Skip to main content

The Newport-Bermuda Race and the Great Lakes

  • Author:
  • Updated:
    Original:
The trophy won by the Lloyd W. Berry

The trophy won by the Lloyd W. Berry

This year marks the 50th running of the iconic 635-mile biennial Newport-Bermuda Race, and if the past is any indication, expect to see any number of freshwater sailors taking part in the “thrash to the onion patch.”

In fact, Great Lakes sailors have been racing to Bermuda for almost as long as there’s been a race, with a crew from Lake Erie’s Rochester Yacht Club chartering a Gloucester schooner to take part in the second running of the event in 1907. Soon thereafter, in 1910, Demarest Lloyd, a sailor with Chicago newspaper roots, raced the schooner Shlyessa with Mrs. Lloyd in the afterguard, making her only the second woman to take part in the event.

In 1924 a crew from Detroit’s Bayview Yacht Club also sailed the Lloyd W. Berry to victory in the schooners and ketches division, bringing a trophy back to the Midwest that then served as a prize in the Bayview-Mackinac Race, which they created soon afterward.

More recently, a regional prize for the best performance by a Great Lakes boat was introduced in 2014, with the inaugural honors going to Chris Van Tol of the Bayview Yacht Club aboard his C&C 35 Eliminator. And with no fewer than 16 Lakes boats having taken part in the race between 2010 and 2014, it’s a safe bet they aren’t the last.

“Our Newport-Bermuda Race featured, for the most part, beautiful weather and good sailing conditions,” said watch captain Paul Van Tol. “The winds approached 20-plus knots for only one 12-hour period, with large swells of up to 12ft, but we otherwise enjoyed clear skies and decent winds. Pilot whales that swam under the boat, breaching whales and dolphins that left gray phosphorescent trails along our bow, were an added bonus to our journey.”

For more on this summer’s Newport-Bermuda Race, which is organized by the Cruising Club of America and the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club and starts on June 17.

Based on an article originally published on the Newport Bermuda Race website,bermudarace.com.

February 2016

Related

Background
Sail Racing

Notice to Mariners: Flights of Fancy

The nature of sailboat racing is such that the bigger boats tend to get the lion’s share of attention. Recently, though, I’ve found myself especially impressed by what’s happening at the lighter end of the displacement spectrum. Those paying attention are aware there’s been a ...read more

_DSC8952-2048
Sail Racing

Sailing Scholarship for Teenage Girls

The Women’s Sailing Foundation is offering the Sue Corl Youth Sailing Scholarship to one teenage girl, aged 14-19 years old, who wants to expand her sailing experience and needs financial assistance in order to do so. Established in 2015, the scholarship allows the recipient to ...read more

Screen-Shot-2022-01-26-at-9.50.45-AM
Web Exclusives

Celestial Navigation Part 4

In episode four of The Nav Station’s Celestial Navigation series, learn how to calculate your assumed position and the local hour angle using your Greenwich hour angle and dead reckoning position. Using examples in the western and eastern hemispheres, Andy Howe discusses why the ...read more

AdobeStock_15671180
Sailboat Cruising

Orca Encounters in Spain

The waters off the Atlantic coast of the southern Iberian Peninsula can be tough enough as it is, but in recent months resident pods of orcas have created a whole new kind of challenge, ramming boats and chewing off rudders. Though initially confined to smaller vessels, larger ...read more

Screen-Shot-2022-01-13-at-9.26.59-AM2048x
Lifestyle

Video: Celestial Navigation Pt3

. In episode three of the Practical Celestial Navigation course, Andy Howe examines the theory behind celestial navigation, the celestial triangle and the celestial sphere, and why it is important to have a basic understanding of each. Topics introduced include zenith position, ...read more

01-LEAD-6.-After-2-years-ashore,-Nada-headsto-the-water-(3)
Sailboat DIY And Repair Tips

Sailing in the Time of Covid

In mid-August 2019, my wife, Terrie, and I laid up our Malö 46, Nada, in Falmouth, England, and flew home to Maine. We booked flights back to the UK for May 2020, anticipating a summer of cruising the Atlantic coasts of France and Spain. Then Covid struck. Remember that first ...read more

Ulysse Nardin promo photo
Sail Racing

The Ocean Race Names Official Timekeeper

With just under one year before the start of The 2022-23 Ocean Race, Swiss watch manufacturer Ulysse Nardin has been named the official timekeeper of the race. The Ocean Race, formerly known as the Volvo Ocean Race and before that the Whitbread Round the World Race, announced ...read more

Arthur Daniel_RORC Maserati - RORC Transatlantic 2022 - Jan 15th -Social Media-4
Sail Racing

Fast Finishes for the RORC Leaders

Over the weekend, the first finishers of the 2022 RORC Transat made landfall in Grenada, led by Giovanni Soldini’s Multi70 Maserati, which was awarded line honors with a corrected time of six days, 18 hours and 51 minutes. Maserati finished ahead of Peter Cunningham’s MOD70 ...read more