SAIL.SailMagazine

The Newport Bermuda Race fleet made their upwind starts in 16 classes over a period of more than two and a half hours on Friday afternoon. There now are 183 boats, after Avatar didn’t start. In addition, Blue sailed back to the shipyard to get her broken centerboard cable fixed; she’s expected to start again after the repair. (text continued below video)

No matter where you go in the world it’s “never like this” when they switch the weather on. So it goes with distance events as well. The 2010 edition of the Singlehanded Transpac has been slow going much of the time, with difficult seas and opposing sets kicked up by distant storms. A thirteen-day crossing is certainly not the best-possible time for a

n early 2007, I sat down with the offshore committee of the Newport Yacht Club and, after much debate, was told that the 21-foot Mini 6.50—the same boat used for Europe’s Mini Transat Race from France to Brazil—would be granted its own division in that year’s Bermuda 1-2 Race.Since then, the number of Minis actively sailing in the United States has doubled, to about 30 boats. Although this

On Memorial Day weekend in 1972, four sailing buddies came up with a great idea. “Let’s sail from Hyannis to Nantucket, spend the long weekend there, then sail back—and let’s race.”It was so much fun they decided to do it again, inviting other friends to join in. By 1978, there were more than 75 boats on the starting line, and the newly established race committee added a lay-day in