Bodacious Dream first home

Class40's Atlantic Cup reaches Newport, RI

The Atlantic Cup presented by 11th Hour Racing completed its second and final leg of offshore racing with Bodacious Dream, skippered by Dave Rearick and Matt Scharl, crossing the finish line first on Monday, 21 May. The Farr-designed Kiwi 40 completed the 231 mile leg from New York Harbor to Newport, R.I in a time of 1 day 14 hours 39 minutes and 41 seconds. She was followed home by Jorg Reichers' all-conquering (until now) Mach 40 Mare and Miranda Merron and Halvard Mabire on their Pogo S2 Campagne De France.

The second leg of the Atlantic Cup set sail at 11:05 a.m. ET on Saturday.

After starting in a light northerly, the teams raced the entire way down the Jersey Shore in short course fleet racing mode. After the turning mark, the boats that were patient and waited for the breeze to shift further east gained on the boats that went north towards Block Island. As a result, those choosing to round Block Island to the east saw that decision pay off.

The last five miles to the finish were not without excitement as the tide was against the teams forcing them to tack their way to the finish with Bodacious Dream playing the shift perfectly en route to capturing the victory in the second leg.

Bodacious Dream skipper Dave Rearick: “(Co-skipper) Matt (Scharl) called some great tactics once again. I thought we were making a bee line for France and I kept asking when we were going to tack.”

Matt Scharl added: “I knew a week ago we were going to go that far out. We wanted to go east until every boat tacked and then go one mile further.”

Asked if they were surprised to be doing this well in their first race with their new boat, Rearick said, “We were hoping to be in the top five, so where we are right now is a real accomplishment. Matt told me a month ago, ‘Dave I’m going to leave you in first before I have to go to my sister’s wedding,’ so he knew.”