WHEN Morgan’s Ghost cross the finish line off St. David’s on Tuesday morning it provided an ideal finish to the Marion to Bermuda Race as the yacht is owned and skippered by Bermuda’s Preston Hutchings.The swift Class A yacht was later adjudged to have finished 11th on corrected time in the class and 21st overall in the fleet of 70 yachts but will always have its name associated as the first across the line. It was not only special for Preston Hutchings who took possession of the new yacht only a couple of months ago, but also special for his son — 16-year-old William Hutchings who was making his first ocean crossing.

Journalist Lynn Fitzpatrick wrote on the Marion to Bermuda Race website:

William has been sailing since he was nine and the family has had a keelboat for as long as he can remember. His family lives in Bermuda yet William attends Milton Academy in Massachusetts where he is on the sailing team. William is used to sailing double handed dinghies and had the choice to sail the US Youth Sailing Championships, which start on June 22 (today), or sail the Marion to Bermuda Race. He chose the Marion to Bermuda Race because it’s not often that you can sail a long distance race with your father. William just finished school for the year and shared the same watch with his father. They spent a lot of time on the rail together over the past four days. While he had a lot of time to bond with his father, he was grateful that he brought an iPod along with him. William admitted, “I thought that it would be exciting and competitive throughout the entire race.

“In the beginning we were all up beyond our watches, but toward the end, if it wasn’t your watch, you were asleep down below.” The most excitement came at the end. At about 2:00 a.m. on Monday when William was on his watch, he saw Kathleen off to the Northwest. While Kathleen was in Class A, she did not sail under spinnaker.>Morgan’s Ghost sailed a higher line and eventually crossed Kathleen’s lane. At about 7:00 a.m Morgan’s Ghost found a lift, hoisted its spinnaker and took off to lead all of the boats to the finish line. Kathleen crossed the line nearly a half hour behind Morgan’s Ghost.William is happy to have had the opportunity to join the rest of the crew and his dad in sailing their new boat home to Bermuda.

Winning the race on corrected time was Class D yacht Silhouette skippered by David Caso while second place overall went to the oldest yacht in the race Kathleen skippered by James Feeney from Class A. Third was Avalon skippered by Barry J. Feldman while fourth place was taken by Class A’s Venture skippered by Peter Savage. Fifth was won by Class B’s Triple Lindy skippered by Joseph Mele.

The prize presentation will be held at Government House on Saturday afternoon.

Special time for father, son in Marion to Bermuda Race