Category: bermuda

JURY DECISION FOR “CARINA”

 

Newport Bermuda Jury Penalizes Carina

 

By John Rousmaniere

 

NEWPORT, R.I., July 9, 2012- The International Jury for the 2012 Newport Bermuda Race has penalized the yacht Carina 15 minutes in elapsed time because a professional sailor briefly steered the boat during the race. The rules of the St. David’s Lighthouse Division in which Carina sailed (and which the boat won) require that only amateur sailors steer while racing.

 

The ruling does not affect the race standings. The penalty trims Carina’s margin over the second-place St. David’s Lighthouse boat, the U.S. Naval Academy’s Defiance, to 16 minutes, 22 seconds from 34 minutes, 34 seconds. Carina also remains winner of Class 3 under the IRC rule.

 

The International Jury made its decision after a hearing on Sunday, July 8, in which Carina’s owner and captain, Rives Potts (Westbrook, Conn.), participated. The Jury determined that Carina’s crew list as provided by Potts before the race listed all of the boat’s 12 crewmembers as Category 1 amateur sailors under the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) sailor classification code. The rules for the St. David’s Lighthouse Division permit a boat the size of Carina, a 48-foot sloop, to have as many as three professional sailors in the crew with the condition that none of them steer while the boat is racing.

 

One of Carina’s crew was Kit Will, whose ISAF Category 1 classification had expired in April 2010. Two days before the race start, Will applied to ISAF and was classified as a Category 3 professional sailor. (There is no Category 2 in the ISAF code.) Will did not inform Potts that he had been reclassified as a Category 3 until after Carina finished the race in Bermuda.  By then Carina had been presented with the Corinthian Trophy for top boat with an all-amateur crew. Potts returned the trophy to the Bermuda Race Organizing Committee, which runs the race for the Cruising Club of America and the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club.

 

Potts filed a report with the International Jury in which he stated that Will had briefly steered Carina during the race. Potts requested that the Jury review the matter. “Mr. Will was aware that Category 3 competitors were not permitted to steer the yacht while racing,” the Jury stated in its decision. “During the race Mr. Will steered the boat on two occasions for brief periods amounting to several minutes.” The Jury imposed the 15-minute penalty.

 

While the Bermuda Race has no official overall winner, the top boat in the St. David’s Lighthouse Division is generally regarded as the winner because this is the largest division and features amateur sailors.

 

The members of the International Jury are Peter Shrubb (Bermuda) Chairman, Lynne Beal (Canada), Robert Duffy (Bermuda), Patricia O`Donnell (U.S.), and Arthur Wullschleger (U.S.)

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For information about the Newport Bermuda Race® contact

John Rousmaniere: email Media@BermudaRace.com  +1 646 573-2024

Talbot Wilson: email talbot@talbotwilson.com Tel: +1 970-453-8823

Mob: +1 850 217-7138

Race website: http://www.bermudarace.com/

 

PHOTOS available from PPL Photo Agency.

Tel +44(0)1243 555561 E.mail: ppl@mistral.co.uk. Web: www.pplmedia.com

A STORY WORTH READING

the drs. will see you now

We just completed the Newport Bermuda race on my 1988 Swan 46 Mk1 “Flying Lady.” In a race which featured lots of 80-100 foot ultra light speedsters packed with burly young professional sailors, while our crew included 3 doctors, a dentist, an EMT fire lieutenant, an aeronautical engineer, a carpenter, and a sixty-plus building inspector. While we all freely released our ISAF class data to the race committee (all class 1), none of us would have released our body mass index data to any racing authority.  Let’s just say that if had we wanted to lighten up the boat for racing we should have started with diet and exercise for the crew.

Yet, who do you think were called to do one of the few sailboat to sailboat rescues of a sick sailor in the history of the Bermuda Race?  One of the sleek speedsters with 20-something trained athletes manning the decks?  Or the Naval Academy Navy 44” Defiance” (who have smoked us repeatedly) with nobody over the age of 22 onboard and some barely shaving?  No. the middle-aged doctor boat.

You see, the distress call came over 16 that the race committee doctor had told the crew of double handed Sea biscuit (J46)  to find a boat that had the capacity to administer IV fluids.  The owner had become dehydrated due to seasickness and hadn’t kept anything down for 36 hours.

So how do you prepare a boat for offshore racing if you know more about spinal stenosis than spinnakers?  Of course you make the boat a floating hospital, with not only IV fluids, but enough  stuff to do surgery in most body cavities.  Neurosurgeon, plastic surgeon, urologist, dentist, EMT:  the potential for high seas medical mischief was endless.

Combine our floating hospital with mandatory satellite phones for all competitors, a list of medical personnel aboard every boat filed with the race committee, and a Harvard doctor in Boston coordinating medical emergencies—now you have a perfect recipe for “Flying Lady” to see some real action.

Of course we answered the call, checked in with Bermuda Rescue and the RC doc by phone and sped off under engine to rendezvous with “Seabiscuit.”  Naively we thought we’d put out fenders,transfer to the boat, start an IV, give some fluids, and be back to racing.  However, those of you with offshore experience know that there is no way in hell we were going to have a simple tie-up with another 46 footer in sloppy seas 240 nm from Bermuda, even with only 14 knots of a backing NE breeze (compared with 30 in the Stream).  What we were able to do after a couple of passes with fenders out but with masts swinging like 65 foot high windshield wipers, was to toss them our IV bags and needles and talk them through the administration on the VHF.

These amazing guys got the IV started with excellent coaching from our EMT and after a little fluid, the dehydrated sailor felt better and “Seabiscuit “started motoring to Bermuda.  Bermuda rescue asked us to stay within VHF range until he was transferred to “The Spirit of Bermuda”, the Bermuda Schooner who had been turned back to redezvous and take him on their ship (which apparently had even more of a hospital on board than ours).

Unfortunately after a brief period of improvement, the sailor felt worse again and Bermuda Rescue arranged for him to be evacuated by” Enchantment of the Seas”, a cruise ship, who plucked him off the sailboat in no time, displaying real professional seamanship.   I’ll save you the details but don’t believe that there are no big ships that can stop on a dime or turn like a dinghy. The crew then sailed” Seabiscuit” solo to Bermuda and finished respectfully despite all the drama.

Bermuda Rescue released us to start sailing again, and after our 7 hour rescue ordeal, we put up the symmetrical kite and took off in darkness in 18 knots true,  aluminium starboard pole forward, on the edge of control.  We finished a little over 24 hours later in a dying breeze and it took us 4 hours to complete the last 5 miles, while most of our competitors had finished in 12 knots.  To our satisfaction, the Jury awarded us all of the 7 hours in redress and we finished 6th IRC out of 13 in our class.

To our surprise, the RC notified us that” Flying Lady,” “ Seabiscuit,” and”Spirit of Bermuda”would all receive Special Seamanship Awards and we all beamed with pride when we  accepted our award from the Governor and the RC brass at the “prize-giving” Saturday evening.

Lessons learned: 1) feel privileged to be on an older boat  with a bunch of older doctors and other guys.  Even if they may not be able to change sails as quickly as the Navy guys and girls, and even if the speedo never hits 20, you may get a chance to do something few of us ever get to do—participate in a rescue at sea of a fellow sailor in need, and 2) age and treachery trump youth every time!

Respectfully submitted,

Phillip Dickey MD, Captain,
Flying Lady, Swan 46

FACES OF BERMUDA

We sail the race and many people never leave the yacht club or the immediate surroundings. There is in fact a great deal to see. I discovered this trip many new things that I had never seen before. ( my first race was in 1966) I am not sure what that says about me.

FAST

I am back from the Bermuda Race. I sailed on Snow Lion, a Ker 50. We completed the race in 64 hours, the fastest I have ever completed the race, a personal best, if you like. However, everyone else set new personal bests as well. The new record is 39 hours 39 minutes an 18 seconds,set by Rambler, a 90 foot RP, breaking the previous record by 14 hours.

BERMUDA RACE COURSE

As the start of the Bermuda Race looms, it occupies more of my thoughts. Have I remembered everything? Did I overlook something on the boat? I want to bring what might be needed, but not bring too much, just contributing to extra unnecessary weight. Back to my recurring thought of reducing thing to the lowest common denominator, as uncomplicated and practical as can be achieved.

Safety at sea is at the back of everyone’s mind.

The decision on where to enter the Gulf Stream will be determined before the start and once we commit to a plan it is quite hard to change. Of course many of these decisions are weather based. What the wind will allow us to do.

My kit for the race is not that different from what I packed for last year’s transatlantic race. Naturally fewer things.

Wishing best of luck and safe race to all competitors; but we are like everyone else, racing to win.

BERMUDA RACE NEXT WEEK

Like many mornings I started out with one idea and soon moved to another. Today blame Larry Suter. He made a post on Facebook that triggered other thoughts.

Newport is about to start the summer sailing season in ernest. The New York Yacht Club spring regatta starting tomorrow, the following friday is the start of the Bermuda Race. The America’s Cup World Tour will be starting when I return from Bermuda. then Tall Ships. On and on. Many discussions have debated whether or not the expected crowds will materialize for the America’s Cup. I guess we will know soon.

Every photograph has a story, a memory, a smile, a friendship connected to it.

GULF STREAM

The Bermuda Race is the big sailing event, particularly on the East Coast. Yes the America’s Cup is coming to Newport after the race leaves.

The Bermuda race is traditionally broken into three parts, the race to the north wall of the Gulf Stream, the Stream, and the race from the Stream to Kitchen Shoals. Really the Gulf Stream is the obstacle on the race course. I have only sailed 12 races, (my first in 1966) but I have still managed to see many unusual events.

Click HERE to see an animated view of the stream so far this year. It is what has already happened so it will not be much help for what will occur in June, but shows just how much change can happen.

 

ONION PATCH SERIES

 

Reading the recent article about the Onion Patch Series puzzled me because the description did not resemble any of the series I had sailed in the past. I participated on “Carina”, “Charisma”. The series in those days the series began with a race starting in Oyster Bay around Buzzards Bay light tower, around Block Island and then finishing at Castle Hill. Once in Newport we sailed three day races before starting the Bermuda Race. The race s were open to all participants but the teams were scored separately, just as the Admiral’s Cup had been sailed in the early days, before the beginning of the end when the Admiral’s Cup was excised from the crowds, but that is a subject for another day.

As I write, I wonder if we as sailors have been our own worst enemies.

BEING IN THE RIGHT PLACE

Today is St. Patrick’s Day, a big day in Newport with a parade and everyone wearing a grin. Tucked in a corner is the CCA’s Safety At Sea Seminar; typically held every March in Newport in preparation for the Bermuda Race.

We must remember this is a 4 day race, 6oo miles. Not really a long time; it does get you offshore away from land but not for long. I don’t need to attend as I qualified last year for the the transatlantic race, 3000 miles, and 16 days.

The way to win this race is being in the right place for weather and to maximize the benefit of the Gulf Stream. It is far more important than sailing fast. The people in the following pictures can help put you in the right place.