View Article
 
Current ArticlesArchive
« Back Post Date: Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Halifax Crew Captures First in Largest Division of 2017
The crew of Airborne IV wins first in PHR overall and first in PHR-4.
The crew of Airborne IV, a 50-foot Beneteau from the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron has captured top honours in the Performance Handicap Racing Fleet, the largest group of boats enterted in the Marblehead to Halifax Ocean Race.  Airborne IV lead the thirty four entries in PHR when the boat clocked a trip from Marblehead to Halifax in  2 days, 2  hours, 19 minutes and 45 sec crossing the finish line at suppertime on Tuesday.  A few boats in the division won't be crossing the finish line until Wednesday but they can't catch up to Airborne's corrected time.


"It's the best race I've ever done," said skipper Bill Greenwood III.  "There was no fog and it was just such fine conditions, everyone should have done this race." His son, Will Greenwood IV is co-chair of the Steele Auto Group Marblehead to Halifax Ocean Race and took on the bow position during the race.  "The wind was just pushing us mostly downwind all the way.  It was a nice breeze, and honestly, one of the easiest races I've done." Greenwood has a strong record of winning in competition with Airborne IV, placing first in class in 2009, 2011 and 2015 and winning the PHR overall honours once before in 2011.



"At the turning mark in Marblehead, we set the kite, then we gybed twice and we didn't take it down until the finish line in Halifax.There were no sail changes and we had the full main up for the whole race.  We have three spinnakers on board but we left the same one up the whole race." Will Greenwood says the mood on board was light and Airborne's crew had a lot of time to enjoy each other's company. "Last night, we were all sitting at the dinner table telling jokes.  Mind you, this is the fifth race our core crew has done together.  We counted up all the Marblehead races between us and it totals 92 races!"

It was about 9 o'clock on Monday night when Will Greenwood heard that Prospector had broken the course record. "It's an honour to chair the race with a record being broken.  To be honest, no one thought that was possible when we reviewed the weather conditions and the projected wind of 10-15 knots so it came as a surprise to a lot of people."

Airborne IV is one of thirteen Canadian boats in the seventy three boat fleet.  Two other Nova Scotian boats placed second and third in PHR overall.  MacIntosh, owned by Durk Steigenga of the Chester Yacht Club is second and Sea Smoke owned by Mike Evans of the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron is in 3rd.