2024 Newport to Bermuda Report

written by and photos by Will McKenzie (RHS in photo below). 

In late June I was lucky enough to escape the cold of Melbourne winter to compete in the 2024 Newport to Bermuda Yacht Race. The Newport to Bermuda race is the oldest regularly scheduled ocean race and was first run in 1906. I competed in this race as part of the crew on the J111 Blur from Sweden, alongside Cam McKenzie and Nigel Jones also from Mornington Yacht Club and ORCV Members. I am super grateful for the opportunity and to the owner Peter Gustafsson for inviting us to join his crew comprising of Swedish, Danish and Finnish sailors. Peter sailed with us two years ago on the J111 Ginan for the 50th Melbourne to Hobart race in 2022.

Team Blur 2024 Newport to Bermuda L to R: Fredrik Rydin (SWE), Pelle Pedersen at the wheel (SWE), Nigel Jones (AUS), Cam McKenzie (AUS), Peter Gustafsson (SWE), Mattias Bodlund (DEN), Mats Björk (SWE), Michael Wahlroos (FIN) and Will McKenzie (AUS).  Photo Will McKenzie

The day before the race whilst we were still in Newport, RI, we were fortunate to have a private catchup with the design team at J Boats in their head office. We were able to understand, learn, discuss with them their design process, philosophy and plans for the future, which was extremely interesting to hear how they operate.
The race started on the 21st of June on a pretty hot day with not much in the way of breeze. We were the 8th starting sequence of the day, so after waiting for earlier fleets it was then our time to start. Thankfully we managed to nail the pin end perfectly leaving us with plenty of options, and from there, it was a race to get out of the congestion as quickly as possible whilst avoiding the adverse incoming tide.

Nailing the pin end of the line of our start, high risk but paid off for the photo and commentary coverage

The following few hours were then super light with little or no breeze at times leading to a myriad of sail changes with multiple jibs, staysails and kites up before the wind settled later into the evening. This light and fluky start followed by a fairly consistent moderate south westerly gradient for the majority of the race was pretty much spot on with what was forecast leading into the start. In the lead up we had weather and strategy support from Volvo Ocean race navigator Aksel Magdahl and from Americas Cup, Volvo and Olympic meteorologist, Chris Bedford so we had a very good understanding of what to expect in terms of wind and current.

The Gulf Stream Meander imagery with current grib file overlaid pre race

Plenty of time spent parked up and drifting the first evening

Brief moment of excitement getting to see the kite up for the first and last time during the race

Once the breeze filled from the SW it was then a drag race to get to the Gulf Stream for the next day and a half in order to try to make the most of the current pushing us towards Bermuda. For the most part the next 18-20 hours were pretty smooth sailing as expected as we aimed to get to the entry point we decided on.

Working hard with jib and staysail up to keep up with bigger boats in non ideal J111 jib reaching conditions

Expedition navigation showing the NOT so wide variety of strategies of entry point into the gulf stream

Once in the Gulf Stream we had 16-22 knots of breeze at anywhere from 50-80 TWA with current against the wind leading to a pretty uncomfortable sea state. As it was also extremely hot with humid conditions it meant that it was quite difficult to get any rest down below when on our 2 hours off watch. We had favourable current for over 100 miles with up to 5 knots of assist and 29 degree Celsius water temperature!

 Looking back at these photos make sailing in the Gulf Stream look glamorous, until I remember how soaked my wet weather gear ended up both inside and out

At work on the foredeck

By the morning of the fourth day after what felt like an age of bumpy seas, we finally exited the Gulf Stream into some calmer waters. By this stage, although everyone was pretty tired, it finally felt as though the end was getting near with one final day of racing. We were fairly low on the majority of the fleet both to avoid adverse current and, as it was predicted to knock sometime later in the day, to approach the finish line on port. We had fingers crossed therefore that the knock would come in time and focused on keeping the boat rolling on as fast as we had the previous 3 days.

We Aussies had the glamour watch getting to watch the sunrise and sunset whilst up on deck

After another half a day into our almost third day straight sailing along on starboard tack, we finally tacked across onto port to enjoy a change in scenery for a few hours. This then brought us into the closing stages of the race, where just before sunrise we crossed the finish line a little before 4am.

Everyone looking a little worse for wear after 3 ½ days and keen to get some well earned rest

We ended the race in 11th place in the St Davids lighthouse division out of nearly 100 starters and were 2nd out of over 30 J-Boats in the division. We were pretty proud of our result given the conditions not being the best suited to a J111 with it being such a long and bumpy race of 636 nautical miles. We were one of only two boats in the race where none of the crew had competed in this race previously. The race was not without incident with two yachts having to be abandoned and sinking and a dismasting.

 Plenty of gear to dry on the dock at Royal Bermuda Yacht Club

I would like to say a huge thank you to the MYC Foundation for supporting me in being able to compete and experience this historic race and to Peter Gustafsson and the rest of Blur team for giving me the opportunity to be part of their team. I look forward to experiencing and continuing to develop my ocean racing further and competing in the ORCV races this season.