Past News

Dredging Underway

Stonington Sailor Readies For Atlantic Solo Race

Mr. Snyder, Concordias & Dodson Boatyard

DBY Brokerage Assists in trans-continental Purchase of 1993 Hinckley Sou’Wester 51

Robert Jenkins Snyder Sr passes away Oct. 4, 2004

Changes at Dodson Boatyard

The Boatyard undergoes a range of capital improvements

The Backward Burgee

Stonington Sailor Readies
For Atlantic Solo Race

By Jenna Cho
Day Publishing Company 1/29/2006

Visit Acadia's Website

Stonington   If all goes according to plan, in September 2007, Clay Burkhalter will be alone, wet and a bit sleep deprived.

And he will remain so for the 4,200 miles it takes him to single-handedly sail his custom-made sloop from La Rochelle, France, to the Canary Islands and then to Salvador da Bahia, Brazil.

Burkhalter, a 47-year-old Stonington resident and avid sailor, estimates the trip will take him about a month. Because the boat is so small and sits so low on the water, he will be wet for most of the trip. And because he will be alone, he will not get much sleep.

Burkhalter is hoping to join some 70 other sailors in the bi-annual Mini Transat, an international race traditionally dominated by French sailors. Next year's competition marks the 30th anniversary of the Mini Transat.

For the race, Burkhalter has built his own sailboat -- the Acadia -- with the help of his uncle, boat designer Rod Johnstone of Stonington, Custom Composite Technologies of Bath, Maine, and locally based Dodson Boatyard.

Burkhalter's lecture on his boat and race on Saturday evening at the Stonington Harbor Yacht Club was part of the club's Sailor's Evening Lecture series. He will give the same lecture at 3 p.m. today at the club, located at 32 Water St. Admission is $10.

Burkhalter was 16 when he assisted Johnstone in building the first-ever J-24 sailboat, but he considers the Acadia the first boat he has built because of his hands-on involvement with the project. The task was a challenging one, he said.

“There were certainly moments of frustration and being overwhelmed by the whole thing,” he said prior to the lecture. “Because it's a very complicated 21-foot boat. But it's, you know, at various points during the journey of building this thing, when it seemed overwhelming I could look back and (say), 'Well, you got that done and this is done.”

Burkhalter said he is happy with the result -- a sleek, grayish white and brown boat with a swinging keel and twin rudders. Constructed of lightweight carbon fiber, Acadia was built to fit the race requirements for the Proto Class Mini boat category, which dictates that custom-built mini boats measure no longer than 6.5 meters, or 21 feet, and no wider than 3 meters, or 9.8 feet.

Burkhalter said only five Americans have competed in the race since the first one in 1977. And if he qualifies, the Acadia will be the first U.S.-designed boat to participate in the race since an American won it in 1979.

Burkhalter named his boat the Acadia in honor of the former French colony that included Nova Scotia and Maine. The name, he said, is fitting, because the hull and deck were built by Custom Composite Technologies in Maine and the Mini Transat is organized in France.
“So it was a sort of subtle tip of the hat to France,” Burkhalter said. “I'm not going there waving an American flag. … I'm going to need their help in the qualifying round.”

The name could change as Burkhalter seeks a corporate sponsor to help finance him. Co-owner of a local boat-repair business, Atlantic Yacht Service, he said his boat took a year-and-a-half to design and build. The project took more time, effort and money than he expected.

Burkhalter said he got interested in competing in the Mini Transat after seeing a friend prepare for it two years ago. “I got to see the class and see the excitement and meet some of the competitors, so I talked to her about it and thought about the possibility of just buying a boat,” he said. “And then I thought, 'My uncle is a designer.”

Johnstone said of his nephew: “Clay sees this as the ultimate off-shore sailing challenge.”

Johnstone said designing a small sailboat navigating such a great distance demanded equal attention to many needs, such as stability on the water and space for a skipper to live and maneuver in.

And then there was the desire to design the fastest boat in the race.

“You have to have the fastest boat that's going to stay in one piece and get you there faster than anybody else,” Johnstone said. The race, he said, is “an endurance contest” more than anything else, and though he is an experienced sailor, he said he is not apt to compete in such a race. “ I like ocean voyages but I don't like to be alone in ocean voyages,” he said.

But Burkhalter is excited about the challenge. “In another two weeks I move into the next phase of the project, which is to start sailing the boat,” he said. “I'm totally enthusiastic about that. I hope everything that we made and built works well and holds together.”