Charleston Bermuda Race 2011 off to an exhilarating start

by Charleston Bermuda Race on 22 May 2011 Charleston Bermuda Race 2011 is staged by OnDeck, the South Carolina Maritime Foundation and the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club. The race starts at Charleston Harbor and covers 777 miles.

Competitors were greeted with bright blue, low country skies and freshening southeast winds out on Charleston Harbor as the 11 boats competing in this biennial contest amassed for the start. Some 50-odd spectator boats were on hand to cheer on the fleet, with a few of them carrying signs for the racers.

The four Cruising Class boats were the first to go off the line, with local racer Bernie Schapiro and crew on board his 41-foot Beneteau Pied-a-Mer getting the best start, just 10 seconds off the line right at the committee boat. Schapiro was chased closely by George Maloomian’s larger and swifter Hylas 54 Gratitude, as the winds slowly ratcheted up from 8 to 10 knots.

Only minutes later, the sailors in the Doublehanded Division got underway, with Noel Sterrett and Matt Henderson sailing aboard Sterrett’s J/130 Solarus establishing an early lead at the pin. It’s clear that this duo will be the boat to beat. As of 6:00 p.m., Solarus’s tracking data showed the boat only three miles behind the much larger boats sailing in the Racing Division. The rest of the doublehanded boats have chosen more northerly routes as the fleet moves off toward the Gulf Stream.

When the Racing Division started, Hank Hofford and Susan Ford’s family crew on board the Shipman 63 Tucana made an early statement. They won the start by being the leeward-most boat and emphasized their statement by legging out with superior speed relative to the other three boats (another Shipman 63 and two identical Farr 65s).

Sailing on board one of the Farr 65s, comedian Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report has made it clear that he intends to win this race and secure 'eternal glory,' for himself. Colbert’s boat, the Spirit of Juno, was the fourth and last boat across the starting line in this division, but he and his fellow crew did get the last laugh as the boats left Charleston Harbor. After engaging in a brief tacking duel with the Spirit of Minerva, which has been chartered by Colbert’s close friend Steve Wherry, Colbert and company were able to roll over their rivals and gain a small margin as the boats sailed out between Charleston’s famed rock jetties.

As the boats moved offshore late this afternoon, they were sailing under an expansive high-pressure system that doesn’t bode well for stronger winds. The lead boat, Tucana, was moving at only 6.9 knots as of 6:30 p.m Saturday. Racers are expected to reach the Gulf Stream by midday on Charleston Bermuda Race website