In the 46th running of the Newport Bermuda Race, Peter Rebovich’s Cal 40 Sinn Fein won Class 1 and the St. David’s Lighthouse Trophy making it the Raritan New Jersey Yacht Club skipper’s fourth successive Class 1 win and his second Lighthouse win in a row. Rebovich and his amateur crew of six sailed the mostly upwind race in an elapsed time of 104:43:57 corrected to 61:06:38 under ORR rules and 100:13:44 under the IRC rule. In addition to the St. David’s Lighthouse Trophy, Sinn Fein also won the newly established North Rock Beacon Trophy for winner on corrected time among all of the 122 IRC-rated boats in both divisions.
Julien Dougherty of City Island, New York sailed Tenacious, his Beneteau First 36.7 to a win in the Gibbs Hill Division of traditional keelboats with professional crews against the Reichel-Pugh 90 Rambler, Reichel-Pugh STP65 Money Penney and Reichel-Pugh 69 Bella Mente. Tenacious arrived at the finish line with a total elapsed time of 103:00:28 corrected to 56:53:20.
Other silver was taken by Paul Hubbard on Bermuda Oyster who’s 101:07:11 elapsed times corrected to 81:38:51 making them first in Class 12 and winning the Carleton Mitchell Finisterre Trophy. Twenty-time Bermuda veteran Rich du Moulin and crewman Chris Reyling won the double-handed division for the fourth time aboard Lora Ann with a corrected time of 80:37:47.
The 635-mile Newport Bermuda Race has been sailed from Newport, R.I., to Bermuda since 1936. It will be sailed again in June 2010.
