Forty-five teams will be participating in the 25th annual Beringer Bowl Ocean Race, leaving Marblehead this Friday, July 19, at 7 p.m. for a 45-mile nautical mile race to Provincetown. The excitement is building for this annual tradition and the Beringer Bowl is a race that many local offshore sailors look forward to each year.
Starting off Tinker’s Island at 7 p.m. the overnight race is a challenge as teams dash cross Massachusetts Bay and then navigate the slightly more busy waters as they approach Provincetown in the early hours of Saturday morning. Fishing boats and nighttime marine traffic, as well as other competitors, are some of the challenges, while abundant marine life and the wide-open night sky are some of the pleasures of this overnight event. Billed as the ultimate scenic ocean tour with an epic party in Provincetown, the course will take racers to Boston to Jeffery’s Ledge off the coast of Gloucester where they will turn and head toward Plymouth and then to the tip of Cape Cod.
For those who do not plan to race overnight, there is an option for some sailors to start racing at 12 noon on Friday, and arrive at Provincetown around 6 p.m.
Robert Bova, who is a Boston Yacht Club member and active on the race committee, will be competing on board Phoenix, his Beneateau First 40.7 in what will be his seventh Beringer Bowl.
“It is nice to get out there racing long distance.” Bova said. “Personally, I really like offshore racing and destination races. Getting to another port is fun and different,” Bova said.
Bova is an avid sailor who won his division last year in the famed Marblehead to Halifax Ocean Race. He has been a member of the Boston Yacht Club race committee and assists on many sailing events.
Offshore, or nighttime ocean racing, has been a long-time Boston Yacht Club tradition and many teams have gotten training and experience so they might participate in the Marblehead to Halifax Race which happens every other year. The fleet will see world champion sailor Jud Smith racing on his Concordia Farr 44 in the Class A spinnaker division and Marblehead Yacht Club member Eliot Shanabrook Class B spinnaker division on board his J109. Altogether there are eight divisions, including a double-handed class, featuring four boats from as far away as Kittery, Maine.
In past years, a committee boat would be on station in Provincetown taking down winners. The race committee sometimes had to be on station starting at 4 a.m. Many sailors recall the late Mike Mentuck himself out on the line, helping to finish racers. Today, GPS trackers and the honor system allow teams to make their finishes electronically.
The Beringer Bowl is being held at the same time as the Mike Mentuck Memorial Race and the shared resources mean that for sailors who reach Provincetown and head straight back home will earn points for the Mentuck Race if they have signed up for it. Beringer Bowl participants generally favor staying the weekend in Provincetown and attending the awards in Provincetown on Saturday evening.
“We are still open to racers who wish to ‘turn and burn’ and sail back to Marblehead on the return,” Bova said.
He notes that if you choose to do this, you can be registered in the Mentuck Ocean Race Division, or it can also be recorded in the Beringer Bowl results. The club is essentially hosting two events and combining a lot of local talent and tradition for this midsummer favorite.
Junior Race Week begins Monday, July 22
In other news, Marblehead Junior Race week is set to begin on July 22 with 119 boats on the line. There will be a total of nearly competitors in the 420-champion division and 23 entries in the 420 Green fleet. There will be nearly five Optimist dinghy boats competing in the champion division and additional boats competing in the Optimist Green division. For more information go to pleon.org.
