It’s not often that an inaugural sailing event – especially a long-distance ocean race – draws more than 100 entries. But that was the case with the Marion-Bermuda Cruising Yacht Race. Developed by a coalition of members from the Beverly Yacht Club (of Marion, Massachusetts), Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club of Bermuda, and the Blue Water Sailing Club – and still co-run by all three clubs - the first running of this premier cruising boat competition in 1977 drew 104 starters.
At 112 feet LOA and 120 tons, the three masted Spirit of Bermuda is the race's largest entry. The Bermuda-based schooner normally operates as a sail training vessel.
For the next 10 biennial runnings (in odd-numbered years), it averaged 120 boats, with the all time largest fleet of 163 boats sailing the 645-mile course in 1989. The ’89 race is also famous for being one of the windiest – catapulting Warren Brown’s S&S 62 Warbaby into Bermuda in 72.5 hours, an elapsed-time mark which would stand for more than 20 years. It was finally broken by Simon De Pietro’s Briand 76 Lilla in 2011, in just under 70 hours flat.
Simon De Pietro's splendid Lilla is the current elapsed time record holder of the Marion-Bermuda with her 2011 mark of 68H/58M/45S.
While entries have fallen off in more recent years, in keeping with the “fun race to Bermuda” theme, the MB remains one of the most award-heavy ocean races in existence, with as many as 70 different categories of awards handed out over the years. In addition to the usual first-through-third awards in each class, and trophies for first overall and first-to-finish, awards have also been developed for – to name just a few - Doublehanded, Shorthanded (4 crew), Family (5 or more members of the same family), Youth (70% of a crew aged 16-23), All Female, Celestially-Navigated boats, Highest Average Age, and the amazingly-coveted Cook’s Trophies, which are awarded to the cook on each of the last-finishing yachts in each class.
The race is popular enough to attract many boats and crew year after year- with special mention going to the Naval Academy, which has entered a handful of yachts regularly for years. No records have been kept of who might have done the most MBs, but as far as winning skippers, the name Abbot Fletcher comes to more to a few minds. Fletcher’s Maine-based Tripp 37 Majek, built in 1966, had Class wins in three Marion-Bermudas over the years, including an overall win in 1997. After the elder Fletcher’s passing, his son, Max, continued to race Majek and is now cruising in Europe on his Nordic 40 Juanona after crossing the Atlantic in 2014.
Majek, a Tripp 37 owned by the Fletcher family of Bath, Maine, is a multiple award winner in the MB.
But the grand old man of the Marion-Bermuda has to be Jack Braitmayer. Starting in 1979, he skippered three different boats named Karina in a total of seven MBs – then went on to donate 25 more years in various race management capacities.
As for well-known boats, the Marion-Bermuda doesn’t boast the same sort of name-dropping roster as the more varsity Newport-Bermuda Race. But more than a few former race boats have run the course. The aforementioned record-holding Warbaby, for example, started life as Ted Turner’s Tenacious, which won enduring fame and admiration as the winner of the most infamous offshore race of them all, the 1979 Fastnet.
But big doesn’t always mean best. Depending on the wind in any particular year – which can vary from nearly none to near-hurricane force with 30-ft seas – small boats are just as likely to do well as the big boys. Boats in the 30-ft range have taken overall honors a number of times, including Carter Cordner’s 1995 winner, Kemancha, a Westsail 32.
Have we whet your whistle yet? We sure hope so. Now for the pitch: if you’re looking for something really different, really challenging, that is run by the best and most supportive bunch of folks you’ll ever meet, consider taking part in the 2015 Marion Bermuda Cruising Yacht Race. The first start of this 20th edition is Friday, June 19 – the start of the Summer Sailstice weekend! If you can’t sail your own boat, there are bound to be more than a few boats looking for crew. Sign up for Summer Sailstice and the Marion Bermuda Race.
Marion-Bermuda entry 'Etoile' is already signed up for Summer Sailstice too! They'll have a chance to win from the multitude of prizes to be won from the Marion Bermuda Race plus a shot at winning prizes from Summer Sailstice.
For more on that, and every aspect of this East Coast classic, visit www.marionbermuda.com.
