July 8th, 2024
The 636-mile biennial Newport Bermuda Race is the oldest regularly scheduled ocean race and one of the few international distance races. Along with the Transpac, the Bermuda Race is one of only two regularly scheduled races that take place almost entirely out of sight of land.
Berthon USA’s Alan Baines and Peter Houghton joined Peter Lacoste, the owner and captain his crew on the Moody DS54, SOUTHERN CROSS for this year’s race to the onion patch in Bermuda.
With the Starting line moved into Newport harbour right off Fort Adams, instead of off Castle Hill, spectators were treated to a great view of the start. The race began at 2:50pm on Friday 21st June with very light, south westerly winds all afternoon and into the evening. However, by late evening, upon approaching Block Island, the wind filled in and SOUTHERN CROSS kicked up her skirts and enjoyed perfect sailing conditions in flat water.
With the main and genoa unfurled, SOUTHERN CROSS romped along at nearly 10 knots, pushing swiftly toward the Gulf Stream. Today’s technology has made locating the Gulf Stream much easier compared to the past. This year, the crew were fortunate to have the southbound eddy perfectly aligned with their rhumb line, delivering a current running between 4 and 5 knots, a bit like a 100 mile conveyor belt to Bermuda.
As SOUTHERN CROSS entered the Gulf Stream, the sea state turned into a turbulent ‘washing machine.’ The strong current and choppy waters posed a significant challenge, leading to several boats suffering damage. One unfortunate vessel even lost its rudder and had to be abandoned. SOUTHERN CROSS too, faced a setback, ripping the self-tacking jib from leach to luff . She was thus forced to sail under a reduced headsail, affecting both speed and the up to that point comfortable mid fleet position.
At one point the Race Control contacted SOUTHERN CROSS, and asked her to stand by to assist the vessel that had itself rescued the crew of the sunk yacht. They had developed steering problems of their own, but luckily repaired it and carried on. For a while we wondered if we were destined to take on an extra 18 crew!
Despite the damage, the journey continued, with conditions gradually flattening out. With 170 miles to go, the weather finally became favorable and with SOUTHERN CROSS keeping the crew which consisted of 2 other Moody owners – Rick Hill and Ryan Yost, with Lachlan Lacoste and Greg Drake rounding out the crew of seven comfortable and dry, the genoa was unrolled again and we sped our way to the finish line off Saint David’s Lighthouse.
The initial slow start was a stark contrast to bouncing off waves through the Gulf Stream. The challenges faced, from the turbulent sea state to the sail damage sustained, tested the crew’s resilience and determination – we carried on and finished.
With a reputation for breaking boats, this race was no exception. Two boats ended up Being abandoned and many others suffered gear failure, sale failure or other problems. Later at the dock Peter Lacoste and Alan Baines went through the boat from stem to stern to make sure everything was in order. The yacht had fallen off several large waves which sounded like landing on concrete. The bilge compartments were impressively bone dry and everything was in good order. So other than the a ripped jib SOUTHERN CROSS is good to go for the return trip.
The finish line was crossed around noon on Tuesday June 25th with a nice boat for boat battle to the finish with a J42. The final 100 miles were beautiful—a close reach rather than upwind, with 15 knots of wind instead of over 20. SOUTHERN CROSS could finally use the genoa and achieve speeds of 9-10 knots, compared to the 5-6 knots she had previously been limited to with the damaged jib.
The final position in the division was 25th. Had it not been for the ripped head sail, she would undoubtedly ended up in the middle of the fleet at least. However, the Moody DS54 most definitely offered up the most comfortable ride of any boat!
To find out more about the Moody Yachts range, visit https://berthonusa.com/new-yacht-sales/moody-yachts/.
Contact sales@berthonusa.com.
