The most emotional moment of this race so far was when we realized this morning that Vanquish was right behind us, third in fleet on elapsed time. One of the boats from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, she’s sailed by cadets and a bunch of old friends who have been competing in this race together for a decade.
It’s always fun to see a smaller boat up front but they have a special story. Billy Riker, the leader of this group – that includes his boyhood friends, close families from Bermuda where he had lived and worked, Newport sailors and the KP sailing team –passed away recently after battling cancer. Up until a few months ago, as his condition worsened the plan was for him to at least fly down to greet the boys, but that was not to be. It was an emotional few weeks for this group and seeing them pushing hard with heavy hearts has been inspiring.
They, of course, have a lot of inspiration themselves in their friend Billy. Jim Lucarelli, a childhood sailing friend of Riker’s, told a story before they pushed off from the dock yesterday. It exemplifies Riker’s abilities and the impression upon those sailors fortunate enough to have sailed with and against him.
“He was sailing in the 1975 Blue Jay Nationals on the Essex River,” said Lucarelli excitedly. ”He must have been 15 and they were sailing with three in the boat. In their hotel room the night before, he breaks out a chart and a tide table and plots the current for the races. The first race, he’s the only one to go around a little island on the beat, and he’s way ahead. The next beat the tide is slack, the fleet goes around the island thinking it’s better, but he sails straight to the mark and won again. That just shows how brilliant Billy was tactically.”
The group has sailed together since the 2000 Bermuda Race and they include Lucarelli, Jamie Hilton, Russ Lucas, Jeff Leach, and Buddy Rego. They all said this week that Billy always wanted to be on a “Monday boat” – one of the faster boats of the fleet. In 2008 they came within hours of achieving that goal aboard Defiance, another Kings Point boat. Though this is a light race so far, Vanquish is nipping at our heels with some tactical inspiration that’s worked very well already. So this close group of friends may get Billy’s wish after all and finish on Monday.

Billy with Buddy, Jamie, Jimmy and Greeny
Either way, his shipmates are sure that just being here is an achievement because, as Lucarelli said, “His wife told us he’d be pissed if we didn’t go.”

All were greatly to Cheers at Valley Field, Harbour Road,

Safely, Swiftly, Successfully with Max Fun

Thank you Babe followers

Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2010 1:01 PM

Hi there

Well we have twenty odd miles to go and the sun is shinning. Absolutley beautiful conditions. 10-12 knots from the WSW and clear skies. Great sailing conditions. We should be finishing around 1500 EDT (1600 AST) so we hope to be docking around 1800 local time.

Everyone in great shape but a tinge of disappointment we have probably not done as well as two years ago. Carina seemed to go great. I think we went too far West on the first afternoon, or we had more wind holes. Anyway we look forward to all the tales on the dock and to see everyone.

Get those dark and stormies lined up……………..!!!!

Thats it from Vasco for now.

Best wishes from all on Babe.

Hope Lou is behaving herself!!

Vasco returning to Kieron!!!

At approx 1pm this afternoon at a position 220 miles north of Bermuda the crew of Babe paid tribute to two close friends Deborah Butterfield and Bill Riker, both of whom passed away recently Floral wreaths were launched over the side by Colin and Jonathan in memory of Deborah and Bill Both will be warmly remembered by many people

Jonathan

“Sunny Side Up” Bermuda

Good afternoon from about 190 miles out from Bermuda.

Well we are doing Ok, breeze has gone down a little from this morning. Now in the high teens. Still have great boat speed, but are now bucking a 2 knot northerly current that is not meant to be here! The cold eddies south of the gulfstream always seem to be very unpredictable and once you set yourself up in a position to head to the finish it is very tricky to justify chasing all over the ocean to find a better spot as the chances are you will lose even more speed and time trying to find a better spot which will never justify the time lost in trying to find it. In other words we are just trying to blast straight at the finish line if a little from the West.

All fairly quiet on deck and you can always sense the frustration when you have current against you. All your efforts to sail quickly seem to be zapped away from you.

Beautiful weather again and without the churned up seas of the gulfstream, it makes for dryer decks and smoother sailing. Just as well as certain helmsmen this morning, no names but obviously too much time spent dinghy sailing, took great delight in drenching those trying to get some rest on the weather rail!!!! shocking no remorse shown at all.

Well more later.

Take care Vasco

“Sunny Side Up” Bermuda

I think Speedboat is in

Sent: Monday, June 21, 2010 7:35 AM

Oh what a night……late June back in 2010 (yes is does rhyme….the crew on deck confirm)

Well what a bunch of rock stars we have on this boat. Tough night. Wind was from the right direction but stronger than forecast with some gusts upto 28 knts. Very tricky driving but the whole team kept the boat going brilliantly averaging over 9 kts most of the night. The new no. 2 has proved to be invaluable. A reef in and out kept the boat on her feet.

Early in the night a big ship got a little close but all was ok and in the early hours a few yachts passed u in the dark, which we are taking as an encouraging sign that we were near some bigger boats???!!!! fingers crossed.

A little bit of mal de mer has been observed but does not seem to have spread and Colin has not been seen wielding a needle so I am presuming the afflication has gone away this morning. Probably as a result of the pancakes being cooked by Stephen as I type along with the gruesome tales from 2008 of Dougy and CRaig coming under Colin’s needle fire!!!!!!

There was a large amount of cloud overnight which caused the gusty conditions as we came out of the bottom of the gulftstream. Water temps are now back in the mid 70s so we are well clear of that and grateful for the huge shunt it gave us down the race track over the last 24hrs. Now we have to contend with the cold eddies south of the gulfstream. Our plan is to stay a little bit right and try and avoid the worst of the northerly flow and set up for a heading breeze.

With any luck we might be home before dark tomorrow.

Well not much else to report for now

Line up those D&Sss for us.

Vasco

“Sunny Side Up”

Bermuda

Hi

All getting a bit more interesting out here. spent the day slicing through the gulfstream with a favourable wind shift to the SW. Wind has got up to 20kts but will probably not hold. We are making course straight for the Island so now it is a case of seeing what we can do to eek out some more speed in that direction.

Just changed down to the No. 2 with some hurculean efforts by Claudio up the front ably supported by Somers, Craig and Jimmy and Julian as ever doing the sheet changes on the leeward rail without batting an eyelid. Great stuff. All a little damp though but with the water temp at 83 deg F no one is too colder for the shower.

Vasco made it to the cockpit for a bit of assisting on the mainsheet then scurried below again to make sure all our efforts were not in vain.

Colin in the meantime as cool as mustard had a wonderful supper ready for devouring………….

Jon, Will and James are now manning the ship and all is going well.

Will write a little more later when I do not have one leg and arm proping me up to leeward while I try and type this !!!!!!!!!!!

from all on Babe

“Sunny Side Up” Bermuda

Hi to all

A quick message to say we are all fine. Last 20 hours have been very frustrating with wind holes and directions not quite as expected.

Just entering the north wall of the gulfstream now, so not a lot of time to write as have to earn my breakfast!!!!

Everybody says hi and all are in good spirits, would be even better for a little more breeze.Hard s sparkling reach for a few hours with the new asymmetric during the night. Great helming by Jimmy, Craig, Somers, Julian and James as it was bouncy and tricky to control.

More fine food is being served at every meal…..if you ever want to go ocean sailing, no matter what, get Colin and Stephen to go with you…..it’s a recipe for success.

Must run temperatures are a changing!!!!!

Vasco

PS Craig did hi usual wizadry sorting out an electrical problem earlier.

“Sunny Side Up” Bermuda

Hope you are all looking at iboattrack.com, Babe’s class is SDL_3, their speed is one of the best in their class at 6.3knts, with all 10miles of each other.

Iboat allows you to see your class only and any other specific boats, other Bermuda boats are Bermuda Oyster, Nasty Medicine, Vanquish (Buddy Rego leading class)and I think Mark Watson is on Brand New Day

-Sent: Saturday, June 19, 2010 1:58 AM

What’s the collective noun for Babe followers……?

Yes Babe here……0045 EDT Sat morning…….breeze has lightened up somewhat and is changing direction slowly. Big question is do we have more breeze in our slightly right of track position or not…..time will tell…seems a bit processional, just hope we can make it to the knuckle on the stream in a good position…..

On the house front there is beautiful clear night with stars by the billion. At dusk while savouring the wonderful chicken dinner served up by Stephenand Colin we had dolphins playing around the boat for a few minutes….always such a great sight.

As a bit of post dinner excercise we popped up the new A3 (asymmetrical spinnaker) to see if we could hold it for a speed advantage…..but not quite so down it came again, but a great looking sail that will hopefully come into it’s own very soon.

Watch system is rolling well and the boys are driving and trimming constantly…….

more later from my red light chart zone……

Vasco

“Sunny Side Up” Bermuda lroman@transact.bm

We had an outstanding start courtesy of Somers….truely brilliant…pin end just laying the line and we led the Class out past Brenton reef. Long may it continue……we were being buzzed by helcopters off the start so you might see some good footage and photos on the web later on tonight…

right really must get back to getting more data……

everyone in good spirits, good breeze and cracked sheets for now ( translation = faster sailing) beautiful day

Vasco