Charleston Sailing Race: Falcor Finishes First
[Updated - Falcor crosses the line first]
The Charleston to Bermuda Yacht Race — with its very small fleet of 3 yachts this year — is approaching Bermuda after leaving Charleston Wednesday and Friday of last week.
Providing the wind holds, this could be a fairly fast race with the first vessel only 60 miles off Bermuda as of this writing. That yacht, Falcor, is a trimaran hull which was expected to accomplish line honours.
The race for 2nd place finish is now be between 49ft Halcyon, which left Charleston two days ahead and Azura, a 56ft Swan skippered by Race Committee Chair Jamie Walker. Whether the larger and faster Swan can catch Halcyon remains to be seen.
While this fleet is the smallest since the race began, the new organizing committee, which took control of the administration at the very last minute, plan a major two year push to boost participation in 2015, but was determined to have this race go on, so as not to lose momentum.
The host club for the Race is the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, and the yachts can be tracked online here.
The 777-mile ocean race is traditionally held every two years.
Update 11.01pm: The Falcor has crossed the line and arrived at the Customs dock in St George’s at around 10.30pm this evening.
The tired, and rather hungry crew were pleased to arrive in Bermuda, with one of the sailors greeted by his girlfriend who flew in from the United States to join him. The listed crew for the 44ft Falcor is Steven Gross [owner], Kevin Hawco, Jerry Innella and Alan Bossenger.
According to the race tracker as of 11pm, Halcyon is 59 nautical miles away from Bermuda, while Azura is 74 nautical miles.
