New York to Bermuda Record To Be Challenged
May 12, 2010 · 1 Comment
American Chuck Arnold will be setting off from New York, racing to Bermuda in a bid to break the current New York-Bermuda crossing record, which stands at 29 hours, 30 minutes. It will be Mr. Arnold’s first time racing to Bermuda, as well as his first trip to Bermuda in any capacity.
Presently he, and the boat, are in Miami where they are preparing for the run. Mr Arnold told us the schedule for the race is not precisely set yet, however the way things are looking he estimates it will occur in mid-end June.
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Mr Arnold is the Northeast Sales Manager for Contender Boats, and will be taking off from Manhattan in a stepped-hull version of the new Contender 37 center console fishing boat. The Contender 37, which will be powered by three Yamaha 350-hp four-stroke outboards, will carry three underwater cameras and four above-deck cameras to record the action. The boat also will have a trackable GPS system to continually feed live position data via satellite to monitor Mr Arnold’s progress offshore.
Edward A. Winder, one of three passengers accompanying Arnold on the run said:
Chuck Arnold, who is a well-known and respected industry pro, came to me with some tough parameters for his upcoming adventure. He plans to run his boat at 44 knots from the Statue of Liberty to Bermuda – nonstop!! The boat, the three people in it and the navigational system all will be tested to their capable limits, and there will be little room for error.
The flying distance from New York to Bermuda is 1245 kilometers, or 773 miles, which equates to 672 nautical miles.
It is my understanding that the current Bermuda Challenge record of 22 hours and 23 minutes was achieved in July 2002 in a Renaissance Marine Prowler 306 catamaran run by Neil Burnie (Bermuda owner) and Bill Ratlieff (the boat’s builder). They started out on 17 July 2002 from Liberty Landing Marina, New Jersey, which is about a mile north of the Statue of Liberty (which I understand is the starting point). The 29 hours and 30 minutes record refers to the July 1999 run done by Forrest Munden (CEO of World Cat), Del Lippert and Matt Connery using a World Cat 266 SF.
If Arnold’s team can maintain an average velocity of 44 knots it will not matter whether the record is the time from 1999 or 2002 because it should only take them about 15.5 hours to cover the 678 nautical miles!