The ocean-isolated island group of Bermuda, know to the cognoscenti as The Onion Patch, has the same special attraction for the American cruiser-racer sailors of New England as the distant island of Hy Brasil had in ancient times for voyaging Irish saints, scholars, and seafaring scoundrels. The only difference is that Bermuda is for real, whereas Hy Brasil was a shared fantasy.
That said, before best-practise Celestial Navigation and then GPS took over, many a frustrated Yankee amateur navigator thought the same was true about the low-lying Bermudas - you can read an account of what the struggle and frustration simply finding the Onion Patch could be like in Weston Martyr's brilliant factoid book The Southseaman, first published in 1926.
RACING TO THE ONION PATCH
Be that as it may, it had been only a matter of time before the availability of such a special target resulted in a 600-mile race from the New York area. In 1906, the flamboyant New York-bsed editor of the maritime journal The Rudder, one Thomas Fleming Day, was so infuriated by the Powers That Be insisting that only yachts of 80ft LOA or greater were capable of ocean racing that he organised a race to Bermuda from the Brooklyn Yacht Cup in New York.
Many spectacular racing yachts have competed in the Bermuda Race, but in times past the start was shaped in such a way that you'd barely seen them off Newport before they'd gone into the blue
Only three yachts started, and one of them was dismasted almost immediately. But the other two made it to Bermuda and the hospitality of the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club in Hamilton, with the winner being the 38ft yawl Tamerlane, skippered by Day himself. But perhaps more remarkable was the second-placed Gauntlet, as she was only 28ft long, and in a further affront to the Powers That Be, her crew included a female sailor, 20-year-old Thora Lund Robinson.
SMALLEST BOAT TO BERMUDA
As it happens, Gauntlet is still the smallest boat to have raced to Bermuda in the succession starting with the four annual 600 miles-plus races from the US mainland which followed directly from Thomas Fleming Day's original inspiration. His version of the race was annual, but the few prepared to take part concluded that going every year was just too much. Then World War 1 from 1914 to 1918 enforced a continuation of the gap until 1923, when Royal Bermuda YC Vice Commodore Eldon Trimingham betook himself to New York to persuade the newly formed Cruising Club of America to take it on despite their club's name lacking any reference to racing, as we recounted here.
The 1923 race was sailed under CCA auspices, and soon an agreement was signed with the Royal Bermuda YC for the joint running of what was to become a biennial classic. A lower size limit was set at 35ft LOA, and the start point finally became Newport, Rhode Island, with the course of a straight 635-mile line to Bermuda posing all sorts of genuinely ocean racing challenges, including crossing the weirdly moody Gulf Stream.
For some sailors, the fact of getting straight into offshore racing work was one of the attractions, as they were able to immediately forget all shoreside concerns and get on with the job of sailing fast. But it did mean that families and friends and interested members of the public barely saw the impressive fleet before they all disappeared into the summer haze.
HIGHLY-VIEWED FASTNET AND SYDNEY-HOBART RACE STARTS
Then too, in recent years the similarly classic Fastnet and Sydney-Hobart Races have been getting much more attention because they start in the first case down the much-viewed Solent, and in the other it's out through the usually sunlit wonders of the even more intensely-viewed Sydney Harbour.
Yet the Newport-Bermuda Race - which protagonists reckon to be the daddy of them all - is little noticed at a generally public level, as its start can be one of the biggest fleet-disappearing acts experienced since the Russian Imperial Fleet was dispatched in just one day in 1904, after they'd voyaged for months the whole way round from the Baltic to put manners on the Japanese Imperial Navy.
The 636-mile Newport-Bermuda Race course sees the fleet get to grips with proper ocean conditions almost immediately
A MIGHTY LEAP
That's not at all the way the CCA wish their superb racing fleet and main event to be perceived, but by lengthening the course by only one mile to give more of an in-harbour start, with just one mighty leap they've put themselves and their race start centre stage, and the official announcement sets the scene:
"The biennial Newport Bermuda Race is thrilled to announce an exciting new approach to the start of the 2024 race: free shoreline viewing and a live broadcast from Fort Adams State Park in Newport, Rhode Island, which will also be streamed online at bermudarace.com. The Race's starting line has been relocated one mile north of Castle Hill in Narragansett Bay to provide spectators a new opportunity to witness 200 boats up close - thus extending the race course distance to Bermuda from
635 to 636 miles.
"The Bermuda Race Organizing Committee, with support from the State of Rhode Island and other partners, has been able to invest in transforming this hallmark biennial event into a celebration for the sailors, their families, and fans alike," says Race Chair Andrew Kallfelz of Jamestown, Rhode Island. "Fort Adams is a great venue for the public to come together to witness up close the adrenaline-pumping start of this prestigious race."
ON-SITE EXPERIENCES AT FORT ADAMS
For those planning to attend in person, Fort Adams promises an excellent spot to see the start. The park will host a lively beer garden, exhibits from partners, and a vibrant atmosphere filled with maritime enthusiasts. Spectators will also enjoy live coverage from world-renowned commentators on-shore and on the water, with state-of-the-art graphics on a big screen, ensuring the crowd sees and experiences every exciting moment of the start".
Low-lying Bermuda, aka The Onion Patch, was often the devil's own job to find at all in the early Bermuda Races
SPECTATORS? WHAT SPECTATORS?
That's the way it is now, folks. But for those of us who have done a few Round Ireland and Fastnet Races, plus Dun Laoghaire Dingle dashes, starting is usually a matter of being in a somewhat flustered state - often, in fact, in a very flustered state.
So very flustered, in fact, that you're blessed by often not even remembering the possible existence of spectators, as you're settling in as quickly as possible into an intense little world where the only other inhabitants are the crews of nearby boats.
But then, after you've finished the race and tidied the ship and completed the de-briefing with those other crews of nearby boats over pints in the clubhouse, it is truly wonderful to be met up by family and friends who then spirit you up-country to some very rural inn for a proper farmer's dinner, and not a sound of the sea for a couple of hours.
That's not really possible in Bermuda. But then, after a few of the traditional Dark'n'Stormies on those enchanted isles, you could be anywhere. And doubtless, someone will start to think, if they haven't already, that there should be a Thora Lund Trophy for the first female skipper.
