This year’s Charleston Bermuda Race, set to begin May 21, will once again feature political satirist Stephen Colbert among its participants. This is the second time Colbert, a native of Charleston, South Carolina, and the host of Comedy Central’s Emmy award-winning program The Colbert Report, has sailed the race.
“The ocean has had a free ride for too long. Well, it has to deal with me now. Brace yourself, Atlantic!” Colbert says in the run-up to this year’s event.
Sponsored by Ondeck in partnership with the South Carolina Maritime Foundation and the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, the 777-mile Charleston Bermuda Race is open to both monohulls and multihulls and now in its eight running.
Colbert, who first sailed the race in 2005, will be cruising aboard a Farr 65 owned by Ondeck, a sail-training, charter and adventure sailing company based in the UK, which recently opened an office in Charleston.
Among the other sailors preparing for the race are Dan Alonso and Kathy Reckling of Cheyenne, Wyoming, who plan to double-hand their 49-foot Hallberg Rassy sloop Halycon.
Although they now live in the heart of cowboy country, Reckling grew up sailing catamarans in Minnesota, and Alonso grew up sailing keelboats in New England. They’ve only owned their latest boat a little over a year, but they’ve already put in 5,200 sea miles aboard her.
“Although Halcyon is an offshore, cruising yacht, we thought that participating in racing events would be a lot of fun” Reckling says. For more on the race, click here.
