Carina wins Lighthouse - 9 boat still to finish

John Rousmaniere reports from Bermuda

Dateline: Noon ADT, Bermuda - 23. 06 2010
Carina has won the St. David’s Lighthouse Division in the 2010 Newport Bermuda Race. Owned and sailed by Rives Potts (Westbrook, CT) with a crew blending four families, Carina is the 46th winner of the race’s top trophy in the 104-year history of the race, which runs 635 miles from Newport, RI to St. David’s Light, Bermuda.

The 48-foot McCurdy & Rhodes designed sloop won on corrected time under the Offshore Racing Rule by the very large margin of 3 hours, 35 minutes over Gregory B. Manning’s Sarah (Warwick, RI). Belle Aurore, a Cal 40 owned by R. Douglas Jurrius (Easton, MD) was third, seven minutes behind Sarah.

Carina’s chances for winning looked good but hardly certain when she finished the race at dawn Tuesday. Her chief challenge came from Belle Aurore and three other boats in Class 1, the small-boat class. Any of them could save their time and elbow Carina off the victory podium should she finish by about 7 PM. Many sailors at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club and elsewhere spent much of Tuesday following the quartet’s progress on the online iBoattrack tracker. In the end, nobody was able to save their time on Carina.

Those four smaller boats still did well. Belle Aurore won Class 1 and took third place in the St. David’s Lighthouse Division. Two other Cal 40s, Peter Rebovich’s two-time defending champion Sinn Fein (Metuchen, NJ) and Bill Leroy’s Gone with the Wind (Tiburon, CA), took second in the class and seventh in the division, and third in class and eighth in the division, respectively. The fourth boat, David G. Dickerson’s Peterson 38 Lindy, was fourth in class and 20th in the division.

Carina also won the North Rock Beacon Trophy as the top boat under the IRC Rule, with a margin of nearly four hours over Gracie, a custom 69-footer owned by Stephen and Simon Frank (Darien and Rowayton, CT). Gracie was also designed by McCurdy & Rhodes. Third under IRC was Arbella, a First 44.7 owned by James Shaughnessy (Greenwich, CT).

As of Noon ADT Wednesday, 9 boats in the 183-boat fleet were still on the race course. This is the third largest Newport Bermuda Race since it was founded in 1906. The St. David’s Lighthouse Division, for amateur crews, is the largest of the race’s five divisions, with 103 boats this year.

Division Leaders Become Clear

Neal Finnegan’s Clover III (Dedham, MA), a Swan 56, is the provisional winner of the 39-boat Cruiser Division.

Jason A. Richter’s J-35 Paladin (Mt. Sinai, NY) leads the 26-boat Double-Handed Division for boats with two sailors, with a sistership, Darren Garnier’s Great Scot (Melrose, MA) 34 minutes back on corrected time. In third place is the four-time winner of this division, Richard du Moulin’s Express 37 Lora Ann, (Larchmont, NY). Five boats were still on the race course

On Tuesday Sir Geoffrey Mulcahy’s Swan 56 Noonmark VI (London, UK) became the provisional winner of the 13-boat Gibbs Hill Lighthouse Division for boats with professional crews, with a two and a half hour lead over Snow Lion, raced by Larry Huntington (New York, NY).

The Open Division, for the largest and fastest boats in the fleet, was won by the 90-foot Genuine Risk, sailed by Mark Watson, representing the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, which, together with the Cruising Club of America, organise the Newport Bermuda Race.

Results may be found at www.BermudaRace.com. They are provisional until they are certified after all the boats have finished.

Spotlight on Carina

Carina’s victory was widely hailed by her competitors, many of whom swarmed around owner-skipper Rives Potts on Tuesday night after it became clear that the smaller boats would not finish in time to beat her. Potts runs a Connecticut boatyard and sailed in the America’s Cup and offshore with Ted Turner.

The boat is considered a classic for her looks, performance, and her history. Built in 1968 to a design by McCurdy & Rhodes – co-designer Jim McCurdy, now deceased, was the father of current Cruising Club of America Commodore Sheila McCurdy – she won the 1970 Bermuda Race under the ownership of Richard S. and Richard B. Nye. In 1982 Carina won the division for International Offshore Rule boats and finished second overall by 16 minutes. Subsequently purchased by Potts, Carina has sailed 19 Newport Bermuda Races, more than any other boat. Under his command, she has won silver in every Newport Bermuda Race since 2000, winning her class three times – and now a fourth, along with the race itself.

2010 Newport Bermuda Race

The race starts on June 18 at Newport, where the New York Yacht Club’s Sailing Center will serve as race headquarters.

Divisions and prizes: There are five divisions. The St David’s Lighthouse Trophy is awarded to the top boat in the race's largest and most historic division, which is for amateur crews. The Gibbs Hill Lighthouse Trophy goes to the winner of the professional division. The Cruiser Division winner is awarded the Carleton Mitchell Finisterre Trophy. First prize in the Double-Handed Division is the Moxie Trophy, given in memory of Philip S. Weld. The winner of the Open Division (for cant-keelers) is presented with the Royal Mail Trophy. In addition, the top boat under the IRC Rule receives the North Rock Beacon Trophy.

There also are prizes for first to finish, the winning navigator and family participation, plus the famous Galley Slave Trophy for the cook in the last boat to finish.

Newport Bermuda Race Facts

The Newport Bermuda Race is a sailing classic that stands with the Fastnet, the Sydney-Hobart and the Transpac as one of the world’s top four ocean races. One of very few international races, it is historic, prestigious, and challenging. It inspires remarkable loyalty among the many thousands of sailors who have raced 635 miles across blue water since the first 'thrash to the Onion Patch' in 1906. More than 50 men or women have sailed at least 15 races. Since 1968, an average of 160 boats has competed, in good economic times and bad. The biggest turnouts were in the most recent races—the 265-boat fleet in the 2006 Centennial Race, and the 198 starters in 2008. More

TOP