‘TI’ skippered by Greg Marston can now be confirmed as the overall winner of the 2015 Marion Bermuda Race Founders Division. As expected yesterday, the leader for the overall corrected time trophy— The Founders Trophy— moved from Class C to Class D when ‘TI’, grabbed the lead for the big prize. Her corrected time was 86 hours 35 minutes and 56 seconds, reports Talbot Wilson.
The crew of ‘TI’ consisted of the skipper Greg Marston, navigators Andrew Howe and Chase Marston, Watch Captain Peter Snoops, and crew members John Omeara and Jake Marston. They are all related, and all are from Falmouth Maine.
On Monday, ‘Mischievous’ sailing for the Massachusetts Maritime Academy grabbed line honors in the 2015 Marion Bermuda Race with a splendid performance.
‘Spirit of Bermuda’, the Bermuda Sloop Foundation’s sail training vessel chartered by Jim Butterfield for an employee team building adventure, had a strong fourth for line honors and first in the Classic Division. This is her best showing ever in a Bermuda Ocean Race by ‘Spirit of Bermuda’.
Gale Force Winds Hit Fleet
Much of the dock talk among sailors was about the heavy weather they experienced in the heart of Gulf Stream and along the North wall.
Laurie Fullerton talked with several sailors - Carol Harrington on 'Icebear' “It was about 1700 hours and we were at LAT LONG 38 West 39 North when the winds went from 30 to 50 knots just like that. My son was on deck as we tried to get the double-reefed mainsail down when suddenly we broached.
The boat quickly righted itself but it was a frightening moment. When the 40 knots went to 55 knots, we tried to get the main down and the boat broached. We were emotionally frozen and the noise was overwhelming.
The rain was horizontal, the sea became a grey steam. I was scared. My son was on deck. But, when it was over we just bare-poled it for about an hour and collected ourselves. We lost a lot of time and are disappointed as we had been sailing so well.”
John O’Meara on 'TI' said, “On Sunday afternoon we had what seemed like 10 squalls in a row. We had a double-reefed main and a reefed foresail. But, overall Sunday was the day from hell in the Gulf Stream. We had 15-foot waves, and they were relentless. What was unbelievable was our celestial navigator still performed beautifully through all that weather.”
Greg Marston on 'TI' said, “We were prepared in that we knew we were going to get it. I feel that we did everything we could to get ready for it. When the squalls hit, we just dealt with it.”
All of the positions are preliminary.
Three boats have not finished yet but are expected to finish sometime Thursday.
