Newport, R.I. USA (July 12, 2011) – Dreams -- of deep sleep and wholesome food -- have come true, as three more Transatlantic Race 2011 class winners arrived at The Lizard in the south of England today. While the sailors have put to an end the days of going without, memories of the adventure will linger forever.
Just after sunrise Zaraffa, a Reichel Pugh 65, passed The Lizard to finish the Transatlantic Race 2011 with skipper Huntington Sheldon (Shelburne, Vt.), who, at age 80, is believed to be the oldest competitor in the race. Zaraffa completed the 2,975 nautical mile course in less than 12 days and was over 400 miles ahead of any other yacht in Class IRC Three, winning the class by a handsome margin. Notably, on Zaraffa, Sheldon took both line honors and the overall win of the 2003 Daimler Chrysler North Atlantic Challenge, which also started in Newport, but finished in Hamburg, Germany [with a course time of 13 days, 15 hours, 7 minutes and 28 seconds]. He subsequently donated the yacht to the U.S. Naval Academy (Annapolis, Md.) and chartered it back for this event.
In the two-boat Open Class, Lloyd Thornburg (St. Barthelemy), skipper of the Gunboat 66 Phaedo, was ecstatic when the Lamborghini-orange multihull crossed the finish line in light air. With a 100-mile lead, Phaedo was the victor in a David and Goliath battle with the magnificent 289’ Maltese Falcon.
“It has been an epic adventure,” said Thornburg of the race via satellite phone. “We enjoyed the RORC Caribbean 600 so much and it [the Transatlantic Race 2011] just seemed like the next step. During the windy part of this race, we were screaming along in big seas. That was pretty exciting and sometimes hair-raising, especially when flying a hull at night! The last few days, however, were slow. Fortunately, Phaedo has plenty of onboard entertainment -- I think our movie count was 25 films.
“It has been a wild and amazing experience with some incredible memories. The highlights for me were seeing water so clean it was the color of blue Gatorade; and, when we were becalmed, we had a shark circling the boat which was very eerie. Crossing the Atlantic, you lose track of time and it gives you the feeling like you have gone into space. Now we are heading back to life on land; we are all looking forward to sleeping through the night and we are all tired of freeze-dried food. I think that we will all be tucking into a full English breakfast when we hit the dock at Southampton. Our hearts really go out to the boats that are still out there, some of them must be having a real rough time of it, knowing that it will be days before they get in.”
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