Under starter's orders

Herb McCormick previews the HSH Nordbank blue transatlantic race starting this weekend

Newport Shipyard, in the famous seaside sailing town of Newport, Rhode Island, was abuzz with activity today as the 24 boats entered in the 3,500 nautical mile HSH Nordbank blue race continued final preparations for their imminent race across the North Atlantic Ocean. The testing Transatlantic Race will begin this Saturday with the first of two scheduled starts. The majority of the fleet will set sail on 16 June in the waters off Fort Adams in Newport. The largest boats in the race will then begin their offshore adventure a week later, on 23 June, again off Fort Adams. Both starts will take place at 2:00pm local time.

An international fleet flying the flags of six nations - Antigua, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Switzerland and the United States - have signed on to compete in the HSH Nordbank blue race. Among them are two high-profile campaigns representing the New York Yacht Club (NYYC), which is helping to organise the pre-race activities. The Ker 50 Snow Lion, skippered by former NYYC commodore Lawrence Huntington, will be one of 21 yachts setting out from Newport on the June 16th start. On 23 June, skipper Ken Read will lead an all-star crew of 19 offshore veterans aboard the 90ft Rambler (ex- Alfa Romeo) which was recently purchased by Connecticut sailor George David.

For Read, a former America’s Cup skipper and six time world champion in the ultra-competitive J/24 class who grew up sailing on the local waters of Narragansett Bay, the HSH Nordbank blue race will be a pressure-packed event. Read was recently named skipper for the Puma Racing Team in the 2008 Volvo Ocean Race, and the HSH Nordbank blue race aboard Rambler will be his first transoceanic competition in his new role. Read plans on using the HSH Nordbank blue race to test and evaluate crewmembers, several of which are veterans of round-the-world races and, like Read, the America’s Cup.

"This is a major race, my third transatlantic in the last four years," said Read, who sailed a similar course on board Neal McDonald's Ericsson in the last Volvo Ocean Race. "Going north up to the North Sea can be a nasty place to sail any time of the year. Luckily, the boat we’re sailing on was sort of made for this sort of thing. It’s quite strong. I think we’ve got a good platform to do a race like this. It’s a strong boat and we have a really good crew."

Among those crew are New Zealander Justin Ferris and Australian Chris Nicholson, both round-the-world veterans, as is 51-year-old Jerry Kirby of Newport, a local legend whose resume also includes a victory in the America’s Cup during it’s tenure in San Diego, California. The world's oldest offshore bowman Kirby worked the pointy end on Paul Cayard's Pirates of the Caribbean.

Larry Huntington’s Snow Lion perhaps doesn’t boast as many sailing luminaries, but Huntington knows his way across the North Atlantic, having finished second in the last transatlantic race to Germany in 2003. "I had planned 18 days of food and we finished in 18 and a half," he said. "When we went across the finish line at the entrance to the River Elba, a little German inflatable came alongside and handed up a bag, which I just assumed would be full of beer. But it was sandwiches! They were very welcome indeed."

At 72 years of age, Huntington is no stranger to adventure, having climbed Mount McKinley in Alaska and twice coming to within 300m of the summit of Mount Everest. He believes there are many similarities to offshore yacht racing and high-altitude mountaineering. "One is the mere organisation of it," he said. "You get the boat as well prepared as possible and get a balanced, compatible crew. That’s critical to a major mountain expedition as well."

The competition, however, is by no means limited to the two U.S. entries. Other world-class campaigns are being mounted by the Irish canting keel Cookson 50 Chieftain, fresh from a series of strong spring regattas in the Caribbean; the Reichel Pugh 80 Bon-Bon, which, ironically, was sailed by Read in the Rolex Transatlantic Race in 2005 under its former name, Carrera; Tracy Edwards' former Maiden, and the mighty 177ft Perini Navi ketch Parsifal III, both from Great Britain; and a host of well-sailed German yachts, including the Andrews 56, Norddeutsche Vermogen Hamburg, the Swan 82, Grey Goose, and the smart new Elliott 52, Outsider.