Part 2: 2018 Newport Bermuda Race

We continue to follow Chris Cannon as he prepares for the 2018 Newport Bermuda race.  This is the second update on his preparations. Here he considers the crew for this race.

Although it was an off year for the Bermuda race, 2017 was not a year to rest on his laurels, so Cannon decided to test Verissmo and his crew by participating in the Marblehead Halifax Ocean Race (MHOR) in July and the Conanicut Yacht Club Around the Island Race around Conanicut Island in Narraganset Bay in September.  Indeed, they were on a roll! Verissimo took best corrected time in the ORR Class 2 in the MHOR (Landfall Navigation is one of the sponsors for this race) and 1^st in the Conanicut race.

The Marblehead Halifax Race is important to Cannon, who believes the race helps him and his crew maintain an edge between Bermuda races.  MHOR began in 1905, actually a year before the Newport Bermuda Race.  It is a very challenging 363 mile race, combining both coastal and ocean seamanship skills.  A skipper crossing the Gulf of Maine to Brazil Rock off the tip of Nova Scotia needs to take into account the tidal effect from the Bay of Fundy (one of the largest tides in the world!) and then race up the coast to Halifax, inevitably encountering fog along the way.  The race is a true test of seamanship for skipper and crew. The 2017 MHOR was especially exciting as they flew their asymmetrical kite 47 of the 48 hours of the race!

These races were opportunities for the full crew to work together in the similar conditions (the September race began in 25-30 knot winds) to what they may see in this year’s Bermuda Race.  Cannon sails with a crew of 14.  The “co-ed” crew ages range from 31 to 73 years old, or as he likes to put it “a nice combination of AARPs (8-9) and Millennials (5-6)”.  They are divided into two watches, each comprising six crew members with the navigator and a floater filling where needed.  Each watch stands four hours on between 0800-2000 and three hours on between 2000-0800.

The crew all have their ISAF rating ( not to be confused with another group beginning with IS) made up of eleven Group 1 and three Group 3 sailors.  This means that Verissimo will be driven almost equally between the millennials and the AARPs since only Group 1 are allowed to drive in this race.  It is vital to keep refining the crew’s steering skills; “you want your best drivers on in light air”, Cannon commented.  “If you stall out it can be very difficult to jump start 30 tons of yacht in 4-5 knots of breeze. So more challenging races present an occasion to get different hands on the wheel in order to build experience and confidence.

Cannon needs to make sure his crew have maintained their safety certifications.  For example, the 2018 Bermuda race requires a crew of 14 to have at least 5 members, including the captain, navigator, and watch captains, to have attended a qualified Safety at Sea Seminar in the past two years.  Because he is so keen on safety, this year at least 13 of the crew of 14 have their current SAS certificates.  In addition, two crew members need to have a valid World Sailing approved Offshore Personal Survival Course certificate.

Cannon relies on his experience in managing and evaluating people gained during his very successful business career. He looks for crew members who have talent and have shown how they can work together.  He relies on input from key players, including watch captains, tacticians, and navigator to help evaluate the potential team that will compete.  By Christmas the 2018 crew is in place.  This year Chris will again have his daughter, Caroline, aboard for their second Bermuda race together.  Also returning will be Navigator, Dr. Robert Ranzenbach, and Co-Tacticians, Dave Flynn and Mike Keyworth. When asked what he thought about the personality of this year’s crew, Cannon said “this occasion to bond and banter is probably the one of the most important memories we’ll take away from this race”.

Next time we will talk about maintenance and repairs to Verissmo before she splashes in late May.

This entry was posted on March 4, 2020 by James Frayer.