Marion to Bermuda - Long, hard fight for competitors to finish race

by Talbot Wilson on 26 Jun 2009
With the finish of David Caso’s Cherubini 44 Silhouette at 11:57 Thursday morning, all classes in the Marion to Bermuda Cruising Yacht Race have had at least one finisher.

The race has been long and hard with the boats experiencing twenty-five to thirty knot headwinds and ten to twenty foot seas. Boats still on the course still racing or those who have retired and still at sea at 2:30PM ADT are now experiencing real fatigue and are ready to be at the bar in the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club in Bermuda.

Silhouette was first to finish in Class D. She had won the slow, light air race in 2007, but could not make up enough time on the fleet leader, Crescendo, to repeat her overall win this year. There were five other Class D boats still on the course. Memory is the closest other Class D boat to Bermuda and if she can finish before 8:00PM tonight, she could replace Silhouette as the winner of the class. Silhouette finished with an elapse time of 142:12:23 and a corrected time of 113:37:22.

Bill Read’s Tartan 37 Seeadler from Annapolis, Maryland was third to finish in Class D at 7:45:30. Freestyle had finished at 3:12:17 Thursday morning, Avalon finished at 5:33:27. Seeadler is the unofficial corrected time winner of Class C with an elapsed time of 137:45:30 and a corrected time of 111:59:51. Read said that they spent much of the race dodging weather but still had winds over thirty knots and more than fifteen foot seas.

Martin Jacobson drove his Swan 44 MkII Crescendo (Newport, Rhode Island) first across the line off St. David’s Lighthouse, Bermuda Wednesday morning at 5:47:13 ADT with an elapsed time of 111h:32m:13s.

Sailing under storm trysail and a small jib, Crescendo finished in a 20-25 knot southerly wind and 8-10 foot seas. She’s the unofficial winner of Class B, first to finish, first in fleet on corrected time and first in the celestial navigation division.

Unofficial class winner for Class A Cetacea, Chris Culver’s Sou’wester 59 from Newport, Rhode Island, finished second overall on elapsed time and was first to finish in Class A. She finished at 8:02:24 ADT and her elapsed time was 113h 32m 24s.

Culver said, 'Winning is a bonus… Arriving was the challenge. We felt safe in this heavy cruising boat. This race is about the people you meet and the Corinthian attitude.'

Cetacea’s navigator Jack Harvey said he had rounded Cape Horn twice and this race was tougher, pounding into 20 foot seas on a twenty-five knot beat to Bermuda.

The total number of ‘did not start’ and ‘retired’ yachts now stands at fourteen and leaves thirty-four boats on the course. Bremer Speck conformed their retirement early Tuesday morning. She had spent the night riding on bare poles in high winds. They are now motoring back to the states.

Avalon (Barry Feldman, Newton Centre, Massachusetts) legged out on leads Class C, and at 10:00 ADT Wednesday she was fifty miles out, one of eight boats within the Marion to Bermuda fifty-mile circle.

Class D leader, Silhouette (David Caso, Duxbury, Massachusetts), is well ahead of the six other Class D boats still racing. At 10:00AM ADT on Wednesday, she was 100 miles from Bermuda.

Footnote: Bill Read’s Tartan 37 Seeadler from Annapolis, Maryland was third to finish in Class C at 7:45:30. Freestyle had finished at 3:12:17 Thursday morning, Avalon finished at 5:33:27.

Of the original forty-eight entries, four did not start to begin with, and now fifteen have retired in the face of confused seas and big westerly winds early in the race and then eventually shifted to the south.

The non-starters were Paul Hubbard’s Bermuda Oyster (Hamilton, Bermuda), Stafano Pacini’s Galileo (Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts), and Por Dos sailed by Mark Monwood (Bedford, Massachusetts).

Yachts that have retired from the race so far that were on the course are Jonathan Brewin’s Big Bear (Hamilton, Bermuda), Harry bird’s Bluebird (Essex, Connecticut), Bremer Speck (Ron Hiemann West Newberry, Massachusetts), Maren Erskin’s Cayenne (Bearsville, New York), David Risch’s Corsair (Marion, Massachusetts), Jim Feeney’s Kathleen (Marion, Massachusetts), Alan Benet’s La Retreat (Basking Ridge, New Jersey), Philip Clorite’s Lucky Dog (Waterford, Connecticut), Lynley III (James Barns, Mobile, Alabama), Tom Bowler’s Nightwind (West Simsbury, Connecticut), Jonathan Baxter’s Pond Prowler (St. George’s, Bermuda) Bill Ferguson’s Sea Fever (Milford, Massachusetts), Daniel Biemesderfer’s Shearwater (Guilford, Connecticut), David Kingsbury’s Shooting Star (Orange, Connecticut). and Falcor sailed by Steve Gross (Scotch Plains, New Jersey).

Race and activity information for the 2009 Marion to Bermuda Cruising Yacht Race is on-line at http://www.marionbermuda.com.