. We are still excited about sailing another this July. Every trip has made better sailors of us all.”
Fellow J/130 owner, Jeff Eberle on CILISTA, has skippered a series of boats by the same name. After picking up this latest boat from New Orleans, LA post Hurricane Katrina for what he terms “a favorable price”, Eberle and sons proceeded to fix her up and get her read for offshore racing.
He describes CILISTA now as a “great platform for a downwind race” and has the results to show for it. CILISTA won PHR-2 in 2013, was 3rd in PHR-1 in 2011, 2nd in PHR-2 in 2009 and 5th in IRC-2 in 2007. For this year’s race, the boat is fitted with a new mainsail and a new A-3 spinnaker. “On a downwind reach, we’ll be untouchable!” according to Eberle.
Eberle spends much of the time at sea (10-12 hours a day) in the nav station keeping track of the best information available. “We have a pretty sophisticated electronics package on board and that is our way of keeping on track and reacting to new information when it is available.”
Their satellite communications equipment downloads new weather charts every six hours and the on-board software then works out a sail plan and a suggested track so the boat can perform up to potential. “While some people might call this ‘sail by numbers’, I find it takes a whole team of people to parse out the information and figure out what to actually do. Our own knowledge of the course often comes into play.”
As most racers will tell you, Eberle identifies the changing weather and the Bay of Fundy tides as the two big challenges for crews to deal with.
“It’s all about training – your preparation both physical and mental and developing the confidence and the conviction to act. Those are the key things in my mind to deal with weather variations in this race. It is as just as mentally challenging to deal with “no wind” as “lots of wind” because people lose focus, get bored and don’t get the most out of the boat. You can make big gains if you are working during “no wind” but it all takes discipline and a little bit of talent.”
Talent is also required to work out a plan to avoid the world’s highest tides that have sucked some unprepared crews off track and up into the Bay of Fundy. “The Gulf of Maine is a gyre and the Bay of Fundy tides are enormous. There is fog at Cape Sable and you can’t see anything with a 5 knot current running against you. What do you do? Do you go close to shore or go out further? It is a difficult call and you can’t make it at the last minute.”
The Halifax race has become a major family and friends event. His twin sons are part of a stable crew of ten, which also includes a friend, Peter Chandler of North Yarmouth, Me. who has been with him for all but one race. Others fly in from Seattle and Colorado.
Part of the attraction is Halifax itself. Eberle says he has come to love the city and Nova Scotians. “In the early years, when we arrived, we were taken to people’s homes and entertained. I met lots of people and really made a strong bond with the people and the city.”
In recent years, the Eberle’s have either rented a house or a block of rooms at a hotel and family and friends fly into join the boat crew. They spend the week after the race vacationing together. And once they head for home, the crew changes and they take their time visiting the villages along the south shore of Nova Scotia and in the Bay of Fundy. This year, their daughter will come from California to be part of that cruise.
About a quarter of the participants in this year’s race are new entrants. The veteran racer recommends they spend lots of time getting prepared for the race. “But enjoy it – don’t get caught up in being too serious. It’s an intellectual game about how you get to Halifax. In a normal race, the conditions are going to change radically and you have to be ready,” said Eberle. For more Marblehead to Halifax Race sailing information
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