IslandStats.com - Bermuda Sports Online

Where will you be a short month from now to celebrate Summer Sailstice? Smart, adventurous, fun-loving sailors along with their friends and families will be at the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club in the sunny isles of Bermuda.

The Marion Bermuda Race starts June 14 and the prizes are given out at the Dinghy Club on June 22, the Summer Solstice. Then the gala dinner party starts. It is the finale to an exciting 645-mile cruising yacht race to Bermuda, where everyone will enjoy days of great Bermuda activities and be able to explore one of sailing’s finest destinations. For details go to http://www.marionbermuda.com/index.php?page=bfamily .

Summer Sailstice was founded in 2001 by John Arndt, as the global, annual celebration of sailing held on the summer solstice. The annual Summer Sailstice sailing event is free to all participants and has grown from 200 boats signed up in 2001 to almost 5,000 boats today.

Since many sailors join in the fun on many different boats, the actual number of Summer Sailstice sailors participating is estimated at almost 19,000 annually. Some 1500 of them will be in Bermuda at the RHADC celebrating Sailing as their passion.

In joining with Sailors for the Sea, Summer Sailstice < http://www.summersailstice.com/ > strives to inform and mobilize sailors, their families and communities to enjoy and conserve the beauty of the oceans and while raising awareness of human impacts on the fragile marine environment and wildlife.

Come for the race and stay for the fun. It starts at St David’s Lighthouse in Bermuda on Monday June 17, as friends and family wait for their yachties to reach the island. While enjoying a famous Goslings Dark ‘n Stormy and spectacular Bermuda fish chowder, guests at the finish line tower might just witness the first boats approach Bermuda the finish at this historic location. Traditionally the Lighthouse Party is for race committee and volunteers, but this year all early race guests are graciously invited. Anyone agile enough may climb the tower and sight the finish line.

Traditional afternoon tea at 4PM with Margaret Fergusson, wife of His Excellency the Governor of Bermuda begins the week’s activities at the clubhouse on Hamilton Harbour. Tuesday it’s a fashion show luncheon, beachwear to flashy eveningwear. Where that show ends, the rum tasting begins with tasting and sippin’ some of Goslings’ finest. Thursday Fishcake King Dale Butler gives a cooking demonstration of the daily lunch special — Bermuda Fishcakes. That evening it’s a Pig Roast by the water, a dance with the Gombeys to the cool sounds of the Steel Drums, and cold refreshments under the Stars.

Friday’s activities turn physical and chancy. Start with Cricket lessons with a first hand, and light-hearted look at Bermuda's other National Sport (sailing comes first). The coach is former National Cricket Team Star batsman, Allen Richardson. Then, after lunch at the club, attention turns to the water for the ALL NEW Friends & Family Race. Enter in a random team J105 regatta around Hamilton Harbour or try your hand at the newest sailing sensation: the O'pen Bic!