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Conditions Adjustment to Marion Bermuda Race Scoring
The ORR handicapping system assumes that the wind will blow at a certain strength from varying angles for the duration of the race. Individual yacht’s polars then define how fast she should sail the course and the fleet is ranked against a fictional ‘scratch boat’. This assumption is ‘challenged’ by a variety of race specific climatic and oceanographic conditions. Ocean races of long duration will typically experience these varied conditions. Whether it is wind deflection and strength between inshore and offshore positions, the crossing of a known directional current or the historical location of a high pressure gradient, the likelihood of predictable conditions for an entire race is little to none. Because of these differences, the Marion Bermuda Race is attempting to take one of these conditions that has shown itself to be a real and consistent detriment to what one might feel is a fair race based solely on a boats handicap and include another factor that adjusts across the fleet. In the case of the Marion Bermuda Race (or any race to Bermuda) it is the Bermuda high pressure gradient.
Cordelia - Racing with Roy and Gail
by Talbot Wilson
Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club (RHADC) BERMUDA, June 20, 2019: What’s it like racing offshore with Roy and Gail Greenwald on Cordelia, the overall winner of the 2019 Marion Bermuda Race? In a champagne cork-popping get-together in the cockpit of the 42 foot Valiant double ender, crewmate Daniel Begg pegged it.
“Awe, Man!" Begg quipped, “It’s just a lot of fun. They do a lot of work. They are really dedicated. It’s just an honor to watch it in motion, to be a part of it wherever you can and take direction when needed. Stay quiet and watch them dance.”
(Laughter from the the Greenwalds and Dana Oviatt, Cordelia’s other crew member)
“I’m serious,” Begg says. “They work very well together. They have their roles. They stick to it. They trust each other and they trust us. It’s awesome.”
Roy Greenwald added, “We’ve put 40,000 miles on Cordelia. We’ve been across both oceans so we kinda know the boat.”
Roy is skipper and Gail is navigator. Of their roles in the dance Roy says, “I make the boat go fast. Gail tells me where to go.”
Cordelia wins overall, Gosling Founders Trophy
by Talbot Wilson
Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club (RHADC) BERMUDA, June 19, 2019: Roy and Gail Greenwald’s Valiant 42 Cordelia has finished first in fleet on corrected time in the 2019 Marion Bermuda Race. She will win the Goslings Founders Trophy. The Greenwalds sail out of Mairon MA. Cordelia is also the Class D winner.
Among other prizes, Cordelia will win the coveted Beverly Yacht Club ‘Polaris Trophy’ as the best celestially navigated yacht. Gail Greenwald will win the ‘Navigators Trophy’.
Roy Greenwald - husband and skipper - said (with a smile), “I make the boat go fast and she tells me where to go.”
On Tuesday, Mark Riley’s Kiwi Spirit, skippered by 18-year-old Jo Riley earned line honors as the leader from start to finish in the 2019 Marion Bermuda Race. The Farr 63 finished off St. David’s Lighthouse at 2:27:59 Tuesday.
Marion Bermuda Handicap Adjustment Introduced
Marion MA, May 21, 2019: When the 2019 Marion Bermuda Race starts June 14, the Founders Division boats will be sailing under a unique, new “anti-bias” adjustment of the ORR handicap system. The adjustment designed by race organizers in collaboration with the Offshore Racing Association (ORA) should remove the bias against faster boats by eliminating the “Parking Lot” effect.
The "Parking Lot Effect" is the bias which occurs when faster boats lose time against slower boats in low-wind or no-wind conditions that are usually experienced south of the Gulf Stream and north of Bermuda and often as evening falls on boats at the mouth of Buzzards Bay.
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