carina

Trans-atlantic 1969

June 1969 was the start of the Trans-Atlantic race to Cork Ireland from Newport Rhode Island at the Brenton reef tower, now just a memory. the finish at Daunt light ship.

Sailing aboard “Carina”. We won our class, in a race that was commemorating the anniversary of the oldest yacht club in the western hemisphere The Royal Cork Yacht Club, founded in 1720. It is hard to summarize a 15 day long race in a few pictures and a few paragraphs.

1969, as many of you may remember was an eventful year. The Newport Bridge was completed. I took the photo of the bridge and the ferry from the stern of “Carina” as we headed out to the start. I returned at the end of the summer, my college roommate picked me up at the airport. The question on everyone’s lips was :”did you go to Woodstock?” To which I replied : “What’s Woodstock?”Perhaps my most memorable moment of the race, was the cold rainy night that the BBC stayed on the air after midnight to carry the landing on the Moon.

After cruising the south and west coasts of Ireland, where the Irish where the greatest of hosts, “Carina’ headed to England for the Admiral’s Cup and the Fastnet race.

Bill Shay

Bill Shay was practically synonymous with the yacht “Carina” having sailed with the Nye family starting in 1956. Bill slept forward in the 1957 Fastnet race; which “Carina” won finishing when most of the fleet dropped out.

I met Bill in 1969 when I sailed on “Carina” in the Trans-atlantic race to Ireland. He was a great shipmate always ready with a can do attitude.

1971 trans-atlantic

In 1971 we cruised “Carina” to England for the Admiral’s Cup and Fastnet Race. we sailed from Indian Harbor Yacht Club in Greenwich, Ct. to Harwichport, on Cape Cod; where David Steere the owner of “Yankee Girl” had a summer house, compound might be a better description. A big party the night of our arrival and we left across the ocean along with “Yankee Girl”, “American Eagle” owned by Ted Turner, and “Carina” belonging to Dick Nye.

We sailed the more northerly route, closer to the great circle, crossing in fourteen days , which would have likely won a race had we been competing .

A few days into the crossing, still on the Grand Banks, but not having had a sun sight in a few days, we only had a dead reckoning position. we calculated that we were perhaps 20 miles south of Sable Island, more or less. That night, I was off watch, we hit a whale that had been sleeping on the surface. I ran on deck, in a panic, thinking we had hit the island, just in time to see the whale pop to the surface behind us.

No story about yachting is complete without “Carina” belonging to the Nyes. There is probably no boat in yachting history that won more races. There were several yachts bearing the name, all belonging to the Nye family. The success was a father,son story, complementing each other perfectly.

I started sailing on the last “Carina”a 48 foot sloop built in 1969, designed by McCurdy&Rhodes. They had been tasked to design a boat that would rate well under any rule and sail fast naturally.(The rating rule was in transition and no one knew exactly what it would be, the existing CCA rule in America was being melded with the RORC rule in the rest of the world.)the boat is still winning races today.

In 1969 of 32 starts I believe there were 29 firsts, the rest were 2nd or 3rd. We won our class in the Trans-atlantic race from Newport to Cork, Ireland. From there we went on to Admiral’s Cup and were part of the winning United States team.

1970 we won the Bermuda Race. and probably the Northern Ocean Racing Trophy, give for a cumulative score based on several races, block Island race, Stamford Vineyard race, Marblehead-Halifax race.

For me the Bermuda race was pier head jump flying in from the intercollegiate national championships.

1971 we sailed the boat across the atlantic again to participate once more in the Admiral’s Cup and Fastnet race.

I only sailed those three seasons on the boat, but it’s indelible mark was with me forever.