By Kathleen May

Chris Larson was at the helm of Joseph Dockery's Carrera a Farr 60 to set a new record for the 2001 Annapolis to Newport Race. Smashing the former record that was held by George Collins on his Santa Cruz 70 Chessie Racing of forty - seven hours and forty - five minutes, by four hours. Carrera record of forty- three hours took almost five hours off the previous record.

Sailing on board the Carrera were members of team Assa Abloy who will be racing in the 2001-2002 Volvo Ocean Race, co - skipper and navigator Mark Rudiger, Skipper Roy Heiner and Andrew Scott. Following in team Illbruck's wake who sailed their training boats from Charleston South Carolina to Baltimore in May to practice for one of the pivotal legs in the upcoming Volvo race. The teams share the same philosophy of practice makes perfect.

The race started under sunny skies with a steady wind out of the north. This gave the competitors a change to show their colors and gain that extra bit of speed that could be the difference between winning and loosing by putting up their spinnakers making for a spectacular start. While tropical storm Allison cooperated during the start she was to make her presence known during the run down the Chesapeake Bay. Sail changes were fast and furious as each yacht tried to stay one step ahead of the wind shifts. She would continue to plaque the sailors throughout the race. With wind gusts of up to sixty knots that were measured on board Donnybrook (which shredded her main sail) there was never a dull moment in the race.

While Allison was forecasted to move further off shore she evidently had other ideas. She decided to stick around a bit longer and give the yachts some spectacular conditions for reaching. As if playing with the racers Allison slowed down and became embedded in a stronger than forecast front which amounted to an unexpected small storm. Several squall lines hit the fleet hard the worst of which gave the yachts sustained winds of thirty-eight to forty-eight knots with gusts over fifty knots that dogged the fleet for the first two days of racing. Mark Rudiger described the sailing conditions this way; " We were down to storm jib and trysail for several hours. At one point we were laying practically flat on our side in the gusts trying to hold ground to weather." He went on to state " Things settled down to a dull roar by late afternoon of the second day and the crew went into the night without any other racer in sight.

As the sun came up Carrera found themselves in a drag race with Blue Yankee which emerged about thirty degrees abaft of Carrera's beam. The crew decided to go below to have a better angle on the wind and less current. The tactic worked although it was touch and go, as the wind became lighter. Carrera managed to hold on and crossed the finish line at Castle Hill Lighthouse on Narragansett Bay at 6:58 am on June 18th. Blue Yankee followed 20 minutes later, with Trader and George Collins Chessie Racing crossing the finish line an hour later. Carrera was also the corrected time winner in the eleven boat IMS Class, George Collins ' new Farr 52 Chessie Racing won overall in the fifty-one boat PHRF fleet. The Surflant Prize for the service accademy yacht with the best corrected time went to Flirt USNA (US Naval Academy) credit the academy training they received over four years to follow orders. Navy intercollegiate coach Pat Healy recommended hugging the coast during the pre-race briefing, the advice proved accurate. Ryan Hastings and Russ Meier led a crew of midshipmen from the offshore sailing team to win the trophy. Hastings credited his sailing instructors at the Naval Academy he said " We have some of the best Instructors in the country teaching us in Brad Dellenbaugh and Pat Healy." The first ever Gaither Scott Memorial Trophy went to Valkyrie. The award has been established in honor of Gaither Scott, longtime chairman of the Annapolis to Newport race committee who died last year at the age of eighty-three. The award would be given to a boat that accomplished something significant during the race. Ron Ward explained " There is no Criteria, no guidelines. It's a very subjective award and the winner is chosen at the race committee's discretion. We tried to keep in mind what Gaither would have appreciated, what he would have found noteworthy." Kurt Muller response to receiving the award; " We were absolutely floored. It's a tremendous honor and the entire crew was crying. The race committee felt the Valkyre crew showed the greatest Corinthian spirit. Bobby Muller spent countless hours restructuring and rehabilitating Valkyrie a 1978 vintage IOR boat for this years Annapolis to Newport race. Valkyrie's corrected time of fifty-seven hours easily topped the PHRF IV class of eighteen boats and gave her a good enough time to come in third in the fleet behind Chessie Racing and Trader.

While the race had it share of minor disasters, out of a starting fleet of sixty-two starters eighteen entries did not finish the race. No doubt those that did not finish will be back in two years to try again along with those who finished. After all as Mark Rudiger put "Practice makes perfect."