Bermuda International Invitational Regatta - IOD Class 2016

Bermuda International Invitational Regatta starts on April 30th 2016 with registration and will continue until the evening of May 6th with prize giving. For the IOD’s racing will consist of 10 races in the Great Sound over the week. This year we have 13 participants, 11 from overseas and 2 from Bermuda. Geographically, they are from the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Norway, Sweden and Bermuda. This means there will be approximately 65 competitors with 55 coming from overseas.

The Regatta will be hotly contested as usual, as 2 IOD World Champions will be competing this year as well as the 2 time and current IOD Bermuda Race Week champion headlining the list of competitors. The most recent race week winner from the Chester Nova Scotia fleet is Peter Wickwire who won the event last year for the second time and is keen to make it 3 in a row. The current IOD World Champion Jonathan Farrar from Fishers Island is competing for the first time in Bermuda and will give Wickwire a run for his money as will 7 time past world champion Bill Widnall from Marblehead.

There will be seven other experienced and quality veterans in the event. From the San Francisco IOD fleet is Paul Zuppan who is returning again this year. If the wind blows he could do very well. Bermuda’s Martin Seise is one of the two local competitors and should place well up the leader board for the week. With his experienced crew which includes Patrice Cooper, current Bermuda fleet champion combined with his knowledge of the Great Sound he could contend for the Cup. The second Bermuda competitor is Huie Watlington who almost won the Vrengen Cup several years ago falling just short. From Norway represent the Oslo fleet is Martin Rygh.  He has participated for many years here as crew and tactician for Jan Petter Roed who unfortunately will not be competing this year for the first time in over 35 years. Veteran Jeremy Preston of the Cowes, England Daring fleet has a very experienced crew and is expected to do well again in the regatta. Peter MacCausland from the Nantucket fleet is returning to Bermuda and we expect him to be in contention again this year. Peter was instrumental in starting the IOD Nantucket fleet in 1997 having visited Bermuda, sailed an IOD and decided that  was the boat for a Nantucket fleet. Henry Arnold representing the Royal Thames Yacht Club is back having participated last year and the year before and had a creditable second place overall finish last year. He will certainly be competitive.

There will be four new competitors this year sailing in Bermuda. New blood is always good for the regatta. Aside from Jonathan Farrar the current world champion, mentioned above, representing Norway is Tormod Li from Frederickstad. He and his crew are very excited to be coming to Bermuda for the first time. From the North East Harbour Fleet in Maine is John Roberts who is new to Bermuda Race Week but he will have a veteran crew which will be invaluable in guiding him around the Great Sound during the competition. The final new competitor is Ola Sandahl from Sweden. This should be a valuable learning experience for him.

All competitors will find a warm welcome from Bermuda and the host Royal Bermuda Yacht Club and our sponsors Bacardi International,

Respectfully submitted,

Richard Thompson.
Chairman Bermuda International