By Chris Museler
The
results of this year’s Bermuda Race are official as of Friday morning.
Since the beginning of the race in 1906, finishes have been recorded
by a 24-hour staff at St. David’s Lighthouse overlooking the finish
line. Today that tradition continues and this year the race has moved
into real-time results with electronic scoring and video backup. This
is the first year the race has used electronic scoring that
automatically
uploads finish times onto the race website. “When someone finishes,”
said Race Chairman Bjorn Johnson, “the world knows in three minutes.”
The results are immediately displayed on a big screen at the Royal
Bermuda
Yacht Club, about 10 miles from the lighthouse.
Race Chairman Bjorn Johnson and Scoring
Chair Brin Ford
Recorded
finishes used to be faxed from the lighthouse. Then and now, the Finish
Line Committee chaired by Eugene Raynor has had a backup in written
logs, which are consulted to resolve the occasional discrepancy between
the recorded times at the lighthouse and the times that race crews note
when doing their on-the-water check in as they approach the finish.
Also consulted are the boats’ compliance certificates on which crews
note their estimate of the finish time.
The handwritten finish-line logs are
the official record and are consulted when there are discrepancies.
“We
just finished cross referencing all the logs,” Johnson said on Friday
morning. “We also have a 24-hour loop video from the lighthouse we
use if there is a question about which boats were around each other
when.” Several skippers have reported discrepancies in their finishing
times this week. Johnson and Brin Ford, chairman of scoring, spent
around
three hours Thursday comparing logs and when in doubt, they rely on
the finish line committee’s handwritten log.