One Of The Classes Starting In Newport Bermuda Race 2008 (Photo by George Bekris)

Down in Bermuda, the best spot to watch the yachts finish in Bermuda is from the grounds of St. David’s Lighthouse. Visitors will find that the Finish Line Committee is very hospitable and depending on the finishing traffic, they may be invited up into the tower for a tour. It is a straight up climb and not for people afraid of heights. The view from the lawn is almost as good and worth the trip to St. David’s.

The HD Gateway Finish Line Cam is new for 2010.  From the high definition camera mounted on the St. David’s Lighthouse tower, finish line action will be streamed worldwide 24/7. Spectators can use iBoattrack to follow their boat of interest to the finish, then actually watch them cross the line when they arrive.

In Bermuda, digital spectators can watch boats finish from the comfort of the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club. A Gateway ‘SMART Board’ will be available for viewing in the Calabash Lounge and a smaller HD TV monitor will be available over the Terrace Bar.

 by Talbot Wilson

New Bermuda Race Entrants

The above list subject to change.

For More Photos of the Newport bermuda Race 2008 by George Bekris click  HERE

Newport Bermuda Race 2008 (Photo by George Bekris )

 From the June 18^th start in Newport to finish in Bermuda 635 miles later, this classic ocean race is almost a spectator sport.

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Sinn Fein (Photo Courtesy Of PPL Photo Agency)

As more than 180 crews prepare for the start of this year’s  635-mile Newport Bermuda Race on June 18, the big question is can Peter S. Rebovich Sr. and his Sinn Fein crew chalk up a record 3-in-a-row Lighthouse trophies?

  The victorious Sinn Fein crew in 2008. Can they make  it 3-in-a-row in 2010? From left to right Foster Tallman, Henry Henning, Mark Rebovich, Peter S. Rebovich Sr., Peter S Rebovich Jr., Kelly Robinson and Gary Gochal.

Dateline 7. 06. 2010: The Newport Bermuda Race is hard enough to win once, But twice? In 46 races since 1906, just three yachts have won the major prize, – the St David’s Lighthouse Trophy – at least two times. A pair of these won consecutive races – Carleton Mitchell’s fabled Finisterre in 1956-60 and, in the two most recent races in 2006 and 2008, Peter S. Rebovich’s Sinn Fein, from New Jersey’s Raritan Yacht Club. Rebovich and his usual crew will be back again this year with the gleam of a third St. David’s Lighthouse Trophy in their eyes.

How does this 45-year old stock Cal 40 sloop do so well, so often against much newer and more sophisticated custom boats?  The explanation is that this is a happy marriage of a good boat to an able amateur crew that has been racing her for decades.  During Finisterre’s glory days half a century ago, one of her regular crew credited Mitchell’s “good admiralship” – meaning his cheerful but firm, detail-driven, open-minded command of a deeply loyal crew.  The same can be said of Pete Rebovich and his guys.

Crew of Sinn Fein (Photo Courtesy Of Sinn Fein Crew)

One thing that cannot be said about them is that they’re riding a brief lucky streak. When Sinn Fein first raced offshore in the Marion to Bermuda Cruising Yacht Race in the 1980s, she won class and family prizes. She’s sailed six Newport Bermuda Races, paying her dues with low finishes before winning her class in 2002 and 2004 and then taking the St. David’s Lighthouse Trophy, first in a drifter in a glassy sea in 2006, followed by a classic upwind thrash to the Onion Patch in 2008.  Over Memorial Day weekend, she won her class in the 2010 Block Island Race, the major tune-up for the Bermuda Race.
Sinn Fein has also won the Olin J. Stephens Ocean Racing Trophy three times straight – in fact, the only times it has been presented – for the best combined performance in successive Newport Bermuda Races and Marblehead to Halifax Ocean Races. Rebovich has a special memory of winning the first Stephens Trophy because the presentation of the award to the 70-year-old winning skipper was made by 99-year-old Olin Stephens himself. “We won, and while I was hobbling to the stage to meet him and receive the trophy, he commented, ‘Isn’t it nice to see an old guy, like me, still out there racing – and winning‘“.

By John Rousmaniere

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.

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Rambler At Newport Bermuda Race 2008 Pre-Start (Photo by George Bekris)

 And the fleet may get even bigger before the late entry period expires May 15. The race record of 265 starters was set in the 2006 centennial Newport Bermuda Race.The 2008 fleet numbered 198 boats.

With 196 entries, the 47th Newport Bermuda Race fleet is on track to be the third largest in the race’s history. “Despite the economic turmoil since the last start, we have a wonderful turnout from around the world, with many new boats and skippers,” said Race Chairman Bjorn Johnson. “This is a heartening confirmation of the value and importance not only of this race, but of sailing in general.”

The race has a wide range of boats. Niklas Zennstrom’s Rán (Southampton, England) in her first year won the 2009 Fastnet Race and also took Class 1 in the Sydney-Hobart. This cutting-edge 72-footer is one of 63 entries making their first Bermuda Race. Meanwhile, Peter Rebovich (Metuchen, N.J.) will sail his seventh “thrash to the Onion Patch” in his 45-year-old Cal 40 racer-cruiser Sinn Fein, which he has owned since 1973. The St. David’s Lighthouse Trophy winner in 2006 and 2008, Sinn Fein is a victory away from matching one of sailing’s most hallowed records – three straight Bermuda Race wins by Carleton Mitchell’s Finisterre in 1956-60.
span lang=”EN-US”>Sinn Fein can’t reprise her 2008 duel with Selkie because that boat’s skipper, Sheila McCurdy (Middletown, R.I.), has duties as Commodore of the Cruising Club of America, the race’s co-sponsor with the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club. Two of Sinn Fein’s sistership Cal 40s will race. One is Douglas Jurrius’ Belle Aurore (Easton, Md.), the other Gone with the Wind, which Bill LeRoy (Tiburon, Cal.) is shipping east from San Francisco Bay. His navigator is Sally Lindsay Honey, who normally races a Cal 40 with her husband, Stan Honey.

Newport Bermuda Race Start (Photo by George Bekris)

The big fleet may get even bigger during the late entry period that expires May 15. The race record of 265 starters was set in the 2006 centennial Newport Bermuda Race, and the 2008 fleet numbered 198 boats. The next largest fleet was 182, in 2002.

Sinn Fein is not the only boat coming back from a victory in 2008. Bermuda Oyster, owned by Paul Hubbard (Pembroke, Bermuda), will defend the Carleton Mitchell Finisterre Trophy, the top prize in the Cruiser Division. The three-time Moxie Trophy winner in the Double-Handed Division, Richard du Moulin’s Lora Ann (Larchmont, N.Y.), returns in a fleet of two dozen shorthanded racers that include five Class 40 boats. One of them, Desafio Cabo Hornos, Felipe Cubillos (Santiago, Chile), finished second in the 2008-09 Portimão Global Ocean Race (winning the leg around Cape Horn), raced in last year’s Fastnet, and finished third in the 2009 Class 40 World Championship.

Two entries have been racing to Bermuda almost continuously since the 1970s. No boat has done more races under one owner, 16, than perennial high finisher Emily, Edwin S. Gaynor (Southport, Conn.). The record for most races by one boat, 18, is held by Carina, overall winner in her first Bermuda Race in 1970 under the late Richard S. Nye, and still winning silver under current owner, Rives Potts (Essex, Conn.). One of the awards that Carina is going after is the William L. Glenn Family Participation Prize for crews that include at least four members of the same family.

Clover III (Photo by George Bekris)

The three fastest boats in 2008 are coming back, too. First to finish was Speedboat, a 99-footer owned by Alex Jackson (Piedmont, Cal.). Second was the 90-foot Rambler, George David (Hartford, Conn.). Rambler is coming off an extremely successful 2009 with elapsed time and corrected time victories in both the Annapolis to Newport Race and the Marblehead to Halifax Race, plus the Northern Ocean Racing Trophy as top distance racing boat in the northeastern United States. The third boat to finish in 2008 will also be on the starting line on June 18 – Il Mostro (Puma), second overall in the 2008-2009 Volvo Ocean Race and sailed by Ken Read (Newport, R.I.). Speedboat and Il Mostro sail in the Open Division for boats with canting keels, and Rambler is in the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse Division for boats with fixed keels. These two divisions have no limits on professional crews, unlike the St. David’s Lighthouse, Cruiser, and Double-Handed Divisions.

Among the non-U.S. entries are the overall winner of the recent Royal Ocean Racing Club Caribbean 600, Beau Geste, Cameron Ward (Sydney, Australia), and Sir Geoffrey Mulcahy’s Noonmark VI (Southampton, England), which is on an extended circumnavigation that includes the world’s major races. Another foreign entry is Hugo Boss, sailed by British ocean racer Alex Thomson (Gosport, England). “Newport Bermuda is one of the big classics,” said Thomson. “Having done many Fastnets and Sydney-Hobarts, I am very excited to present our new boat and represent our sponsor in this famous race.”

Start of Newport Bermuda 2008 (Photo by George Bekris)

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