Simpatico Bermuda Race 2014 posted by Shindig
Pre-race, Newport, preparing Simpatico
| Vessel Name: | Simpatico |
| Vessel Make/Model: | Pearson 39 |
| Hailing Port: | Cape Cod |
| Crew: | Kevin Flannery, William Riley, John Riley, Peter Furze, Paul Furze, Dennis Ferreira |
| About: | Often compeitors racing their own boats, the crew of Simpatico will be one of the most experienced crews in the race. |
| Extra: | Race Begins in Newport, RI, June 20th, 2014 |
25 August 2014 | newton, ma
Simpatico declared the Winner!
Okay, this is hard to believe, this past weekend Bill Riley, the owner of "Simpatico", received a call from the chairman of the Newport to Bermuda Race and he told him that there was a mistake in calculating the handicap and that "Simpatico" didn’t place 2nd,,,,,,, She actually WON! 1st place in her division and 1st place in her class. Amazing. The details are sketcy, which is anohter flag for something else, but it was said that someone at US Sailing noticed an error in the ORR certificate of "Attitude" and that changed their corrected time moving "Simpatico" from 2nd to 1st. Two months after the race but better late than never.
26 June 2014 | Bermuda
Simpatico arrives in Bermuda, results
It's Friday morning, June 26, 2014. and I've just found out that we finished 2nd place in class #10 and 2nd place in our division! We are very happy, would have liked to have held on to first,,,, but,, considering the loss of an importan sail it would have been hard to do.
25 June 2014 | 32 44'N:64 48'W, Approaching Bermuda
Newport to Bermuda
Hello race fans, well ---- things didn�'t play out as we had hoped. After leading our class for approximately 550 miles we are now trying to catch up with the new leaders. What happened is that there was a large area of no wind in between us and the finish and since we were the lead boat we got there first and basically parked unable to move with little to absolutely no wind and we actually could see the boats that were miles away sail right up to us. Essentially this has given every boat a 2nd chance to win. The wind is back and we are again making progress but we lost half a day to no wind allowing our competitors to catch up and now many of those competitors have capitalized and are now in the lead. You might remember that our spinnaker couldn�'t handle the load and blew apart and that�'s the sail we would have liked to have used right around day break today. Yesterday at this time we were expecting to have been finished but now we find that we are still 27nm from the finish. If these winds hold we�'ll be on the dock in Hamilton before dinner. Instead of an assured victory our position is in question. Luck gets to have a say in the outcome of this race. Our work, sacrifice and risk that we took in the high winds and rough Gulf Stream may have had little to do in determining the outcome. Of course we have to count the trashed spinnaker and busted steering cable guide as casualties of our attempt to secure our early lead and if given the same scenario, we�'d do it again but if we knew that the light winds were to the extent that they were, we might have gone a little easier on the spinnaker. The crew is still in high spirits, tweaking speed where we can and having fun doing it. We are an affective crew and this race isn�'t over yet. In the back ground Tom Petty is playing on the Bose and the chorus is �",,, and I won�'t back down�". Currently it�'s stifling hot and humid, dripping humid, sticky hot. Because of the long period with no wind the sea is fairly flat and the boat is smoothly gliding along at about 7kts, a very nice ride. Okay have you ever heard it said that if you watch the sun set into the ocean that there is a green flash? It�'s true, we saw it last night.
2014 Newport to Bermuda 1st entry
This south east race takes us the often treacherous Gulf Stream current, a warm water river that flows up from the Caribbean along the east Florida coast, past Cape Hatteras before heading slightly off shore to the northern Atlantic area. The stream is very warm as much as the high 70’s and when it meets the cold air and water of New England things become volatile. Often you can tell you are approaching the stream by the clouds and lighting flashes ahead. With currents as fast as 5.6 MPH the waves can be unpredictable and dangerously larger. The steam makes its own weather and is a true test of a sailor’s ability to cope with the erratic motion of the sea. Like rivers on land the Gulf Stream twist and turns and changes its course and the most successful sailors will use the speeds of the streams current to advance their boat. The trick is to find the current heading in south east, get it wrong and the current is against you slowing your progress to Bermuda tremendously, get it right and you can get a slingshot ride to the finish. Some years you cross the stream, in and out in a day, other years you might have to fight it head on, this year it looks like the boats will be able to enter the stream and ride it like a conveyer belt south for a considerable distance. Get it right, get lucky, get in the stream near maximum velocity or the boat won’t do well compared to those that did.
The Newport to Bermuda race is held on even years, the last time was 2012 and I sailed my Pearson 39-2 Shindig. This year I’ll be aboard an older sister ship Simpatico, she’s also a Pearson 39 made in Rhode Island. In 2010 Bill Riley, the owner of Simpatico and his brother John Riley raced to Bermuda aboard Shindig, 2012 John raced with us and now in 2014 I’m giving Shindig a rest to sail on Simpatico.
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