If you can be in Newport, Rhode Island, next Friday, June 21, you will be able to attend the first ever Newport-to-Bermuda Race Starting Line Party. If not, you can still stream th eparty live on YouTube.
Taking a page from the last start of The Ocean Race in Newport, the Cruising Club of America and Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, who run the Bermuda race, have moved the starting line from Castle Hill at the mouth of Narraganset Bay to Newport’s Fort Adams inside the bay.
The general public are invited to come to the fort and take part in the festivities. The windmill giant Orsted has sponsored an audio-video jumbotron presentation that will live stream drone footage of the starts. Commentary on the race and the starts will be given by North Sail’s president Ken Reed, professional sailor Jesse Fielding and Cole Brauer who is the first American woman to race non-stop around the world.
The event will have food and drinks vendors, lawn games and music provided by The Ravers. There is plenty of parking at the fort, plus the fort is served by the Jamestown Ferry and Old Port launches.
The race starts at 1400 hours and classes will then go off every 10 minutes. From the large open area at the fort, where the Newport Folk and Jazz festivals are staged, you will have a close view of the boats as they fight their way into position for the start.
This is the 53rd running of the Newport-to-Bermuda race, which was first run in 1908. The race covers 636 miles, first across the shallow waters of the continental shelf, then across the Gulf Stream and finally in the variable winds near Bermuda.
The latest course record, set in 2022, was by the MOD 70 trimaran Argo. Larger monohulls will make the trip in under 48 hours while most of the fleet will take three or four days.
