My heart was pounding out of my chest with excitement when we got the call on Channel 68 « Race Committee calling NOMAD, please confirm”…. “NOMAD Confirmed”. The moment was here - all the talk, all the planning, all the anticipation. Here we were, on the start line, for the 34th running of the Marblehead to Halifax Race.
The MHOR is a biennial event running on alternate years to the Newport to Bermuda Race. It’s a 363 kt mile Category 2 race with 94 boats registered to start the race. We were very proud to be one of three boats from the RNYC, along with Bella J and War Eagle.
Bringing a boat from the USA to NL is pretty common days. Over the past couple of years, several boats have come up from the BVIs, Florida and Massachusetts on their own bottoms. What was different about our trip was that it was actually ‘two for the price of one’, although we don’t like to talk about the cost, especially around my wife. We had a race and a cruise. Each required its own planning, and what was for what was good for one, was not necessarily good for the other.
For example, we needed 7-8 guys for the race, but certainly no more than 4 for the cruise. We needed two boat loads of sails, jammed into the main cabin and V berth for the race, but just a mainsail and furling jib for the cruise. We needed limited fuel and water for the race, but everything topped off to the max for the cruise.
Combine this with five local guys who have done neither before and you end up with a lot of “what ifs” and “I don’t knows”!!
We recognized our limitations very early in the game and made the decision to get some people on board who have done this type of thing before. Luckily for us, the delivery skipper, Dave Sherman, with whom I had been speaking in Boston, happened to be very familiar with ocean racing as well. He completed several races to Bermuda, the most recent being the 2011 Marion to Bermuda Single Handed Race. He committed to taking part in the race with us and would bring with him seasoned navigator, Peter Maloney.
To ensure the boat was both race compliant and safe, I entered into a contract with Tern Harbour Marina to carry out modifications and upgrades to NOMAD over the winter of 2011. Work on the boat ranged from removing and rebedding all critical deck hardware and tracks, replacing port lights, adding additional bilge pumps to stripping 25 years of bottom paint. The golden rule of racing is ‘good sails and a clean fast bottom’.
The rigging was inspected, and apart from replacing an old roller furling with a new Harken Unit and a new forestay, all seemed okay. Keep in mind though; all rigging of this age is suspect. I don’t care what any marine surveyor with a magnifying glass says! Next, I turned to the sails. As luck would have it I met a sail maker, Ralph Dimattia, at the club where NOMAD was berthed. He is a serious racer, racing his Nelson Merrick 40 throughout New England and Long Island Sound at events like Block Island Race Week. Wanting to get new race sails and having no clue what to get, it was great having him right there to do the measurements and provide me with decent quality laminate racing sails.
Captain Sherman was very helpful in pushing things along. He would make regular visits to the boatyard and update me on what was done and how much work remained. When we arrived in Boston on July 2, after a non-stop drive from St John’s, we found NOMAD looking very excited to get going. It’s amazing how boats have personalities. Her sleek lines and tall rig was saying, “Take me offshore please!! I need to strut my stuff, I have a new dress on and I want to dance!!”
And that she did; the motion of this boat was perfect. She would easily tell us when she was happy by settling into a groove and consistently holding 9kts. The crew loved her; everyone was so in tune with NOMAD.
We had no real surprises throughout the race. Our placement in the results had more to do with us being cautious and careful, especially at night, than the boat’s ability, and problems with loose steering cables and losing the inboard spinnaker pole fitting overboard meant our downwind sail would be slower than we had hoped.
The RNSYS was very well organized for this event and received us graciously around 10PM on Tuesday, July 12th after 53 hrs 30mins of racing. The next couple of days around Halifax were exhilarating! It was a sight to see all the different boats, the crews, the drying of race sails and everyone who was not from the Halifax area prepping with cruising gear for the trip home. They were all heading west; we, along with War Eagle, would head east. Bella J, who had not had her gut full of racing yet, decided to stay in Nova Scotia for Chester Race Week.
With race gear removed along with three crew members, water tanks full, fuel tanks topped off, we headed for home. We decided to detour into Bras d’Or Lake. While a bit off the rhumb line for St. Pierre, it did give us a chance to relax. The sail from North Sydney to St Pierre took us about 30 hours and was cold, damp and foggy, not unusual for the South Coast in July.
We were met in St. Pierre by a Frenchman from Montreal who was a crew member on another boat from the Magdalen Islands. He invited himself to join us for supper, where drank copious amounts of cognac and tried to impress the waitress 30 years his junior, while we sampled fine French wine and ate steak entrecote, and were on our best behavior!
The next day, refueling, and restocking with ice, wine (lots of wine) and petits pain au chocolat, we headed out; next stop - St. John’s. I was a little nervous about crossing Placentia Bay, but after we got a report of no commercial traffic for next 12 hours we settled into a beam reach for Cape St. Mary’s.
The sail up the southern shore was breathtaking, with numerous sightings of whales and sea birds as we approached the bird islands off Witless Bay. But no sight was greater and more impressive than that of the Narrows. We all enjoyed the trip immensely, but were very glad to have family catch our lines as we moored up next to The Keg.
Still having two days to spare, before his scheduled flight back to Boston, we showed Captain Sherman around our beautiful city - the Rooms, the RNYC and we even screeched him in on George Street.
Like many who visit our fine province, he was very impressed and declared that it was, by far, the best delivery he has ever done!!
My advice to others? Do not hesitate to embark these types of trips, but recognize your short comings. Hope for the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprise!!
Oh, forgot to tell you- we are registered for the Halifax to St Pierre Race for July 2012 Whoo Hoo!
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