In the fall of 1987, Guy Bernardin, came to New York City aboard his 60 foot monohull which he had used to race in the single-handed round the world race. Guy was trying to break one of the oldest records in sports – the New York to San Francisco sailing record. It was 89 days and 8 hours and had been set in 1854 by the clipper ship Flying Cloud.
Commodore Fortenbaugh remembers, “Guy gave a lecture at the Explorer’s Club before he arrived in NYC on his yacht. Our club received an invitation and I went to here Guy speak. After he spoke, I asked Guy where he was keeping his boat while in Manhattan. He did not know. So we offered him a home at our Club docks which were located then at the South Street Seaport, very close to the original pier which Flying Cloud left from on her record breaking trip.”
This is how our Club got involved in the New York to San Francisco record.
Bernardin and his boatman made preparations and on the eve of his departure, the Commodore took Bernardin and his wife Mitzy to a steak dinner at The Palm Too, recommended by a new club Member.
The next day, Bernardin set off with the first MYC burgee ever made stored below decks and a smaller MYC burgee attached to a stay and the club RIB following him down past the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. Also onboard the RIB was soon-to-be-famous photographer Billy Black.
While in NYC, we provided Guy with whatever help he needed and we provided the RIBs to push him out and see him off on his record attempt. We also “started the watch” to keep time for his record.
2 days after, he passed the Cap Horn in an attempt to beat the New York to San Francisco record, he suffered a major accident:
He was doing 7 to 8 knots with 40 knot winds, main sail with 2 reefs but manageable.
He was inside checking his chart, sitting at his table, when he felt the boat going up a very steep wave; then he felt like
he was free falling, the boat dropping flat 6 meter below. When he came out of the cockpit the mast was gone, cut just
above the deck, with the boom left on the deck. When the boat hit the bottom, before the mast broken, he thinks the mast went through
the boat and pierce the keel, like a jack-hammer.
The boat was a wreck and he started a rescue operation and was rescue 20 hours later.
1988 January 20, New York – San Francisco: record attempt alone, DNF, sunk. March 3, passage of Cape Horn after 43 days, (the Clipper 47 days). The same day, it demasts in a sea very agitated on a more abrupt crest, one of the mast pieces opens a breach in the hull. 4 hours later the boat is sunk … Guy will be recovered the same day in his raft by the Chilean ship “Rancagua”
Unfortunately for Guy, his boat had problems after rounding Cape Horn and he was fortunate to be rescued. He resolved to come back and try the following year.
Our club members we inspired by Guy Bernardin’s attempt and so we established a trophy to acknowledge the record in 1988. This is how the “Clipper Challenge Cup” came into existence.
The biggest change in the world of long-distance sailing was the advent of smaller watermakers. For Bernardin’s first attempt, we had to carry a great volume of water, which both weighed the boat down and used immense space. The following year, Warren Luhrs launched his attempt with a watermaker which provided drinking water through the voyage. This was the technological revolution which opened up the oceans to more record attempts.
