Put June 18, 2010 on your ocean racing calendar now. That’s the date of the start of the next Newport Bermuda Race, the 47th sailing of the Thrash to the Onion Patch. And make a note that the new chairman is Richard Shulman from Barrington, Rhode Island.

In accepting the role as chairman of the 2010 Newport Bermuda Race, Shulman, 2006 winner of the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse Trophy, said, “I thank the flag officers of The Cruising Club of America and the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, for the confidence they have placed in me. I will do all that I can to keep the tradition of the race foremost, but will always look for new ways to make it a great race.”

“We have just finished a great race,” Shulman noted, “We had almost 200 entries and the second largest fleet in the 102-year history of the race.  I’ve been the participation chairman for the past two races and have worked with a dedicated group CCA and RBYC members to bring many new yachts and skippers into the race. For 2010 we hope to get our basic race plans published early so sailors from America and abroad can make their plans early to join us for this classic race.”

Shulman began sailing in the Chesapeake while in the service. After owning a series of cruiser-racers for cruising and racing in New England, Richie, as he is known friends, bought and modernized an S&S designed Swan 44.  From 1990 to 1996, he did some proud sailing in this Temptress. He won several Swan Regattas, a couple of Storm Trysail Block Island Race Weeks, his class in Newport Bermuda and overall in the Onion Patch Series and an IMS National championship.

In his next Temptress, a vintage Swan 51, he took over his class from 1998 to 2002 in both the Marion and Newport to Bermuda races. And in the middle of this he took to small boat racing to get more small boat racing experience. From 2000 through 2002, he was co-skipper with Phil Garland of a Mumm 30 called Trouble. He and Phil eventually won the North American Mumm 30 Championship.

With, the latest Temptress an IMX 45, Shulman won a Block Island Race Week, a Marblehead Halifax Race, an International Rolex Regatta (St. Thomas, USVI), an Onion Patch Series duPont trophy for top individual performance and the ORR Gibbs Hill Lighthouse Trophy as top professionally crewed boat in the centennial Newport Bermuda Race.

Shulman is a member of the Barrington YC, the NYYC, the CCA and the STC.  He has been a member of the Bermuda Race Organizing Committee since 1996. His Newport Bermuda Race experience counts 8 consecutive races from 1994-2008, 6 years as skipper with 4 class wins and one second place, and one Lighthouse Trophy.

If you are thinking about racing to Bermuda in 2010, keep watching http://www.bermudarace.com/ to learn all of the details as plans for the race unfold. Once on the site, take the opportunity to subscribe to the race newswire, so you’ll always be up to date on the latest Bermuda Race happenings.