crossing is something akin to a religious experience.

Jordy Walker is one of them.

On the day before the former commodore of the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club (RBYC) was to leave for Newport, Rhode Island, Walker sat at a small table in a nondescript room at his Woodbourne Avenue office and talked with evangelical fervour about why he is chasing new dreams in next Friday's Newport to Bermuda race.

Mostly, though, he's got 150 good reasons for competing in his first Newport to Bermuda event in almost three decades.

Since 1994 is the 150th anniversary of the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, Walker found the perfect way to mark the occasion.

Walker, and close to two dozen others, have chartered Jalapenos Dos , a One Design Class 44-foot yacht, in a no-frills bid that begins this weekend in two regattas in the Onion Patch series, the official prelude to the Newport to Bermuda sailfest.

And while the jovial 55-year-old Walker would like nothing more than to take top honours in the Racer/Cruiser division, he views the historic race in a much different way.

"The object of this exercise is as much an experiment in human relations as anything else,'' he said, while thumping the table in front of him for emphasis. "I wanted to get a crew together who would be inspired enough to think of this as a great adventure. But I see this also as a spirit of cooperation between people, emanating in the sort of love for people and humanity that allows one to do things in a cooperative spirit. You know, as opposed to the more enterprising, capitalistic and individual spirit that has moved mankind for the last 100 years.'' Walker, sounding more like Lech Walesa than one of Bermuda's most successful businesspeople, is staking much more than just his sailing reputation. He will also be testing the limits of his deep devotion in the Baha'i religion.

"It's an idea that I've had for a while based on the principals established through the Baha'i faith,'' he said. "It's been a bit of a fascinating exercise.'' Along for the ride next week will be a crew of 13 -- navigator Merle Hallett, watch captains Glen Astwood and Peter Terceira, helmsmen Craig Davis, Guy Eldridge and Ed Dinger (who also happens to own the boat) and crew boss Kevin Horsfield. Also taking part will be Cindy Young, Kees van Beelen, Wayne Bucher, Paul Wollmann, Lesley Bosendorfer and David Moore.

The idea to charter Jalapenos Dos took root almost a year ago.

"Let's do the race,'' Walker said in a booming voice, re-creating the moment when he tried to encourage a group of fellow sailors to start thinking about Newport to Bermuda.

"It didn't catch fire until November.'' Walker eventually had a brushfire on his hands, the "hard-core commitment'' of 20 people who each dished out $1,000 to cover most of the costs of chartering the boat.

He clearly wants to make sure that everyone gets their money's worth.

The "enterprise'', as he calls it, will include a two-month programme of racing with next week's Newport to Bermuda race as the obvious highlight along with this weekend's Onion Patch races. The boat will then compete in the fourth and fifth races in Onion Patch series in Bermuda on June 24, the first time the Island is hosting the races.

After that there will be the J44 team race series. The final event will then be a regatta marking the New York Yacht Club's 150th anniversary in Newport.

But Walker's first priority will be to get Jalapenos Dos fine-tuned for next week and he expects "to have the feel of the boat down'' by Sunday.

"We'll get a feeling for whether the tummies can take it,'' he said, while patting his own stomach. "We need to bone up on the kind of skills that are required for people to stay on their feet in the ocean. It's getting a feel of who can do what best. We know what each individual's capabilities are, but you need to actually see them in action.

"We took a Baltic 51 here in Bermuda, we had her for two months and we did crew practice sessions on it. And we had some good experiences with her, but that was racing in very smooth water. So we got the sail changes and sail drills down, but doing that in smooth water compared to doing it in the ocean is an entirely different ballgame.'' Like most of the 150 yachts making the voyage from Newport to Bermuda, Walker knows the biggest hurdle will be crossing the Gulf Stream.

"It's like a river running in the ocean,'' he said. "You've got to find this thing and then you've got to make sure that the eddies (whirlpools that can spin clockwise or counter-clockwise) aren't pushing you backwards. You have to discover this very quickly because you can sail in one of these things for four hours and you won't go anywhere.'' Later he added: "You've got to get on the right side of these eddies and as you punch through the stream the currents and the winds usually build up against each other and the seas become block seas or chunky seas. You can sail into these things and over the top of it and all of a sudden there's nothing on the other side and the boat just falls off it. There's just a helluva crash into the ocean beyond it.'' The key man in the endeavour will be navigator Hallett, who has done 15 Bermuda races and has sailed on a J44 for five years. He also navigated a J44 in the 1990 race and finished second.

"The guy's got to be good,'' said Walker.

Even though he hasn't made the voyage since the 1960s, Walker believes experience will be on his side. His maiden Newport to Bermuda was as a crew member aboard Donchery with Kirk Cooper and Nat Butterfield.

"The anticipation is perhaps even greater today than then because I know through all my sailing experiences I understand the sport better. Back then I only understood that this was a great adventure.

"Back then I just was a body aboard the boat, part of the crew. Now they call me the skipper, so the anticipation is considerably greater.'' Walker has been racing since he was 18 but by his mid-20s he was married and decided to avoid ocean racing.

"Then the kids came along and my wife said `you're going to try and drown yourself again?' So it finally got through.'' Later on, however, he raced in Europe and crossed the English Channel and did coastal racing in the US.

He is proudest of being commodore of RBYC, following in the footsteps of his father and uncle.

"Having been commodore is, of course, a great achievement in my life in terms of the honour it bestowed on me, and the responsibility that was beseeched at the same time was not inconsiderable. It was like having a second eight-hour-a-day job.

"On the other hand it's what's expected. They say there are four important people in Bermuda, the Governor, the Premier, the Bishop and the commodore of the RBYC,'' he said, laughing.

JORDY WALKER -- `experiment in human relations.'