2023 Bermuda 'Round the Island Seagull Race.
Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2023 11:34 pm
Dear all
Another of our historic races is complete for 2023. I haven't done the maths yet to calculate how much we can donate to the Bermuda Sloop Foundation - but I hope that it will be in the $5000 range - so well done everyone for supporting this worthy charity promoting the growth of youth by being out on the water.
First of all - my thanks to everyone that makes this race possible -
1) Heinken/Burrows Lightbourn who give big donations towards shirts, beer and prizes - it really makes the race - and the Heineken shirts look so good!!!
2) RUBiS for donating fuel gift vouchers that are given out to our crash boats
3) Our wonderful crashboat fleet - whether official or unofficial - we thank you for helping making this race possible - without you - we could not hold the race due to safety concerns . A big thank you to Jonny White - the crash boat captain who manages to organise everything and people.
4) Our caterer - Kirk Wilks of Wilks Catering - a big thank you for providing much needed sustenance at the end of a day of being out on the water!!! You support us with that and the decent price!!!
5) Sara Lewter for doing the music to get the people dancing - there was a little bit yesterday - but in general - great music as background to make it a festive event.
6) Luis Martins and Tim Southern of Fast Forward for absorbing our freight costs for the TShirts - Tim made it to race this year!!!! Yay!
Lastly - the committee of Corry Kowalchuk, Stephen Roberts, Michael Bean, Brian Lightbourn and John Russell - there is a lot to organise prior to the event; aside from the generation of the shirts etc - there is chasing up of trophies, finding prizes from local businesses/restaurants to supplement the prizes from Heineken; ensuring people are in the right classes; and calling the race on weather!!! we work well!!!
Thanks also to Shawn Burgess for being my help and supporter on race day - helping to start the races and checking which boats go out; checking people back in - he can recognise people in boats that I certainly don't!!!!!!
Now to the race report
The weather was kinder to us than the last 2 years - instead of plastic bags to protect you from the rain and wind - sunshirts etc were needed. The 8-12k winds coming from the SE made south shore "sloppy" ( the description I was told!!) (Nasty could be another one)
We lost a couple of boats due to the change to the rain date - but of the 49 boats that were signed up to do the race on the day:
25 finished - 9 DNS - 13 DNF - 2 DNC
Not all the DNF were south shore related - several were because of "electrical failure" early on in the course or fuel pump issues - one person had their fuel pump fall overboard - that would do it!.
JJ Soares was the 1st boat to break down - on return - he managed to fix the issue - and apparently went out again - I don't think he did the course - but hope that he and his crew at least had a good time out on the water.
There were a few racers whose engine would not start - so swopped them for other outboards and also went out.
The first "bad" call I had was from Martin Dixon a crash boat - saying he had obviously run over a thick net of some kind - and it has stopped the engine - so we almost needed a crashboat for a crashboat. He ended up getting a tow from the CoastGuard - so hopefully the engine is OK.
The second and last bad call I got was that Cheeky Lips driven by Glenn Clinton and Alan Powell (who had come back to the island specifically to race) were hit by a rogue wave somewhere on south shore which turned them turtle. Luckily - a boat was close by (some random stranger) - and rescued them, the boat, the engine and quite a lot of their stuff. They are OK - probably a bit bruised but - in general - safe. (Bar Alan's phone which sunk....) Glad there was someone close by.
We had a late entry of newbies Conor Outerbridge and his girlfriend Haley - they went out in a punt type boat - and they did not have a line to the fuel tank from the petrol tank; so they had to keep stopping to refill the tank!!! Their enthusiasm was awesome to see - but we did tell the crashboats to watch over them as we were a little concerned about their safety and ability to complete the course. Needless to say - Michael Bean picked them up and towed them back - there was no way they were going to make it to south shore like that!!!! He said that they were laughing the whole way back - so next year Conor and Haley - plan a little further in advance than the night before - get a decent boat - and ensure you can feed your fuel tank fuel to take you around. Hopefully see you next year!!!!
Mandy Lohan was very proud (as she should be) of her 13 year old son Finn - who captained Sea Ya around the island. He won the prize for best performance as a novice - hopefully he is getting hooked on racing like his mother was/is!!!!
Record breaking - Kenny Matthie and "In Living Memory" broke their own record set last year of 2 hours 12 minutes for an Unlimited seagull engine - with a new record time of 2 hours 4 minutes!!!! Congratulations.
There is one change to the prize listing - we were told later in the evening after the prizes had been given out that Miles to Go in fact had to cut through Castle Harbour as they had a hole and engine issues - so needed to get home. This means In De Red - captained by Alex Brogden gets 1st in the class - (Michael Bean has the 1st prize for you - so please contact him to collect it 337-2325)
Save the dates - next year 15th June 2024 - rain date 22 June at Sandys Point Club. Sign up will be at Spanish Point Boat club - 5th June 2024
See you all then - and hopefully we will have more entries and successful completions of the course next year!!!! I think that working on engines and boats a week before the race is cutting it a little fine!!! Allow at least a month!!!!
Thank you all again yourselves for making this an awesome event. See you next year
All the best
Martine
I will look for more pictures and add them later...
Another of our historic races is complete for 2023. I haven't done the maths yet to calculate how much we can donate to the Bermuda Sloop Foundation - but I hope that it will be in the $5000 range - so well done everyone for supporting this worthy charity promoting the growth of youth by being out on the water.
First of all - my thanks to everyone that makes this race possible -
1) Heinken/Burrows Lightbourn who give big donations towards shirts, beer and prizes - it really makes the race - and the Heineken shirts look so good!!!
2) RUBiS for donating fuel gift vouchers that are given out to our crash boats
3) Our wonderful crashboat fleet - whether official or unofficial - we thank you for helping making this race possible - without you - we could not hold the race due to safety concerns . A big thank you to Jonny White - the crash boat captain who manages to organise everything and people.
4) Our caterer - Kirk Wilks of Wilks Catering - a big thank you for providing much needed sustenance at the end of a day of being out on the water!!! You support us with that and the decent price!!!
5) Sara Lewter for doing the music to get the people dancing - there was a little bit yesterday - but in general - great music as background to make it a festive event.
6) Luis Martins and Tim Southern of Fast Forward for absorbing our freight costs for the TShirts - Tim made it to race this year!!!! Yay!
Lastly - the committee of Corry Kowalchuk, Stephen Roberts, Michael Bean, Brian Lightbourn and John Russell - there is a lot to organise prior to the event; aside from the generation of the shirts etc - there is chasing up of trophies, finding prizes from local businesses/restaurants to supplement the prizes from Heineken; ensuring people are in the right classes; and calling the race on weather!!! we work well!!!
Thanks also to Shawn Burgess for being my help and supporter on race day - helping to start the races and checking which boats go out; checking people back in - he can recognise people in boats that I certainly don't!!!!!!
Now to the race report
The weather was kinder to us than the last 2 years - instead of plastic bags to protect you from the rain and wind - sunshirts etc were needed. The 8-12k winds coming from the SE made south shore "sloppy" ( the description I was told!!) (Nasty could be another one)
We lost a couple of boats due to the change to the rain date - but of the 49 boats that were signed up to do the race on the day:
25 finished - 9 DNS - 13 DNF - 2 DNC
Not all the DNF were south shore related - several were because of "electrical failure" early on in the course or fuel pump issues - one person had their fuel pump fall overboard - that would do it!.
JJ Soares was the 1st boat to break down - on return - he managed to fix the issue - and apparently went out again - I don't think he did the course - but hope that he and his crew at least had a good time out on the water.
There were a few racers whose engine would not start - so swopped them for other outboards and also went out.
The first "bad" call I had was from Martin Dixon a crash boat - saying he had obviously run over a thick net of some kind - and it has stopped the engine - so we almost needed a crashboat for a crashboat. He ended up getting a tow from the CoastGuard - so hopefully the engine is OK.
The second and last bad call I got was that Cheeky Lips driven by Glenn Clinton and Alan Powell (who had come back to the island specifically to race) were hit by a rogue wave somewhere on south shore which turned them turtle. Luckily - a boat was close by (some random stranger) - and rescued them, the boat, the engine and quite a lot of their stuff. They are OK - probably a bit bruised but - in general - safe. (Bar Alan's phone which sunk....) Glad there was someone close by.
We had a late entry of newbies Conor Outerbridge and his girlfriend Haley - they went out in a punt type boat - and they did not have a line to the fuel tank from the petrol tank; so they had to keep stopping to refill the tank!!! Their enthusiasm was awesome to see - but we did tell the crashboats to watch over them as we were a little concerned about their safety and ability to complete the course. Needless to say - Michael Bean picked them up and towed them back - there was no way they were going to make it to south shore like that!!!! He said that they were laughing the whole way back - so next year Conor and Haley - plan a little further in advance than the night before - get a decent boat - and ensure you can feed your fuel tank fuel to take you around. Hopefully see you next year!!!!
Mandy Lohan was very proud (as she should be) of her 13 year old son Finn - who captained Sea Ya around the island. He won the prize for best performance as a novice - hopefully he is getting hooked on racing like his mother was/is!!!!
Record breaking - Kenny Matthie and "In Living Memory" broke their own record set last year of 2 hours 12 minutes for an Unlimited seagull engine - with a new record time of 2 hours 4 minutes!!!! Congratulations.
There is one change to the prize listing - we were told later in the evening after the prizes had been given out that Miles to Go in fact had to cut through Castle Harbour as they had a hole and engine issues - so needed to get home. This means In De Red - captained by Alex Brogden gets 1st in the class - (Michael Bean has the 1st prize for you - so please contact him to collect it 337-2325)
Save the dates - next year 15th June 2024 - rain date 22 June at Sandys Point Club. Sign up will be at Spanish Point Boat club - 5th June 2024
See you all then - and hopefully we will have more entries and successful completions of the course next year!!!! I think that working on engines and boats a week before the race is cutting it a little fine!!! Allow at least a month!!!!
Thank you all again yourselves for making this an awesome event. See you next year
All the best
Martine
I will look for more pictures and add them later...