59° North Sailingvideo
Jesse Terry // Sailing & Racing a Classic Wooden Boat
February 25, 2025 · 1h 4m · 313 views
What this video covers
Jesse Terry, sailing a 1956 39-foot wooden ketch, describes racing the Newport Bermuda Race through severe Gulf Stream conditions that sank two boats on the passage south and a third, Solution — an Aage Nielsen wooden boat of roughly 45–48 feet — on the return north.6:16 Smaller boats in the fleet encountered 35-knot true winds close-hauled against a Gulf Stream meander that extended the adverse current for an extended period, while larger boats saw only 25 knots; Terry's crew of six endured two-plus days of those conditions without hot meals, surviving on granola bars and rotating three-on, three-off watches.9:07 Terry explains how the ketch rig gave him sail-configuration flexibility — storm jib with three reefs, or mizzen and storm jib alone — that helped manage the deteriorating conditions, and how driving the boat to dodge the largest waves mattered as much as sail trim.10:45 On the return, he left Bermuda two days early to clear the Gulf Stream before the next weather system; Solution did not, and was caught mid-stream.14:14 Terry's crew saw an EPIRB activate in the Gulf Stream and monitored VHF distress traffic but could not render assistance.16:33 He notes that larger, faster boats in the fleet did not appreciate how badly the smaller, slower boats suffered, and that the 2025 Sydney to Hobart losses compounded the season's toll.20:12 The practical lesson: timing a Gulf Stream crossing to avoid adverse wind-against-current conditions is a life-safety decision, not a race-optimization one.
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