Marion-Bermuda Dream Race
After crewing in a friend’s boat during the 1997 Marion-Bermuda Cruising Race I got bitten by the dream of making the race in my own boat. It took me 6 years, to fulfill my dream and that happened this summer. We spend most of the spring getting Ipanema, my Beneteau 361, in conditions to pass the pre-race inspection. New storm sails, plus a 150 Genoa, a second generator and 400 ampH house batteries, an SSB and lots of little details that required 110% of my attention and budget. Finding a crew was also not trivial as my brother and two brother in-laws quit 6 months before the race. I was lucky to find a great bunch of guys with lots of boating years under their belt that helped me prepare the boat but most with no off shore or racing experience. Of a crew of 6, only one of them and I had some racing and a little off-shore experience. We had also on board our own Doctor, the Department Head of Anesthesia, at Mass General Hospital who assembled a miniature medical ICU and operating theater that contributed substantially to Ipanema's starboard limp. He is also an accomplished ham radio operator and was responsible for equipping Ipanema with all kind of high-tech communications gadgets that will keep us up-to-date with the weather in the meandering Gulf Stream and sent messages to our families. The race had a spectacular start with 20 knot NE blowing our gennaker in a broad reach down Buzzards Bay. After the first 12 hours of race, during the first night, I lost two crew to sea sickness that incapacitated them for most of the trip and kept our Doctor on board busy taking care of them. This mishap left just 3 of us to share the helm and have the TIME of our lives! After a few hours of calm the first night, the wind came back and kept up for the next 78 hours making this the fastest race since its inception and getting us there in just over 101 hours. Imagine what is surfing on 8-10 ft waves across the Gulf stream in a 30 knot broad reach that kept air born the unlucky that attempted to sleep on the v-berth. Half the way across the stream, the wind clocked to a beam reach and to a close reach that kept us from exiting the stream were we had anticipated. Instead, we had to keep reaching and ended up somewhat east of our intended course. Luckily, that turned out to be perfect for the final day approaching Bermuda when the wind decreased to <10 knots and clocked north putting us in a beam reach while most of the fleet ended up in a run. Better even, since we still had 5+ ft waves coming from astern, we were able to keep surfing and maintained our 6 knot average speed while the boats west of us struggled. The final score was a 2nd in C class, where Ipanema was the smallest boat and all other boats were over 40 ft, losing only in corrected time to a 45 ft boat that finished 8 hours behind us!!!. A dream came true for a bunch of first timers with lots of beginners luck. Some pictures can be found in my crew’s, Ted Knolton, web site.
