2nd Place - Double-Handed Div - 2012 Newport-Bermuda Race
June 22, 2012
Hello Friends-
The 2012 Bermuda race results are now official, and GryphonSolo2 will receive a few prizes at the awards ceremony tonight. We came second in our double-handed class of about 10 boats and also second in the double-handed division of about 20 boats. We were also the first boat to finish in the DH class, beating our nearest competitor (Dragon, a fellow Class 40) by nearly 8 hours. It was a great race and while we are pleased with the results of having the best elapsed time by a wide margin, we lost first place on corrected time to a J-120 named Mereille that finished 14 hours after us. A J-120 is also a modern forty foot boat that is known to be fast, although they do not carry water ballast like GS2 and do not have the same beamy hull shape and flat bottom that allows GS2 to plane early and often in reaching and running conditions.
Nonetheless, although Mereille sailed a strong race against her peer group of J-120's and beat them across the line by 4 hours, we sailed a very strong race against 4 other American Class 40's, (Toothface, Dragon, Icarus, and Amhas) and beat them by margins of between 7 and 9 hours, which is very unusual given the typically close Class 40 racing we experienced in the Atlantic Cup, where boats finished the offshore legs within minutes and sometimes seconds of one another. So, while we had said before the race that we felt we were really only racing against our fellow Class 40's because of the onerous handicap delivered to Class 40's under the ORR handicap system administered by US Sailing (Mike Dreese, where is our Class 40 Cup?), we still felt disappointed that we were not able to correct out on top after turning in a very strong performance relative to our peer group.
I made inquiries with naval architect Jim Teeters from US Sailing about how ORR actually works and how the handicaps are derived, and Jim offered to work with me to further examine the wind conditions and boatspeeds seen during the race to compare to the predictions made by the rating rule. ORR is a complex rating handicap system, so it will take a bit of time to crunch the data, but I hope we will come out with some answers that will shed light on why one 40 foot boat needed to beat another 40 foot boat by 19 hours to win the class on corrected time.
In the meantime, we will be departing early this afternoon on the delivery of GS2 from Bermuda to Newport. I was planning on doing the voyage solo to get in some training for the Global Ocean Race next year, but I received a last-minute email from an old friend named Scott Finlay saying that his ride had fallen through and he had a plane ticket to Bermuda and his bags packed and could I find room on GS2 for him? Well...; after a bit of back and forth and questions to be sure Scott was up for the Spartan accommodations and fast/wet pace of GS2, as Scott by his own admission is new to blue water sailing, I said yes and agreed to have Scott come aboard. I am looking forward to his arrival at noon today and our departure soon thereafter. Scott is a great guy who I have known and worked with for years, so it will be fun to spend time with him offshore and teach him the ropes.
So, it has been a great 5 days in Bermuda with my family and mom, and we have enjoyed the beautiful beaches and wonderful warm weather of this amazing island very much. We have played lots of tennis, and Emmett, Sophie, Griffin have improved greatly in a short period of time. They will fly home today, as I head over to the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club to get the boat ready for the sail home.
I will plan to write a daily email while offshore as usual, even though we are not racing, and hope you all don't find them too boring. I want to thank everyone who wrote kind notes of support and congratulations during and after the race and look forward to corresponding with many of you throughout the summer.
Cheers-
Joe
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