Sunday 22-May-2005 was the start of the New York Yacht Club's Transatlantic Challenge race. I was invited to watch the start by Skip, with whom I race on Vamp, the J-44. Vamp's skipper Lenny and regular navigator AJ were racing in the Transatlantic Challenge as part of the crew of the Storm Trysail's entry, the chartered three-masted schooner Stad Amsterdam.

Watching the start of the race from Skip's motor yacht Laborador were Claudia K., our Vamp teammates Heather D. & Franz R., and AJ's parents. We watched the parade of sail from Manhattan down the Hudson River to the start at Ambrose Light Tower, then the start itself.

Text copied from www.NYYC.org: The Rolex Transatlantic Challenge was the latest in a series of transatlantic yacht races run by the New York Yacht Club dating back to 1866. The 2005 event was special, representing, almost to the day, the centenary of Charlie Barr’s magnificent win at the helm of Wilson Marshall’s 185-foot (56.4m) three-masted schooner Atlantic in the 1905 race for the Kaiser’s Cup. During this race, Barr set a record from New York to the Lizard, a headland on England’s south Cornish coast, of 12 days 4 hours 1 minute and 19 seconds. Although various boats had bettered this time during a passage record, leaving whenever the weather looked best, in 100 years Atlantic’s time had never been beaten during an official race. Whereas the New York Yacht Club’s 1997 transatlantic race saw a number of giant modern classics such as Adela and Adix compete, the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge was open to a more eclectic mix of yachts of 70+feet.

There were 50 or so members (and spouses) of the Storm Trysail Club (www.StormTrysail.org) who chartered the Stad Amsterdam. She was by far the largest (and completely provisioned) vessel in the fleet of 21 yachts. Her passage was sponsored by both Mt. Gay Rum and also Heineken Beer. Apparently she carried two cooks and four bartenders ... we can safely assume that nobody suffered from thirst. Since I knew five members of that boat's company many of my pictures are of her. However, I carried more than sufficient digital film with me that day and knew folks on at least four other boats so I took a LOT of pics. I hope the viewer won't think too many!

The headliners entered in the race were to me the fastest and most modern racing machines: the 140' schooner Mari-Cha, the brand new 100' canting keel Maximus, Mike Slade's 98' Leopard, and Joe Dockery's 81' Carrera. The race was split into divisions: racing, racer-cruiser, classic, and spirit of tradition. Every entry in the race was an impressive boat. It was funny that the smallest entry, the beautiful 70' Swan Stay Calm, was dwarfed by boats more than a hundred feet longer.

These pics I posted remain my property. These are lower resolution versions here but I have the original files, which I will freely share for non-commercial purposes. I'll share those originals for commercial purposes as well, but not freely. Send me an email: Rando@Needhams.us.

Fair winds!