DOUBLE-HANDED LEG NOTES

6/28 1600 - The Awards for the Newport end of the race were held with about 50 people in attendance. Double Handed leg, Combined Corrected and specific awards were given. The highlight of the event was Louis Meyer taking home the Seamanship Award, Juan A Periz Bermuda 12- Sportsmanship Award (nominated by the skippers) and the Arthur B Hanson Medal by US SAILING for rescue at sea during the first leg of the race. Scowling Dragon being first boat to finish in Newport won a number of awards as well as first time entrant Groupe 5 Will McKeige took home a group of awards. Joe Cooper took a bunch of pictures of the awards being given. Those pictures as well as the rest from this year's race are posted in the Photo Gallery.
I would like to thank all the participants in this year's race for making this year's race another memorable one.

6/26 1500 The final results for the 2025 edition of the race are posted.

6/26 1230 Strummer called (with a different cell phone). They were becalmed a couple of days ago, broken head, broken cook top, Louis' iPhone bit the dust, couldn't communicate so they decided to retire. Also being today's wedding anniversary might have played a role in the decision. Anyway, all is well and they are in Stonington Harbor. They will be going to the Awards.

6/26 0925 Windswept finish. Last boat to finish.

6/26 0600 Windswept We are doing 8 knots over the ground with 25 miles to go. Mr. Computer says 3 hours to R2.
Strummer looks like he is headed home to Connecticut.

6/25 1816 Windswept Well, just after writing you, the wind has gone to zero. I believe it is part of the predicted change from West to East, but now there is zilch! What we do have is a giant swarm of biting flies that seem to have come from Matha's Vinyard. Having no insect spray, we are battling them with simple green! We are considering abandoning ship in the life raft.  These suckers are biting us through our clothing!

6/25 1532 Fathom finished. Fathom had to be towed again this time into the Newport Yacht Club. That lightning strike has been quite the issue for Fathom.
Windswept We should be finishing early tomorrow morning. It all depends on the wind of course. Right now, we can hold Newport on this tack. I should be within telephone range by about 20:00 and will text you when I am.

6/25 0700 Windswept We just passed the 100 mile mark. The wind is steady from the SW at about 10 knots. See you all soon.

6/25 0232 Chicama finished. Next boat Fathom due in about 1300.

6/24 2018 Flying Turtle finished.
Fathom called. Two days ago he tried the motor and ran it for an hour but it wouldn't shut down! Also the Irridium Go doesn't seem to be working. More lightning gremlins.

6/24 1900 Chicama All good on chicama. Great ride today nice friendly breeze. We are 58nm away from finish line. Our current ETA is 3am. Hope to see u at the line!! Right!!

6/24 1614 Windswept This has been a good day.  Finally some wind that we can work with! We are sailing along with a 10 knot SW breeze making about 6 knots through the water and for the first time in days, we have a favorable current. We are approximately 190 miles from the finish.  If nothing changes, and it undoubtedly will, we should get in around midnight on Wednesday. The seas are flat due to the recent lack of wind, so it is some very pleasant sailing. We are down to our last couple of cans of Dinty Moore, so we really need to finish in the next day or so.
Flying Turtle expected to finish around 8pm.

6/24 Noon Windswept It is Tuesday noon.  We are making about 3 knots over the ground with a following 5-6 knot breeze.  We should break 200 miles to go by mid afternoon.

6/24 1018 Young American finished.
Fathom earlier was floundering due to lack of wind but is moving again.

6/23 2218 Abilyn finished.

6/23 2045 Chicama Wind 7.5 going 5.5. All is good on chicama. Moral is super high, 1022 to be exact.
2047 Alchemy finished.

6/23 1845 Groupe 5 finish.
Fathom called. Real slow going. Waiting for the evening wind pickup.

6/23 0700 Windswept Boat and Crew are fine. Very rough conditions, double reefed main and jib. Doing 6.6 to 7 knots through the water, 2.5 to 4 over the bottom. Wind SW up to 22 knots in gusts. Very lumpy seas. SOG and VMG have been improving over the past four to six hours. Hope to exit stream this afternoon. Full cloud cover but no rain. More when conditions improve.
Groupe 5 Trying to get in for dinner but still some sloppy waves so we’ll see
Young American All good on YA.
Chicama All good on Chicama. We had an amazing Sail all night. Very little sea. Perfect A3 conditions.
Alchemy All good on Alchemy

6/22 1900 Windswept All is well aboard Windswept. We are enjoying a light SW breeze with a very calm sea state and blue skies. It would be perfect sailing if we were making a bit more progress towards the finish line! We should be passing through the GS later tonight.
Chicama All good on chicama. After challenging conditions all day we finally got enough air to beat the Gulf Stream

6/22 1038 Scowling Dragon just finished doing 14 knots. Next to finish is a group of three boats in about 28 hours: Groupe 5, Alchemy, Abilyn.

6/22 0800 - Windswept Beautiful sunrise over a calm ocean this morning. Fish and birds are all around. Big fish chase small fish out of the water and the birds try to grab the small fish. Big fish look like some sort of bill fish, small marlin perhaps. Maybe I will get out my fishing pole. The boat is finally moving. A nice SW breeze is filling in, currently about 8 knots. This calm spell cost us at least 18 hours :(. Hopefully the wind holds. If so, we will be able to get back on course and reach the GS by sunset. Keep you fingers crossed. The barometer continues to rise which is a bit concerning.
Chicama All good on chicama. Slow early morning. Roy, I must have missed a txt.
Young American All good on Young American. Gulf Stream might take us to England at this rate. Transat boats might have some competition.
Groupe 5 All good on g5
Abilyn I’ll jump in too. All good on Abilyn. Moving fast in the right direction.
Alchemy Good on Alchemy also

6/22 0002 - Tony texted me that the Norwegin Jewel cruise ship took good care of him and he is fine now. He is flying home today.

6/21 2015 - Windswept We are moving again after about 14 hours of calm winds. We have a very light (5 knot) westerly and are making about 2 knots over the ground. Unlike several false starts today, this one feels real.
Fathom called, all is well and moving.

6/21 1600 - Windswept Howdy, No wind nor hints of wind! I did get the roller furler repaired. The calm weather was appreciated as I was leaning out over the bow drilling holes and handling small, irreplaceable parts! Now I am anxious to get the show on the road again. I managed to download GRIB files over Sailmail. Of course, they proved to be totally inaccurate as Grib files tend to be. Just a waiting game at this end. Later.
Chicama All good on chicama. Trying out all the sails today. Nothing really fit well!

6/21 1300 - Humble Pi - Tony Leigh has been taken off Humble Pi by a Cruise Ship for a medical procedure. Brian will be heading back to Annapolis.
Alchemy All well on Alchemy in light winds in the Gulf Stream.

6/21 1245 - II Tender Hi Roy - shredded my light air foresail in the squally stuff. Unfortunately a lot of stitching and gluing on new fibre just created Frankensail, which couldn’t hold a shape. Have made the difficult decision to retire from the race. All well otherwise, see you back in Newport.
Abilyn Day 3 message: Light air and loving it. Abilyn doing 5 knots BSP in 4.5 knots of breeze.

6/21 0930 - Humble Pi Flat as a mill pond out here, 0-3 knots of wind and counter current. We're motoring at 6 knots.

6/21 0700 - Strummer All good on Strummer winds lighter and seas down. Now slow but comfortable. - louis meyer
Alchemy All good on Alchemy
Scowling Dragon Yeah we had gusts to 35 yesterday afternoon, the wind dropped pretty quickly after we passed the front. All good here this morning. Well and truly out of the stream so seastate is nicer and have decent pressure.
Windswept Good Morning, Rough night of thunderstorms, confused seas, and gusty winds have given way to a very light NE wind of 2-5 knots. The left over swell makes maintaining headway, particularly in the desired direction very difficult. The tack point on the roller furler failed sometime during the evening resulting in severe strain to the jib bolt rope.  This has been temporarily repaired with a lashing.  A more permanent work around is being considered. After all, I need to make some use of the 100 pounds of tools that I lug around. For now, we are waiting for a favor from Aeolis! Rick
Young American All good on YA
Abilyn All good here.
Humble Pi has retired but they are doing OK.
Alchemy All well on Alchemy except that there’s no wind as predicted.

6/20 1900 - Strummer All good on Strummer but hard on the wind since we left and very tiring. - louis meyer
II Tender . Just checking in. All good and getting ready to come into the stream in a few hours. Wind 18 knots from 250, had the kite up to blast north but now down to jib to make course. Hoping to use the light airs tomorrow for some sail and running gear repairs.
Chicama All good on chicama. Good evening. Nice day of sailing chicama. Seas have been a challenge for the last 3-4 hours
Abilyn Same (refers to Chicama). Making things even more challenging for us was keeping the big no 1 genoa up all day even in breeze as high as 21 knots. We knew it would only last a few hours and had to suck it up. Breeze down to 13 knots now.
Scowling Dragon All good here on scowling dragon, it's been a pretty full on day with gusts up to 35kts as we approached the front. Past it now and sea state and wind has moderated massively, pretty calm upwind sailing across the stream now.
Young American All good on YA

6/20 0700 - Humble Pi All is well. As you can see from yellow brick, the group is pretty close together. Josh is on us like he’s taped to our transom. The stalking has gotten so bad that Tony issued restraining order. It would be great if this wind lasted another three days. But alas, all good things must end. Have a great flight home.
Strummer All good on Strummer - louis meyer
Scowling Dragon Couldn't hear anyone else on the radio this morning. All good here on the scowling dragon
Fathom called to say he bailed out of east of the Rhumb Line and is now west of it. Nice 12 kts, nice seas and moving right along at just under 7 kts.
Abilyn In response to Brian’s post, Neptune has denied humble pi’s request for a restraining order and allowed me to pass :-)
Windswept Clear skies, diminishing waves. The wind has shifted to the SW and lightened to about 12 knots true.
All is well with vessel and crew. Still carrying a favorable current. Making an occasional 7.8 knots over the ground.
No other boats seen or heard on VHF 72. Rick

6/19 1900 - Strummer All good on Strummer. Auto pilot now working - louis meyer.
Chicama All good on chicama. Took a more conservative approach to start. Enjoying the nice 11-12knts breeze.
Abilyn We be illin’ here on Abilyn.
Humble Pi Tony did the radio rounds for class 1 and 2. In case they don’t get a txt out to you, humble pi, alchemy, chicama, scowling dragon, and groupe 5 were on station and chatted. I separately reached out to young American but didn’t hear back. Great sunset out here tonight.
Dragon Everything all good on Dragon. A little more breeze left than forecast. Happy and cruising right along. Talked with Humble Pi. They confirmed that the sea temperature is not 31 degrees C unlike our instruments say. Something funny on board. Heard chatter between Humble Pi, Alchemy, Abilyn, Groupe 5 and they are all good. Just settling in for the evening and hope the breeze holds.
Windswept Hello all; It has been a glorious day of sailing, The wind is West at 12-16 knots.  The sea state is manageable. Just had diner of brown rice with a can of vegtable soup thrown in for good measure. Chicama was the last AIS signal that we saw. She flickered out about half an hour ago, some 8 miles ahead. We are cranking along at about 6.5 knots which is decent for Windswept.  Fathom is a bit to windward of us and Strummer is a little behind. We are healed over enough to make writing this a bit tough, so I will wrap it up. Good night, Rick
II Tender Approaching dusk over the ocean so checking in. Comfortable first day reaching a little, with 10-13 knots from 270 and orderly sea. Lost some time de-powered while fixing a spliced furler, but now all set and turning to think of approach for the night. That can wait until after dinne. R Hamilton Kelly
Young American All good on YA

6/19 0800 - A few of us had breakfast put on by Brenda and Ell
1200 - Class 1 started some under spinnaker. Classes 2 & 3 started together at 1210 with screaming coming from Abilyn. Alan Oatley drove Eric and I out to the starting line as the Race Committee Boat. They had a nice NW wind 10-15, lighter in the harbour and especially in the Cut. Once out of the Cut the winds nicely picked up out of the NW. Some boats were under spinnaker. Alan drove us out past the Cut to see some of the boats. I beleive there were people on the shore at the Cut which should have been a nice spot for picture taking. The can be followed on the webrowser verion of ybTracking or the app on both Apple and Android phones.
12 boats started. We picked up II Tender for this leg and obioiusly lost Mini829 (which for now can still be seen on the traker page.