Please select your home edition
Edition
Boatseekr_LeaderBoard_58 - TOP

Prize-giving draws 52nd Newport Bermuda Race to a close

by John Burnham 28 Jun 2022 12:43 NZST June 25, 2022

The 52nd Newport Bermuda Race drew to a close Saturday night with the Prize-Giving ceremony, held at Government House, starting in rain and ending with the glow of a setting sun.

At the outset, Royal Bermuda Yacht Club Commodore Craig Davis asked the assembled guests to observe a one-minute silence to acknowledge and reflect on the passing of Morgan of Marietta's owner, Colin Golder during the race.

More than 100 awards were presented for top finishes in each of 19 classes, and for numerous other superlatives, such as overall fastest and slowest elapsed times, youth teams, family crews, and club and service-academy teams. Then, at the very end, came the race's trademark sterling-silver St. David's and Gibbs Hill Lighthouse trophies, which are "keeper" awards for the winners.

Her Excellency, the Governor of Bermuda, Ms. Rena Lalgie, hosted the ceremony, welcoming hundreds of guests and multi-generational sailors who came forward to receive prizes from the Governor and Craig Davis, Commodore of the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, and Chris Otorowski, Commodore of the Cruising Club of America. Stephen Kempe, the RBYC Honorary Secretary, served as master of ceremonies, presenting the entire nine-page prize list. The race is co-hosted by the Cruising Club of America and the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club.

The coveted St. David's Lighthouse Trophy, a silver and gold replica of the lighthouse awarded since 1954 to the winner of the largest division (108 boats this year), was presented to Sally and Stan Honey (Palo Alto, California), for the performance of their 56-year-old Cal 40 Illusion. With a crew including Carl Buchan (Seattle, Wash.), Don Jesberg (Belvedere, Calif.) and Jonathan "Bird" Livingston (Richmond, Calif.), Illusion posted the fastest corrected time in the division in the past 20 years, and its 1h:58m:04s margin ahead of Andrew Clark's (Greenwich, Connecticut) second-place J/122 Zig Zag is the third largest in the same time frame.

The Illusion crew made repeated trips to the stage during the ceremony, earning half a dozen other prizes for the largest margin of victory in class, the top-performing vintage yacht, the fastest yacht from the Pacific Coast, and more.

The Gibbs Hill Lighthouse Trophy, a silver replica of Bermuda's tallest lighthouse awarded regularly since 2002, was presented to Christopher Sheehan (Larchmont, New York) and his Pac52 Warrior Won for victory in the higher-performance, professionally crewed Gibbs Hill Division (18 boats). Sheehan enters the record book as the first owner to win both the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse and St. David's Lighthouse trophies. In 2016, he won the latter with his Xp44, also called Warrior Won.

"It's very humbling," said Sheehan, who last year won the Transpac Race and, last February, the Caribbean 600. "There are so many wonderful records and legendary sailors in this race."

The Bjorn R. Johnson Castle Hill Trophy for the corrected-time winner in the Multihull Division was awarded to Jason Carroll (New York City), whose MOD70 Argo set a new course record of 33 hours (19.24-knot average) and became the first Saturday finisher in the 116-year history of the race. The trophy was newly minted in 2018 when multihulls were invited to compete in the race for the first time, and Carroll won it that year as well in Elvis, his Gunboat 62 catamaran.

The Finisterre Division Trophy was awarded to octogenarian Dudley Johnson (New York City), who triumphed over 39 other boats with his high-performance cruiser Prevail, a Tripp 65. Reflecting on the wait for this race forced by Covid Darris Witham, skipper of Prevail, said, "The boat has the right name. The race is a liquid Everest, and it had to be climbed. Dudley had done the race once before, and he really loved it and wanted to do it one more time."

The Double-Handed Division trophies, the Moxie Prize and Philip S Weld Prize, went to 20-year-old Zachary Doerr (Butler, Pennsylvania), a Webb Institute undergraduate, and 53-year-old Vlad Shablinsky (Glen Cove, New York), sailing together on the Figaro Custom 2 Groupe 5 in Class 6.

"We were hesitant to believe we were doing too well, so we pushed all the way through to the end," said Doerr. "The only time I got excited was when we finished in Bermuda and got cell service; the first text that popped up was from my parents, saying, 'You guys are almost definitely going to be first.' The whole experience feels kind of surreal being on the island now—a week ago I was taking finals."

The William L. Glenn Family Participation Prize, for the top team with four or more family members aboard including an afterguard member (see requirements), was won by Brian Bush (North Chatham, Massachusetts) on Toujours, which also won Class 7 in the Finisterre Division.

The Corinthian Trophy for the top-finishing all amateur crew went to Froya, a McCurdy and Rhodes 46 co-skippered by Lane Tobin (Seattle) and Bill Gunther (Essex, Connecticut). Froya finished second in Class 11.

Wasp, a US Naval Academy boat skippered by John Neubauer (Annapolis, Maryland), won the Stephens Brothers Youth Trophy. The award is for the top boat in the St. David's Lighthouse and Finisterre divisions crewed by sailors more than half of whom are between the age of 14 and 23, inclusive (see requirements). Wasp, a J/133, also won the Battle of the Atlantic Trophy with the third best corrected time among boats from service academies in the St. David's Lighthouse Division.

The George W. Mixter Trophy is awarded to the winning navigators in the St. David's Lighthouse and Gibbs Hill Lighthouse divisions, and this year the trophies went to California sailors Stan Honey of Illusion and Chris Lewis of Warrior Won. "This is really special to me," said Lewis. "We're both members of the St. Francis Yacht Club, and Stan has been my mentor for many years."

As the rain clouds dispersed and the sun set on the 52nd "Thrash to the Onion Patch," sailors lingered at Government House, enjoying the end of an extraordinary event. The start of the 53rd race will be on June 21, 2024.

See prize list of all winners

Related Articles

Sailing accomplishments from Bermuda to Alaska
And looking forward to the Paris 2024 Games As the United States prepares to celebrate its 248th birthday, the sailing world is also rife with accomplishments to celebrate and world-class events to look forward to. Posted on 2 Jul 2024
Newport Bermuda Race 2024 Start Highlights
Newport delivered an iconic day for this historical start It's been a long time coming, moving the start to Fort Adams, and Newport delivered an iconic day for this historical start! Thank you to all the spectators who came down to watch in person and tuned in online. Posted on 22 Jun 2024
Lighthouse Trophies and 100-plus other awards
A diverse, multi-generational group of sailors awarded The St. David's Lighthouse Trophy, Gibbs Hill Lighthouse Trophy, and 100-plus more awards were presented to conclude the 2018 Newport Bermuda Race. Posted on 25 Jun 2018
51st Newport Bermuda Race winners named
The division winners of the 2018 Newport Bermuda Race were finalized The division winners of the 2018 Newport Bermuda Race were finalized today with the arrival of the remainder of the fleet, after a slow but strategically challenging race. Posted on 22 Jun 2018
Newport Bermuda Race: Most of fleet has finished
The fleet came in quickly on Wednesday Between 0400 and 0500 local time, the finish-line team stationed at St. David's Lighthouse logged 38 finishers. Nearly the entire fleet of 168 boats were expected to finish by the end of the day. Posted on 21 Jun 2018
The "breakaways": The first five home to Bermuda
The adventures continue for the Sailor Girl in Bermuda The adventures continue for the Sailor Girl in Bermuda for the finish of the 51st edition of the Newport Bermuda Race. Posted on 18 Jun 2018
Line honours for Rambler 88
In the Newport Bermuda Race Leaving most of the fleet far behind in light winds, George David's Rambler 88 crossed the finish line off St. David's Lighthouse at 5:51:51 Eastern daylight time on Sunday evening. Posted on 18 Jun 2018
Newport Bermuda Race: Five boats ahead of fleet
Competitors have made moderate progress down the 635-mile course Led by Rambler 88, George David's 88-foot Juan K design, five boats crossed the Gulf Stream and opened up a significant gap on the rest of the 169-boat fleet, many of whom were sailing in lighter winds. Posted on 17 Jun 2018
The Newport to Bermuda Race adventure begins...
Nic Douglass reports from the 51st edition start The 51st edition of the Newport Bermuda Race is underway and we have been in the midst of the action from Newport and now from in Bermuda. Posted on 17 Jun 2018
Newport Bermuda Race: 169 boats set sail
169 sail for the Onion Patch in light winds The combination of a light southeast wind and more than one knot of current flowing out of Narragansett Bay pushed the fleet of sailboats starting the Newport Bermuda Race on the way towards Bermuda on Friday afternoon with few incidents of note. Posted on 16 Jun 2018
Vetus-Maxwell 2021 v2 FOOTERPantaenius Sail 2025 NZ FooterNavico NZ Zeus3S FOOTER