Save These Dates for 2012 Skipper's Meeting - November 7th Race Starts - November 8th Awards Ceremony - November 10th

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Recent Race News:

Check out the photos at the finish courtesy of Robert Dunkley.
Additional photos can also be viewed here.

Nov. 21, 2011
2011 Nassau Cup Race Recap
A great regatta!

Sixteen boats hit the starting line right on time and had a spectacular ride all the way to Nassau Harbor.  At the conclusion of the festivities in Nassau the race committee was told to produce the EXACT same breeze velocity & direction, smooth seas AND full moon for next year’s race!  

All but one yacht finished in the daylight (DENALI finished at 4:28 in the morning!) and was welcomed with bright smiles and quick easy clearance through Customs into the Nassau Harbor.

Half of all competitors finished with two hours of one another which lead to exciting side by side racing for the entire 176 mile race.  Michael D’Amelio’s DENALI (KER 55) won the competitive IRC Class and Nassau Cup Trophy.  The PHRF Classes were won by Frank Atkinson’s DIFFERENT DRUMMER (Cape Bay Fast 40) and David Bond’s LOKI (J-105) with DIFFERENT DRUMMER garnering the PHRF fleet honors and the Arthur Bosworth Trophy by less than 19 minutes.

There was an award for Best Finish by a Bahamian which was presented to Lenjohn Van Der Wel on Ocean Warrior.

2011 Nassau Cup Winner - Denali

Complete results can be found here.

After an afternoons rest, most crews joined one another for drinks and a buffet at the Yacht Club on Friday night and then proceeded to “Crazy Johnnie’s” for some lively entertainment. Saturday brought beautiful cool (70 degree) weather and we had a mid-day get together and J-22 Match Race Championship. Eight star studded teams competed - all but one of which were manned by competitors from the Ocean Race.  The Lana Team (represented by Eamonn deLisser, Tim Banks and Patty Amaducci) placed first with three wins. The entire afternoon was great fun.  The prizes were beautiful native Bahamian wood plaques with the Nassau Cup Race logo burned into the wood.

Dignitaries from Nassau, including the representative for the Ministery of Tourism Tyrone Sawyer were present through the festivities and were very pleased with the turnout and pledged to continue helping make the race grow.  A very nice buffet and open bar with plenty of Mt Gay rum continued well into the night with approximately 180 in attendance for the prize giving.  RC representative Paul Hutton awarded the J-22 trophies Chairwoman Carol Ewing and John Lawrence the Nassau Cup Race awards.  She thanked both the Nassau Yacht Club for their support and hospitality as well as the other club sponsors - Coral Reef Yacht Club, Lauderdale Yacht Club and the Storm Trysail Club for their involvement and acknowledged SORC’s continuing efforts to expand this great ocean race.

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Since 1934, some of the best offshore sailors in the world have battled for the prestigious Miami to Nassau Cup, including Ted Turner, Dennis Conner, Dick Bertram, and Ted Hood, aboard legendary boats like Running Tide, Windward Passage, Tenacious, and Boomerang.  Half a generation after World War II forced a short intermission, the race became part of the fabled Southern Ocean Racing Conference in the 1980s until the series’ dissolution in the 1980s.  Building on the race’s welcome rebirth in 2003, the new SORC, a group of race-veteran race managers, announced its management of the Nassau Cup Race in 2010. 

Starting in South Florida, racers leave Great Isaacs Light to starboard and proceed past Great Stirrup Light, finally finishing at Nassau harbor. The current course record is held by George S. Coumantaros on the yacht Boomerang with an elapsed time of 14 hours, 26 minutes and 39 seconds in 1986.  Today’s modern boats just need the right conditions to claim this legendary prize, and racers of all types will enjoy the navigational and crew challenge of the race across the Gulf Stream. 

For a list of past winners of the Miami-Nassau Cup Race, click here. 

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