Sail-World.com : Crescendo leads Marion Bermuda fleet into the Atlantic
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Crescendo leads Marion Bermuda fleet into the Atlantic |
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'IVB 51244 Crescendo, Martin Jacobson’s Swan 44 MkII (Newport, Rhode Island) hits the line fast in the Class B start of the Marion Bermuda Race Friday June 19th. Vivaldi, USA73117, was over the line early and had to restart. Credit Fran Grenon, Spectrum Photo - Marion to bermuda Cruising Yacht Race'
Fran Grenon Spectrum Photos
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The Multihull class of the 2009 Marion Bermuda Race started Saturday morning under partly skies with a light southwesterly breeze and a fair tidal current pushing them out of Buzzard’s Bay.
Falcor, sailed by Steve Gross, was the only multihull on the line this year. Mark Monwood’s Por Dos, the other entry, withdrew because they had children on the crew and didn’t like the forecast for potential high winds and very rough seas out in the Atlantic.
Falcor should have light air close reach to the Atlantic before the low pressure near the Great Lakes moves southeastward and starts to be the dominant factor for the boats out in the Atlantic Ocean. Winds Sunday are expected to be over thirty knots from the northwest to west depending on where the boats are on the course.
Crescendo leads fleet into Atlantic
In a surprise to all, a Class B boat led the fleet into the Atlantic. The Saturday morning position reports on iBoattrack showed the Swan 44 MkII Crescendo sailed by offshore veteran Martin Jacobsen (Newport Rhode Island) out ahead of the bigger and theoretically faster Class A boats.
Jacobson has a world-class international crew including Aaron Eddington (Shinagawa, Tokyo), Caroline Honorowski (New York NY), James Wolmot (Newport Rhode Island), Jeremy Whitty (Sydney, New south Whales), Jonathan Whitty (Sydney, New south Whales), Marcus Spillane (Fountainstown, Ireland) and Paul Atkins (Bagowlah, New South Whales).
At the 10AM report Crescendo led the next boat Chris Culver’s Sou’wester 59 Cetacia (Newport, Rhode Island) by some twenty miles. The yachts were heading south at about five and a half knots in a six-knot northeasterly breeze. Whisper, Sheldon Brotman’s Canning 48 (Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts), was ten miles further back.
Bermudian Jonathan Brewin’s Big Bear, a J160 and the second fastest rated boat in the fleet has taken a more westerly course, sailing for the new wind predicted to fill in from the west with the approaching low later Saturday or early Sunday morning. With the handicap carried by the big black boat, she’ll have to get that breeze early and put hours on the fleet to win on corrected time.
Brewin also has a very experienced and talented crew including Bermudians Alan Williams, Buddy Rego, Mark Hannebereger, Michael Carey, Peter Shrubb, Somers Kempe and navigator Kieron O’Connell from London.
Race and activity information for the 2009 Marion to Bermuda Cruising Yacht Race is on-line at http://www.marionbermuda.com.
by Talbot Wilson
7:37 PM Sat 20 Jun 2009 GMT
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