Rich Wilson’s Vendée Globe Race fortunes have been followed closely for months, yet this sailor’s name is hardly new to sailors. The American has won a Newport Bermuda Race, set long-distance sailing records, and been awarded one of sailing’s highest honors, the Blue Water Medal of the Cruising Club of America.

Rich first appeared on the international sailing scene in 1980, when at the age of 30 he was the youngest overall winner in the century-long history of the Newport Bermuda Race. He won the treasured St. David’s Lighthouse Trophy in his family’s wooden ketch Holger Danske, designed by Danish-American naval architect K. Aage Nielsen for fast offshore passage-making.  The boat enjoyed the reaching conditions and, as an all-out cruiser, had a favorable rating. But the crew won the race by four hours because of the young skipper-navigator’s brilliant organization and his pioneering use of electronic navigation as a tactical tool.

He started by recruiting a young, hard-driving crew. “We had one old guy, in his fifties,” Wilson told Bermuda Race historian John Rousmaniere. He assigned them to three-hour watches balanced between top one-design sailors from the Etchells class and veterans of Holger Danske’s offshore passages. Wilson designated the helmsmen to stand short 15- to 30-minute tricks at the wheel so they could give steering their full attention before tiring.

As navigator, Wilson tracked each helmsman’s effectiveness on the boat’s Loran-C (then the cutting-edge navigation device). If the track tended high or low by even a couple of degrees, Wilson adjusted the course so they would sail the shortest possible distance. When the Loran was not policing the helm, it was guiding Wilson into favorable Gulf Stream currents that he had been tracking for months.  He recalled: “As we edged up to the good side of a big warm eddy, we saw a lot of other boats footing off and sailing away from it. ‘Well,’ I thought, ‘all those boats just took themselves right out of the race.’”

Rich Wilson went on to do a lot more ocean sailing. Almost a quarter century after his Bermuda Race victory, in 2004 the Cruising Club of America presented him its prestigious Blue Water Medal, which rewards “meritorious seamanship and adventure upon the sea displayed by amateur sailors of all nationalities, that might otherwise go unrecognized.”  Wilson’s Blue Water Medal citation reads as follows:

For a series of three voyages in his 53’ trimaran, Great American II, to equal or beat the record passages of famous 19th century clipper ships, including San Francisco to Boston (1993), New York to Melbourne (2001), and Hong Kong to New York (2003). His successful attempts were notable for the thoroughness of his preparations, the skilled but conservative way he sailed his fast vessel, and the educational component he was able to generate for over 250,000 children who tracked his progress.

Rich Wilson joined an exclusive club of great sailors. Other Blue Water Medalists include Sir Francis Chichester, Pete Goss, Eric Tabarly, Bernard Moitessier, Carleton Mitchell, Rod Stephens, Eric and Susan Hiscock, and, for 2008, William (Scott) Piper III, M.D., who was recognized for his 12 years of adventurous cruising and voyaging, logging over 132,000 miles.

For more information about the Blue Water Medal, go to the Cruising Club of America web site.

--John Rousmaniere