Bermuda One-Two: Mirari overall winner of leg one

The singlehanded first leg of the Bermuda One-Two is officially done. The last boat to finish was first time entrant Tyche skippered by Mac Turner on Thursday (June 11) at 5:38pm. The only boat to not finish was first time entrant Carina, Robert Brown, who turned on his motor Friday afternoon; 7 days after the start.

There has been a high over Bermuda so as the boats got closer to Bermuda they slowed down a lot so finishing was quite the opposite of the first two thirds of the race. The slower fleets were catching up to the faster boats which is reflected in the fleet places. The first eight finishes on corrected time were in classes 3 and 4.

Veteran skipper Dan Stadtlander on his modified Bristol 39 Mirari had a tremendous race finishing first on elapsed and corrected time in Class 4 as well as being first on corrected time in the whole fleet. Dan has a partial machine shop on his boat which proved very useful in the previous Bermuda One-Two in 2013 where he had all kinds of break downs but was able to coble up repairs enough to limp back home.

In the other classes Samba, Tristan Mouligne, finished first in elapsed time in Class 1 and the fleet while Flight Risk, John Lubimir captured first on corrected time in Class 1. Class 2 saw first time entrant Meridian, Murray Beach, finish first on elapsed time but another first time entrant Scallywag II, Robert Green, corrected into first place. In Class 3 Island Girl, Brian Flynn, finished first in both elapsed and corrected times and second in fleet on corrected time. Class 6 saw the return of the Open 6.5 Minis with first time entrant Team Wichard, Vernon Hultzer, finishing first (treated as a one design class). Actually all the entrants in Class 6 are first time entrants.

More than a third of the boats were first time entrants which is wonderful to see thus hopefully keeping this race going. The age of the skippers is interesting in that the oldest skipper is 83, the youngest is 23, 21 skippers are over 52, 5 of which are over 70 and 7 in their 60s.

The doublehanded return leg starts in St George’s Harbour on Thursday 18 June. Twenty four boats will be starting.

Two boats had dropped out on the way to Bermuda, first time entrant Shandygaff, Sandy Van Zandt due to battery charging problems and Eagles Dare, Jonathan Green, due to a broken rudder. Eagles Dare was able to limp back to Newport, RI with an emergency rudder hung off the stern. Shandygaff made it back home.

Complete results and blog of the race can be seen at the website www.bermuda1-2.org

Background: The Bermuda One-Two is a shorthanded race and is the only race that races both to Bermuda and back. The Bermuda One-Two Race started in 1977 and races every other year. This is the 20th race. The race consists of two legs; a single handed leg to Bermuda from Newport, RI and after a short stay in St. George’s the boats pick up a crew and race back double handed to Newport, RI. Twenty six boats started the single handed leg Friday 5 June.

Report by Roy Guay.