Photo: Stephen Cloutier
Race Chair Andrew Kallfelz recently sat down for an interview with Windcheck Magazine's Joe Cooper:
The Newport Bermuda Race covers a lot of territory, even before the start, this year for the second time off Fort Adams. First held in 1906, the race went against the grain of prevailing wisdom, whose tenet was that such a passage in small yachts was insane. To emphasize the insanity, a 20-year-old woman, Thora Lund Robinson, was a crew member aboard the smallest (LOA) entry, Gauntlet. How appropriate.
Newport Bermuda is the original of the world’s 600-milers. The Fastnet was started after British sailor and writer Weston Martyr competed in the 1924 Newport Bermuda Race. The Hobart was first held in 1945, instigated by British yachtsman and designer John H. Illingworth, a Royal Navy officer, member of the Royal Ocean Racing Club, and Fastnet competitor. There are thus at least two milestones in this 2026 edition: 120 years of the race and 100 years of partnership between the Cruising Club of America and the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club.
Andrew Kallfelz is the Chairman of the Bermuda Race Organizing Committee (BROC). I work with him within in my role as director of the Fleet Comms Office, but that is another essay. As the leader of the event heading into such an auspicious year, I thought a coffee catch-up was in order.
Coop: Andrew, thanks for coming out, mate.
AK: Glad to be here, Coop. Nice to talk to you about something that’s been on our minds and is very important to both of us: getting out of the cold and racing to Bermuda.
Coop: When did you do your first Newport Bermuda Race?
AK: My first Bermuda Race was in 2004. I’d had the aspiration to do the race for a number of years, but I did not have the right boat. I ended up buying an older boat, beat up but way more experienced than myself, set it up and completed that race.
Coop: Did you do a race crewing for someone else before 2004?
AK: No, it was pretty much cold turkey. We had a good friend who joined us as navigator. Between him and a couple other guys who had offshore miles, we made it through the qualifications committee so they let us race. We found Bermuda, which is not as odd as it sounds. Finding the island is a decent achievement, even though navigation these days is looking at the GPS.
For the next race in 2006 we were more competitive, and in 2008 we won our class. We ramped it up pretty quickly. Then we raced every year except 2018 and 2016. We had family overlaps, which happens. We’ve done every year since, except 2020 when the race was cancelled. My wife has one more Bermuda Race than me. I did not race in ’24 – I was running the show. I’m trying to figure out how to catch up. I cannot kick her off the boat.
