Marion-Bermuda Race Update
Photographer Fran Grenon sent us these amazing shots of the race start in upper Buzzards Bay. Photo by Fran Grenon/Spectrum Photo
The 2011 Marion Bermuda Race kicked off at 12:45 on Friday under stormy skies and winds gusting to 35 knots. As of 10:00 a.m, the Lilla, a Briand 76 from Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, was a little under 2 nautical miles from the finish line off St. David Head, Bermuda. The Brigand, a 50-foot vessel (design unknown) from Westbrook, Connecticut, was in second place, some 79 nm from Bermuda.
For more photos and information on the race:
Photo by Fran Grenon/Spectrum Photo
In a related article in SouthCoastToday, Barabara Vineri reports on the race start: Winds gusting to 40 knots greeted the 47 boats and nearly 300 skippers and crew that started the 2011 Marion Bermuda Race Friday afternoon as several storm cells crossed Buzzards Bay just as the race was getting under way.
Whitecaps frothed up the bay and eight-to-ten foot swells overpowered the fleet as four classes started the race off Centerboard Shoals outside Sippican Harbor, all of them hoping to finish within three to five days 645 miles due south at St. David’s Head, Bermuda. The first class, D for the smaller and slower boats, got over the starting line at 12:45 p.m., with the next three starts for Classes C, B and A every 15 minutes thereafter.
For the full story:
Please share your race stories below.
About the Author
Tom Richardson is the co-director and host of BoatingLocal. Before that he served as the editor of Northeast Boating from 2005 to 2009, and as managing editor of Salt Water Sportsman magazine from 1995 to 2004. He lives, boats and fishes in southeastern Massachusetts with his wife and three kids.
