Overview The Newport Bermuda Race is a 636-mile ocean race from Newport, Rhode Island, to Bermuda, first sailed in 1906 and run every other June for no prize money: the top award is the St. David's Lighthouse Trophy, and the division that races for it limits professionals aboard and lets only amateurs steer. The fleet spends three to four days offshore and crosses the Gulf Stream on the way, a passage sailors call the Thrash to the Onion Patch. It is the oldest race in offshore sailing's Triple Crown, with the Fastnet and the Sydney Hobart. The Cruising Club of America and the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club began running it together in 1926, and the 2026 race marked a century of that partnership; the nonprofit Bermuda Race Foundation is the organizing authority. On site The start moved to Fort Adams State Park in 2024, a natural amphitheater framed by the Newport Bridge and lighthouses. The Starting Line Festival there is free on race Friday, 11 to 4, with food trucks, a beer garden pouring Whalers beer and Goslings rum, live music, a kids' zone, race-gear shopping and tents from race partners and local nonprofits; in 2026 dermatologists from Brown University ran skin checks. The Starting Line Live Show plays on a big screen across the park, the Newport Artillery fires the cannon for the first warning signal, and the classes start ten minutes apart through the afternoon. At the other end, boats cross the line under St. David's Lighthouse and dock at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club in Hamilton, where family and friends meet each crew with a tray of Dark 'n Stormies, and the prizes are given at Government House. Audience The sailors plan far ahead and spend to get there. The race says more than 90% of skippers start preparing over six months out, and in 2024 a yacht typically spent $35,000 to $60,000 to race, some over $250,000, on sails, electronics, rigging, safety gear, crew apparel, dockage, hotels and flights at both ends. At least 30% of every crew must complete hands-on Safety at Sea training. Skippers prize multigenerational crews, and the 2024 race carried 1,334 sailors on 165 yachts, 518 of them sailing it for the first time. Fans watch the start from the lawn, from their own boats or online, and many fly to Bermuda to meet the finishers. Talent and Influencers In 2026 the Cal 40 Nicole, owned and skippered by Thomas Campbell, won the St. David's Lighthouse Trophy, and Remon Vos' 100-foot maxi Black Jack 100 took line honors and the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse Trophy, finishing in one day, 11 hours and 26 minutes, less than an hour outside the 2016 record. Sheila McCurdy finished second in the St. David's division in her 22nd Bermuda Race. Gesture, the Sparkman and Stephens sloop that won the St. David's Lighthouse Trophy in 1946, won her class. Track record More than 5,200 yachts and 52,000 sailors had sailed the race by 2024. The 2026 race, the 54th, sent just under 150 boats across the Gulf Stream, only six retired, and every crew reached port safely. More than 12,000 viewers watched the 2026 Starting Line Live Show live. The festival drew 4,000 spectators in person in its first year at Fort Adams in 2024. Greg Ramey of BermudAir: "Working with the Newport Bermuda Race was a pleasure and gave us access to new and existing customers in a unique way, unavailable anywhere else. Our sales surrounding the event were tangible and the halo effect the Newport Bermuda Race provides is priceless." Brand presence Ørsted powered the 2026 Starting Line Live Show, a four-hour broadcast with aerial footage, a branded countdown clock and a commentary booth, and Palm Beach Motor Yachts powered the Gulf Stream Show and the official race tracker. Partners sign at four levels, each with a value-in-kind option, and the deal runs across the two-year race cycle rather than one weekend: sponsor-branded race-prep webinars and Safety at Sea seminars with the Cruising Club of America, booth space and lounges in Newport and Bermuda, VIP viewing at Fort Adams and on-water spectator boats, product in the hands of competitors, and the right to use the race's marks.