Newport Bermuda Races
The St. David’s Lighthouse division of the 53rd Newport Bermuda Race was won by Carina. Finishing in a corrected time of two days, 16 hours and 12 minutes, Carina passed the division’s namesake landmark just after 3 a.m. on Tuesday morning and made history as the most winning yacht in the race’s 118-year history since its inception in 1906. 96 yachts participated in the St. David’s division.
This is Carina’s fourth Newport Bermuda Race win (1970, 2010, 2012 and 2024), three of which have been owned by Livs Potts. “This means a lot and I’m very proud of my crew,” said Potts, who met the boat and its crew this morning at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club (RBYC). [the crew] It was our first time on a boat, but everyone did well.
“From the five minutes before the start we just raced as hard as we could. We knew we were in good shape but we didn’t think about that and just kept racing,” added Carina’s captain, W. Barrett Holby Jr. Holby praised his crew, saying, “Everybody delivered. We had good food, great sailing, great crewing, great steering. It all just worked out.”
Carina was able to take the lead in her class early out of Narragansett Bay, but like the other competing boats, was affected by the weather near the top of the course. Holby said that at times it felt like the boat had its own personal rain cloud and the wind was chasing the boat.
In the Gibbs Hill division, Summer Storm 52 was crowned Gibbs Hill Division Champion. The boat’s experienced crew included owner/skipper Andy Burdon and navigator Chris “Lou” Lewis, who also piloted the division’s winning boat at the previous Newport Bermuda Race in 2022.
“Most of the voyage was clear,” Burdon said. “Getting out of Newport was the hardest for us because a series of fronts had made the winds light and variable. Once we got out of Newport, we were able to catch the ocean breeze without slowing down the whole time.”
Beldon also credits boat captain Alec Snyder for the preparation of the boat. The boat was in a shed in Germany in February and is now on top of the podium in Bermuda. Sixteen boats took part in the Gibbs Hill division, which has no limit on the number of professional crew members.
Many boats completed the race late Monday night and into the early hours of Tuesday morning, some by close margins. Hound finished Monday night in a corrected time of 2 days, 16 hours and 25 minutes, which included a 30-minute penalty for crossing the start line early, meaning that Hound was nine minutes behind Carina and therefore lost out on the overall win.
In the Finisterre division, Northeast Wind won with a corrected time of 2 days, 15 hours and 53 minutes. Captain Frank Sobchack, his Hinckley 48 sloop and crew were ecstatic when they arrived in Bermuda and learned of their victory.
In the Double-Handed division, the inspirational Phil Haydon and Alexander Kleber took first place aboard their Sunfast 3300 Fearless. Haydon founded Sail for Epilepsy to use his experiences and travels to educate and inspire. Having not followed any trackers during the race, he was thrilled and overjoyed to find out he had won once he arrived in Bermuda.
“We had a strategy that we were going to execute, and we did it, and it paid off. We’ve been training for over a year and the hard work paid off.” Haydon dedicates the win to his virtual fellow sailors, supporters who he hopes to inspire to “go that extra mile” and “be less afraid”.
The remaining results from the 53rd Newport Bermuda Race, including division winners, can be found on our live results page.
The crew of the Gunga Din, which abandoned ship on Tuesday, reported that as of this writing, all were safely aboard the Desna, which is now 37 feet long and has 14 people on board. “It was a pleasant evening and everyone had a hot dinner.” The crew is steaming to Bermuda, where they are expected to arrive Wednesday afternoon.
