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June 26, 2007

Gryphon Solo first to finish Bermuda 1-2

Joe Harris and Dobbs Davis won line honors in the second leg of the Bermuda 1-2 race just before midnight, but they had to work for the finish.

"We were lucky to get through the Gulf Stream and keep a steady breeze all the way to the finish,” said Harris, skipper of the Open 50, Gryphon Solo. “We scratched and kicked and clawed our way through the Stream in light air and emerged on the north side with a nice southwesterly breeze allowing us to make 10 knots toward Newport."

The second leg of the Bermuda 1-2 started Friday off St. George’s, Bermuda. Gryphon Solo’s unofficial elapsed time for the passage to Newport was 82 hours, 41 minutes 30 seconds.

Harris set a course record for the solo leg of the event earlier this month. His elapsed time sailing south was 62 hours, 37 minutes from his start on June 9th. The old Bermuda 1-2 solo course record of 66:57 was set in 2005 by Kip Stone aboard the Open 50 Artforms. The record for Leg 2 of 70:14 set by Artforms in 2005 remains unbeaten.

Meanwhile, Ken Read, driving the 90-foot Rambler, was leading the two other big boats that started the HSH Nordbank trans-Atlantic Race Saturday off Newport. A larger fleet of smaller boats started the race a week earlier, and were blessed with strong winds for the beginning of their passage.

After three days of moderate breeze, the three big boats - Parsifal III, Bon Bon and Rambler – are expecting the wind to freshen.

Posted by Tom Meade  at 6:03 PM | Permalink

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