An interview with Roy Guay about the 2019 Bermuda One-Two  

by David Schmidt

For most sailors, racing to Bermuda and then delivering the boat back home provides plenty of challenge. But, for those beautifully wild-eyed souls seeking a bit less beat-the-polars performance and a lot more adventure, the biennial Bermuda One-Two (June 8-29, 2019) provides a serious test of preparation, seamanship, preparation, navigation, preparation, meteorology and (drumroll please) preparation. As its name portends, the Bermuda One-Two starts in Newport, Rhode Island, with a single-handed race to the island nation of Bermuda, where skippers are joined by their co-skippers for the double-handed leg back to Newport (June 20).

En route to both finishing lines, sailors can expect full-on offshore conditions—including two Gulf Stream crossings—and weather, and they can expect to face these challenges with few (if any) extra hands to help change sails or contend with reefing work.

Impressively, the first Bermuda One-Two was first held in 1977, some 15 years before GPS became available on the recreational-boating market, and included 18 finishing yachts. And while navigation might be easier today, many 2019 entrants have raised their personal performance bars by choosing high-performance steeds such as Classe Minis and Class 40s, rather than the more comfortable and forgiving vessels that populated the race’s early scratch sheets.

by David Schmidt 5 Jun 08:00 PDT

courtesy Sail World- read the whole interview here