[Greyhawkupdates] Bermuda to Newport Double-Handed Race Preview

[Tim Allen GREYHAWK]

Hey everybody,

We're getting ready to start the race back to Newport from Bermuda beginning at 11:00 EDT, when the Class 1 boats will cross the line inside St. George Harbor (GREYHAWK in Class 3 will start at 11:20 EDT). We'll race out through the Town Cut, and then head off as best we can towards Newport, leaving the Mills Breaker, Kitchen Shoals, and Northeast Breaker to Port.

The wind forecast has the wind on the nose and going light for this first part of the race, eventually filling in strongly  from the southwest as we're approaching the Gulf Stream, but probably going light again as we straggle back in towards Newport. Our analysis of Gulf Stream currents suggests a head current right on the rhumb line for most of the first half of the race, so the question of the evening is, take a flyer well to the east in search of favorable currents around eddies and meanders, or how far west do we have to work to get out of the head current and possibly pick up a favorable counter current? The wind filling in from the SW suggests the western side of the course will be favored, but to get there will involve sailing to windward in light air and bad current. Who will be able to do that well?

Although the boats raced down here to Bermuda singlehanded, we'll be racing back double-handed. As the new crew have been arriving, the dynamic at the Dinghy Club has been really interesting as everyone has been scoping out the competition all over again. There are quite a few husband-wife and father-daughter teams. My double-handed partner, my wife Wendy, is a great sailor, quite athletic, and very competitive. It will be a whole new race back to Newport!

One of the things everybody likes to do in Bermuda is to rent scooters to get around. But every year it seems somebody has a scooter accident that impacts the race. Unfortunately, Dave Sherman on Palangi, who finished first in Class 3 and second in fleet after the first leg, will be flying home instead of racing back with us...

Tuesday night was the awards ceremony for the single-handed leg. Greyhawk won the Goat Island Yacht Club Commodore's Cup for the best singlehanded leg corrected time finish for a first time entrant. We were also surprised to win the St. George's Dinghy and Sports Club Crystal Catfish Trophy, in recognition of my auto-pilot jury-rig efforts. Quite a treat!

Now to download the latest weather and gulf stream data, and then row out to the boat and prepare to cast off....

Regards,

Tim and Wendy

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