By Colin Thompson

in Newport, Rhode Island

Dr Stephen Sherwin will not be making any house calls any time soon.

Instead, the general practitioner will be putting his ocean racing skills to the test in Nasty Medicine, his Corby 41, which is among the 160-plus yachts that make up this year’s Newport Bermuda Race fleet.

The seasoned offshore sailor is pumped up for the big occasion and has mapped out a game plan that he intends to execute with surgical precision in an attempt to wrest some of the silverware that will go up grabs when the fleet sets sail from Castle Hill, Newport, to St David’s on Friday.

Nasty Medicine is competing in the St David’s Lighthouse Division, the largest and most popular division in the race.

Sherwin is sailing with a crew of eight that includes navigator Jeremy Burnham and Alan Frith, who is serving in the dual capacity as tactician and watch leader.

“I have a really good crew of people who just enjoy offshore sailing and most of us have sailed a lot together,” Sherwin said. The veteran sailor has made several appearances in the biennial race and is just as excited this time around as he was when he made his race debut more than a decade ago.

So what keeps him coming back?

“We have a boat that is capable of doing it, so if you are going to continue to race an offshore boat, you would want to do whatever races are available to you within the area you live,” Sherwin said. “Obviously the Newport Bermuda Race is one of those. That is what brings us back and Newport is a wonderful town to come to.”

The thrill of racing “home” also gets Sherwin’s juices flowing.

“We have a terrific time sailing home and there is something nice about sailing home rather than sailing away,” he said. “There is a real sense of going home from Newport and it is almost relaxing when you get on the water and it is a downhill ride back to Bermuda.

“We thoroughly enjoy that side of it and, of course, the competitive side of it is always there. Anybody who is a sportsman enjoys the competitive nature of their sport and for us, being among lovely-looking hot boats, it is good to try and give them a run for their money.

“There are a few hot boats in there that we obviously want to keep an eye on. And we are pretty happy about how this boat goes in the ocean. She is a pretty good ocean boat and, of course, we would love to hook a decent result, but time will tell.”

Early weather forecasts suggest light winds for Friday’s start, conditions that do not work to Nasty Medicine’s advantage.

“There is not much air for the first few days and then it fills in,” Sherwin said. “That isn’t good for a boat that is very swift. But it is still a little early and I always think you have to wait to within three days of the start of the race before you can really trust the weather forecast.”

Sherwin warmed up for the Newport Bermuda Race competing in last weekend’s New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta, which forms the first leg of the three-race Onion Patch series, in Rhode Island Sound. He is presently twelfth among the 17 boats competing in the series, which includes the Newport Bermuda Race and the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club Anniversary Regatta.

To enhance his chances of success, the veteran sailor has purchased new software that he is relying upon to study weather data.

“Two years ago we lost weather data about two days from the finish and that really affected our result, so this year we are being a lot more precise about gathering data,” he said. “We are pretty happy about data we are getting this year.”

Richard Crossley, the remaining watch leader, Gus Ince, Alex Adelburg, Alex Brooks and Leah Cunningham make up the rest of Nasty Medicine’s crew.