As the PUMA Ocean Racing powered by Berg Propulsion team preps for the Bermuda Race on Friday, we caught up with our skipper yesterday.  Kenny, a Rhode Island native grew up with this race.  “I did my first Bermuda race when I was seventeen, so I think that puts my count up to 12 of these races (?!?).  This is an ocean racing classic,” said our PUMA skipper.  “I remember the good old days where I used to be a bit nervous heading out into the ocean and the great unknown.”  After sailing around the world, the Bermuda Race is still  a great adventure, but a little different now.  “This is really just a bit more than a day race for us”, said Read.  “The boat is fast and we’re pushing to get down to the finish as quick as possible.”

For PUMA, the Bermuda Race is a great opportunity to test the crew, boat, sails and all the little parts and pieces.  “We still have il mostro and we’re going to get as much as we can out of the old girl.  Our team has a schedule throughout the summer that includes everything we want to work on.”  Kenny went on to explain, “Putting ourselves in a racing situation is key.  Simply testing the boat has a whole different mentality- there is a lack of tension onboard, but when you’re race-testing it’s just a whole different feeling onboard.  Even though this isn’t a high pressure event for us, racing brings out different reactions, adds the element of intensity, and make the crew push the boat a bit harder.  I’m a big promoter of doing as much race-testing as we can.”

Unlike the NYYC Regatta this past weekend, when PUMA was sailing under IRC handicap rules, the team expects to be a bit more competitive during the Bermuda Race.  “In this race, we’re sailing under the ORR handicap system so the fact that we’re not racing against any other Volvo 70’s really is not a huge factor.  What that means is that all the boats with canting keels (all three of us) are in the same division.  We’ll be calling ourselves the bizarre and abnormal division.”  In addition to PUMA, this division includes the 100 foot Speedboat and 90 foot Genuine Risk.  Kenny has also pin pointed a few similar sized boat, like Rambler and Bella Mente, and will treat them as if they were head to head battles.  “It’s not the same as the typical racing we do, but we’ll try to create as much pressure as we can.”

Looking at the forecast, it’s very light air- unfortunately.  So the record of getting down to Bermuda in 48 hours will mostly likely stay in tact, it’s highly unlikely anyone will beat that time with the forecast right now.  We’re expecting the race will take us about 30% longer- so we’ll finish sometime mid-Monday.

We’ll report back once the guys get off the line tomorrow.

It was a late night but PUMA’s il mostro safely arrived into the Newport Shipyard after completing a 14 day transatlantic crossing.  The core team, led by skipper Ken Read sailed a “racing delivery” back to Rhode Island, officially kicking off training for the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12.  Newport will serve as the training ground of PUMA’s new Volvo campaign.  The team will sail il mostro until their new boat is completed early 2011.

A special thanks to Sail Newport who welcomed the PUMA crew home with a crowd, burgers and Rum & Coke.

photo credits: Leighton O’Connor

If all goes well we should be at the dock this evening at the Newport Shipyard about 1900 pm local time- not a moment too soon because it is bloody cold out here.

The trip has been eventful, and not exactly wonderful, blue water sailing. I can say that the sea state since we went past Madera has been simply awful. Head on no matter where we were going or what the wind was doing, and the breeze managed to be forward of the beam about 80% of the time.

With that said, it has been a great trip as well. Good team building time for our new group. An eye opening trip for brother Brad Read and sail designer Steve Calder, who are crossing the Atlantic for the first time. Despite having the “what the hell am I doing here” look on their faces from time to time, both have been fantastic helpers and great part of the team. And I think they are both already starting to forget the bad times and only remember the good, although they are certainly not forgetting the cold right now. Did mention it is cold?

One certain way to know it is cold is if you look in the bunks and the sleeping bags are zipped to the top and just a small parts of each person’s head is poking out. That is where we are at right now. In fact, navigator Tom Addis was so tucked into his sleeping bag I actually gave the bunk a shake to make sure he was in it- to make sure he was still on board.

Now it is back to work tomorrow breaking down the boat, debriefing the crossing and trying to continue to learn from the past, leaning toward the future. Next up for il mostro is the New York Yacht Club Spring Regatta and the Newport-Bermuda Race. Neither will be competitive for us because there are no other Volvo 70’s and we have to race with handicap rules against all the other boats who are optimized for handicap style racing, but we will stay in the VOR rule configuration and try to continue to look to the future and what the ultimate goal is.

So finally il mostro is coming home, back to where it all started. She has sailed nearly 55,000 miles since we left Newport after a summer of training in August of 2008- seems like a thousand years ago. I was pretty emotional that day we left Newport as I knew the adventure of a lifetime was just beginning and I really didn’t know where that adventure was going to take us. Turns out it was the adventure of a lifetime. But I would have never said that there would be a sequel to that first act. PUMA Ocean Racing Part Two begins with il mostro coming home. Not as a ending but as a new beginning.

So its bye for now, and great to be back reporting on the trials and tribulations of il mostro. See you in Newport.

Kenny

If all goes according to planned, PUMA’s il mostro will be arriving into Newport, Rhode Island Wednesday afternoon.

We finally have pictures from PUMA’s Transatlantic crossing. We’ll post more as they come through.

Casey Smith and Michi Mueller

Jono Swain and Brad Jackson

Blasting Upwind

Sorry we haven’t been very good writers this trip. I must say that it is weird just writing about our delivery across the ocean. But an exciting delivery it has turned into- ridiculous actually. What we had hoped would be a nice little jaunt across the pond has turned into a full blown hate mission thanks to Mother Nature.

Doing a delivery, albeit a delivery with a bunch of things to test for the new boat, is a completely different mentality, one that I am not necessarily accustomed to. We have three missions.

1. To deliver the boat and crew safely to Newport RI.
2. We have about ten “tests” that we are running on equipment and tools.
3. To get the crew to begin to know each other better, and what better way than to put them on a 70 foot boat with no place to go for two weeks.

It’s actually funny when people ask me if we go through external “team building” exercises as a group. We are a living and breathing team building exercise! Why to we need to do anything other than sail this boat? Isn’t that team building? I digress…

Back to our sail. We are simply getting inundated with low pressure systems. One after the next. Great sailing out about 800 miles from the Med then things got bad and looks to be pretty lousy for the rest of the trip. At last count we could have to bob and weave around seven lows as they head at us from west to east across the Atlantic. No doubt this isn’t the time of year to be going this way, but this is seriously bad luck. We are playing with some of the systems and avoiding others all together. Some big breeze in most. Upwards of 50 knots on the bad side of some. Nothing to play with on a good day, especially the sea state they kick up. Never mind when you are out here by yourself doing a delivery!

So, we may be at this for a while. Which is fine because the mentality is different. We are testing and training and not necessarily trying to get from point A to point B the quickest. Got to keep reminding ourselves of that.

Back to work.

-Kenny

PUMA Skipper Ken Read talks about the core team and why PUMA is going this route with the new program.

We are going to sail back to Newport – our home – to complete our voyage. Newport is where we left from when we came to start the race. It will be pretty emotional getting back to Newport.” – Ken Read