What do you get when you add a 100-foot carbon fiber rocket ship, a legendary 103 year old Sparkman and Stephens design, a tall ship and a myriad other boats and toss them all into a blender and use the highest setting?
You get the 2026 Newport Bermuda Race fleet. A jumble of all kinds of boats and sailors all competing in one of the most iconic offshore yacht races in the world. That’s the new Mills 58 Denali4 finishing third elapsed and corrected. Photo: Steve Cloutier / @blockislandsteve
Having done the race a dozen times I can safely say that there are only two good things about the race. One of them is Newport and the other is Bermuda. The bit in between sucks in a big way. Maybe I have become a little cynical in my old age but I know whereof I speak.
The sailors are all full of enthusiasm and with a start in Newport harbor off the iconic Fort Adams sailing and then sailing out past some of the most beautiful (read expensive) real estate in the country you can’t blame them and the start of this year’s race was no less spectacular. It was an idyllic summer day and with smooth water and spectator boats cheering you on, you can’t help but feel a little self important. I know that I did and indeed this 2026 fleet enjoyed the first 12 hours of race with just perfect close reaching conditions.
When the shit happens, there are two words; Gulf Stream. Those swirling eddies play havoc with the waves and what had been idyllic sailing conditions quickly turns things in a leeward rail puke session. Not for all, but for some.
The Gulf Stream is a double-edged sword. Let me explain. It’s a superhighway of warm water that starts in the Caribbean and marches north until it meets the cold waters of the north Atlantic and that’s where it fizzles out. Along the way it spins off eddies and this is where the race can be won or lost. If you are able to get on the right side of an eddy you can expect a 3-4 knot boost in boat speed; free. However the same happens if you miss getting on the right side of the eddy then your boat speed slows to a crawl.
Many of the races that I did were navigated by the legendary Peter Bowker (RIP). He was smart as a whip, but also old school. He would monitor water temps by dropping a thermometer into the head. As the water heated up he knew that we were close to a hot eddy. Somehow he had an uncanny way of knowing which side to ride and we would get that boat speed boost.
What I like about the Newport Bermuda race is that they cater for all types from Blackjack 100 the 100-foot supermaxi that took line honors in 1 day, 11 hours, 26 minutes and 46 seconds which by the way was just 44 minutes off the record set by the much larger Comanche in 2016.
Then there is the aforementioned Sparkman and Stephens yawl Dorade, which made her offshore racing debut in the 1930 Bermuda Race and went on to win her division in 1932. Another team worth mentioning which also illustrates the diversity in the fleet is the tall ship Spirit of Bermuda, a 112-foot, three-masted schooner used primarily for sail training and youth development except for every other year when they enter this iconic race.
The boats are coming in one by one as they finish off St David’s Lighthouse on the north side of the island. From there it’s a three hour motor to the capital Hamilton to dock at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, and that’s where the real fun starts.
Bermuda has one signature drink and that’s a Dark and Story and I’m betting that Goslings rum stock is up in anticipation of the fleet arriving. As my late father used to say, ‘the drink goes down singing hymns.” It sure does and I wish that I had done this year’s race for just that reason. – Brian Hancock.
