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
26 June 2014 | Bermuda
25 June 2014 | 32 44'N:64 48'W, Approaching Bermuda
24 June 2014 | 33 42'N:65 45'W, coming out of the gulf stream
24 June 2014 | 33 42'N:65 45'W, coming out of the gulf stream
24 June 2014 | 33 43'N:65 46'W, coming out of the gulf stream
24 June 2014 | 33 49'N:65 57'W, coming out of the gulf stream
22 June 2014 | 38 04'N:69 22'W, entrance to the gulf stream
22 June 2014 | 38 13'N:69 30'W, entrance to the gulfstream
21 June 2014 | 39 03'N:69 56'W, At Sea
21 June 2014 | 39 45'N:70 17'W, At Sea
21 June 2014 | 39 45'N:70 17'W, At Sea
20 June 2014 | 41 14'N:71 12'W, At Sea
19 June 2014 | Newport
19 June 2014
16 June 2014 | Newport
13 June 2014
Recent Blog Posts
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 crew bios

16 June 2014
kevin Flannery - shore side
Pete started sailing at 6, and started racing one designs 20 years later in 1984. He says he learned a whole lot crewing from a former college all american, several national champions and a former Olympian. First ocean race was Marion to Bermuda with all the brothers in 1991. Racing Newport to Bermuda in 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2006 with the brothers, "we won our class twice and the division once" -- in 2006 they won the "Family Participation Trophy" for best finish with 4 or more family members. As navigator onboard FIDELIS II (Beneteau 44) I've raced in 7 Gulfport to Pensacola races (overall winner in 2008 and 2009) and 5 Regata al Sol (555 miles from Pensacola to Isla de Mujeres) races -- winning class and division multiple times. Owns and racees a lightning out of the Pass Christian (MS) Yacht Club where he's the Vice Commodore.
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