A Centennial Race

The Newport/Bermuda Race celebrates 100 years of offshore competition this Friday. I've sailed to Bermuda several times but never done the race, though I've desired greatly to get on the course. This is not the year for it...but I have friends and former mates who are racing so I'll be tracking their progress. The seas will be lumpy at the outset if the Alberto moves north along his predicted path.

Some widely known facts:

• The rhumbline course to Bermuda is approximately 162 degrees magnetic, the distance 635 nautical miles.
• The first Bermuda Race was run in 1906 starting from Gravesend Bay, NY with three starters and was competed intermittently until 1926 when a regular schedule of holding the race in even years began.
• The finish Line is 635 miles SSE off of St David's Lighthouse, Bermuda
• A "Dark & Stormy" can only be properly made with Goslings Black Seal Rum
• Come Friday you can access the racetracker here
• Racing sailors call the Bermuda passage the “thrash to the onion patch.”