Newport Bermuda Race

Newport Bermuda Race
DateStarts Biennally on the Third Friday in June
LocationNewport, RI
Event typeOcean Racing
Distance635 nautical miles
Primary sponsorBermuda
Established1906, 118 years ago
Course records33 hours (2022) and
Official sitebermudarace.com

The Newport Bermuda Race, commonly known as the Bermuda Race, is a biennial, 635 nautical miles (1175 km) sailing yacht race from Newport, Rhode Island to the British island of Bermuda. The Race is the oldest regularly scheduled ocean race in the world, and one of two regularly scheduled races "held almost entirely out of sight of land."[1] The race is particularly popular among current and retired members of the United States Coast Guard, who regularly make up significant portions of the participants. [2]

Indian Harbor Yacht Club has recorded more entries in the Newport Bermuda Race than any other yacht club in the world.[3]

In a typical race, the fleet enters the Atlantic and the Gulf Stream, with rough water, giving the race its nickname, "The Thrash to the Onion Patch."[4] Once through the rough Gulf Stream, the sailors press on to the finish off St. David's Lighthouse, then winding channel to Hamilton, Bermuda to the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club.

Along with Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race and the Fastnet Race, it is considered one of the classic big offshore races with each distance approximately 625 nautical miles (719 mi; 1,158 km).

To quote Gary Jobson, "It’s a feather in every sailor’s cap to have done the race, and many consider the Lighthouse Trophy the most coveted trophy in distance racing."

  1. ^ "About". Newport Bermuda Race. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  2. ^ "51st Newport to Bermuda Race: Coast Guard Alumni like the sea and its lore". Retrieved 9 April 2024.
  3. ^ Fawcett, Dennis (18 June 1989). "The Indian Harbor Yacht Club in Greenwich – In Sail of a Second Century of Seamanship and Camaraderie". The New York Times. p. CN2. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
  4. ^ "Newport Bermuda – The thrash to the Onion Patch". www.sail-world.com. Retrieved 15 November 2019.