Transatlantic for giants

More details on next year's Rolex Transatlantic Challenge

With less than eleven months to the 21 May start of the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge 2005, organisers are finalising details for what promises to be one of the greatest sailing races of the 21st Century. The event's bragging rights are validated by a simple yet historically rich fact:: a racing record still standing from the beginning of the last century beckons owners of the world's largest monohull sailboats to compete.

The ghost of legendary captain Charlie Barr has thrown down the gauntlet. In 1905, he raced the equally renowned 185ft schooner Atlantic eastbound in the 'Great Ocean Race', setting a monohull transatlantic racing record of 12 days, 4 hours, 1 minute and 19 seconds - a record that will be 100 years old next year.

The Rolex Transatlantic Challenge 2005, organized by the New York Yacht Club (NYYC) with the cooperation of the Royal Yacht Squadron, is recognised by the World Sailing Speed Record Council as the only event in which a new monohull transatlantic racing record for yachts unassisted by powered winches can be posted. Boats with a length on deck of 70 feet (21.34m) or longer are allowed to enter.

The Competitors

Previously announced as intending to enter the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge are such magnificent yachts as Robert Miller's 140ft Mari Cha IV, which last October set the west to east transatlantic passage record of six days, 17 hours, 52 minutes and 39 seconds; the 94ft Sumurun, which finished first in her class the last time this race was run in 1997 (Sumurun's owner A. Robert Towbin is the current chairman of the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge Committee); the 136ft Ranger, a re-creation of the J-Class yacht that won the 1937 America's Cup; and the 230ft long Stad Amsterdam, a tall ship chartered by members of the Storm Trysail Club.

Among other expected entrants are the 73ft (22.3m) Bolero, the 81ft (24.7m) Carrera, the 134ft (41m) Destination Fox Harb'r, the 89.9ft (27.4m) Genuine Risk, the 90ft (27.4m) Leopard, the 75ft (27.4m) Palawan, the 131ft (40m) Sariyah, the 116.3ft (35.4m) Whisper and the 140ft (43m) Whirlaway.

"I have crossed the Atlantic several times, but not on a sailboat," said Ron Joyce, the owner of Destination Fox Harb'r, a luxurious Dubois-designed cruising sloop that was launched on New Year's Eve of 2002 and is the namesake of Joyce's golf resort in his home province of Nova Scotia. "I love the sea, sailing and adventure; I've always wanted to do this." Joyce added that since he built Destination Fox Harb'r, he has sailed more than 10,000 miles aboard the boat, taking several trips in the South Pacific and cruising in the Caribbean. "I'll do the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge with mostly friends, and the boat will be fully crewed. We're ready for this, and I'm looking forward to it."

Sariyah, owned by Isam Kabbani, finished second in its class in the 1997 event. The yacht's captain, Tim Laughridge, is in charge of chartering out the boat this time around to New York Yacht Club member Cortright Wetherill Jr. "I can't wait to do this race again," said Laughridge, who has logged over 200,000 miles aboard his charge and will be the skipper of record for the race.

"We'll sail with a 14-person crew. One of the most important crewmembers will be a combination weather analyst, tactician and navigator. In the 1997 race, the last 1200 nautical miles were a real challenge when the wind decided not to cooperate - that's nearly half of the 2,875 nautical miles (3,305 statute miles) to The Lizard. Up until that point, a few of the boats looked set to break the record."

A Splendid Sendoff, A Grand Welcome

The Rolex Transatlantic fleet, expected to number 20-30 boats, will carry out pre-race preparations at Pier 86 in New York City where the 900-foot aircraft carrier Intrepid serves as the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, the world's largest of its kind. One of the recently retired supersonic Concorde jet aircrafts, serving as a centerpiece for the museum's well-timed transatlantic travel exhibit, will be positioned next to the fleet while the Intrepid's impressive flight and hangar decks will be the staging area for a Rolex dinner for competitors on May 19. At the New York Yacht Club's clubhouse on West 44th Street, an opening reception will be held on May 18 and an Owner/Charterer and Captains Meeting will be held on 20 May.

On 21 May, the fleet will participate in a Parade of Sail through New York Harbor and answer the blast of a 2pm starting cannon with a visually spectacular race departure off Sandy Hook, New Jersey, the historical start line of many previous transatlantic races. (The New York Yacht Club has a long history of staging transatlantic races, beginning with the inaugural race in 1866.)

When the fleet arrives in England, it will be welcomed by the Royal Yacht Squadron at Cowes and entertained from 11-14 June with a series of special events and ceremonies.
2005 marks the 200th anniversary of Admiral Nelson's victory at the Battle of Trafalgar, and there will be a distinct Nelsonian theme running through the fleet festivities in The Solent.

The Rolex Transatlantic Challenge prize giving is scheduled to take place aboard Britain's first iron warship HMS Warrior on June 12 at the Historic Dockyard in Portsmouth, also home to Nelson's flagship H.M.S. Victory. Owners and guests will be offered privileged access to HMS Victory and other areas of historic importance within the dockyard. On 13 June, the Royal Yacht Squadron will hold the Rolex Race Around the Isle of Wight, on the same 60-mile course where in 1851 the yacht America won what became the America's Cup. One of the main trophies will be the Lord Nelson Plate, a solid silver salver donated by the Nelson Society.

Keeping Track

While sailing the expanse of the North Atlantic, an area three times the size of the USA, each yacht entered in the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge will be outfitted with a dedicated Inmarsat D+ transceiver unit.

This small, sophisticated tracking equipment will enable organizers and competitors to follow the fleet's progress on a regular basis and determine who is positioned where on the journey. Racing enthusiasts also can follow the action via the New York Yacht Club's web site, where the data will be updated four times a day with position, course and speed.

"This is an exciting advance in technology since 1997 when we hosted our last transatlantic race," said Andy Scholtz, a member of the Technical Subcommittee for the race. "Back then we were polling each yacht's position manually through a satellite hookup from a trailer in Falmouth, UK. The positions were then posted to a web site chart. For this race the entire process will be automated, and the onboard equipment will be only slightly larger than a hockey puck."

Organisers also plan to share captains' email 'diaries' with the public. With so much international and individual intrigue involved in an adventure like this, and so many elements of nature with which to contend--from fog to foul weather to ice in the northern latitudes - they hope to relay the drama of it all to an appreciative audience.

Trophies

The Rolex Transatlantic Challenge will feature two finishes: one at Lizard Point, a rocky headland in Cornwall at the southwestern tip of Britain. The first-to-finish times will be taken at that 'gate' to determine if any boats have bettered Atlantic's record. If so, the fastest yacht will receive the Commodore Elbridge T. Gerry Cup. The fastest yacht in the Classic Division to break the record will receive the Atlantic Challenge Cup.

The fleet will then continue racing another 142 nautical miles to a finish at The Needles, the distinctive outcrop of rocks at the westernmost tip of the Isle of Wight. This is where the 1905 race was to have originally finished until Kaiser Wilhelm II shortened the course to The Lizard. Charlie Barr continued in full-on racing mode to the Needles, finishing there in 13 days, 10 hours and 15 minutes. The first yacht in any division to beat Atlantic's existing elapsed time to The Needles will also become a new New York Yacht Club record holder.

The New York Yacht Club is allocating several of its most significant trophies to serve as prizes for both elapsed-time and corrected-time winners for the three divisions: classic, performance cruising and grand-prix. The winners' names and yachts will be engraved on the perpetual trophies, which will be on permanent display in the New York Yacht Club. The winners will receive Rolex timepieces as well as keeper trophies that will represent the perpetual trophies on display. Among other perpetual trophies awarded will be the Sayre Cup, the Commodore's Challenge Cup, the Cape May Challenge Cup and the Sumurun Trophy.

Sponsors

The Rolex Transatlantic Challenge is sponsored by Sandy Hook Pilots Association of NY and NJ, Moran Tug and P&O Ports North America. The race is supported by the City of New York and Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Showboats International is the event's official marine publication.

Deadline for entries is January 21, 2005. For more information or to enter, visit the New York Yacht Club website or contact the NYYC Sailing Office, Harbour Court, 5 Halidon Avenue, Newport, R.I. 02840; phone 401-845-9633 or email sailingoffice@nyyc.org.