Later that year, they found the Reveille, a 1985 Sigma 41, one of an older generation of racer-cruisers, hybrid boats with decent enough speed for racing, but whose design also makes them comfortable for casual cruising. They fell in love and, by the following February, welcomed the Reveille to the family.
Not surprisingly, the return to boat ownership jump-started their sailing lives. In 2005, Hammitt was going on sabbatical, taking an appointment at the Toulouse School of Economics in France. The couple decided to sail the Reveille across the Atlantic with their sons, then 14 and 16. To prepare the boat, the family sailed the Reveille in the 2004 Newport-Bermuda Race. The Atlantic crossing took 12 days to the Azores and seven more to Gibraltar. They sailed to Morocco, Spain, and the Balearic Islands before heading to Toulouse for the academic year. For the next few years, they traveled back and forth between Boston and the Mediterranean as far east as Turkey, spending summers aboard the Reveille and returning for the school year.
Over his decades at the helm, Hammitt has spent many months, if not years, at sea. And, though competition does add spice to the endeavor, he says it’s not navigating sailing’s complexities or conquering its hazards that draws him back to the open ocean. Instead, it’s the immersive nature of life there, its simplicity, and its beauty.
“Being at sea is a really pure form of living,” Hammitt said. “All you care about are the basics of sleeping, eating, taking care of yourself, taking care of the boat, making sure everything’s working, and being totally aware of the weather.”
Paulling, Hammitt’s crew member for the second leg, arrived a few days before the start of the race. The forecast indicated the weather wouldn’t be as benign on the return leg. Indeed, shortly after leaving they got hit by a squall with gusts near 45 miles per hour. The Reveille got knocked down — its mast almost in the water — which sent Paulling, off watch and below, scrambling on deck to help get the boat under control.
Neither man was too concerned by the episode. In fact, though some might think storms are best avoided, to Hammitt, the squalls represent a chance to take advantage of faster winds.
“A squall is circulating counterclockwise — it’s a low-pressure system — and you’ll have different wind directions depending on where you are,” Hammitt said. “On one side, it’s reinforcing the prevailing winds and on the other it’s countering the prevailing winds. You want to be on the side reinforcing it.”
As they approached the Gulf Stream, the weather worsened again, with lightning, heavy winds, and torrential rain, followed by several hours of light air. The reward, though, was that the current pushed them in the right direction. As they approached the finish line, they saw a flock of birds with what was likely a whale feeding beneath, Paulling said. A little later they spotted a second flock and saw tuna jumping out of the water nearby. With the wind behind them for the first time, they set the Reveille’s big blue and white, parachute-like, spinnaker.
“That just carried us through the whole day,” Paulling said. “It was just a beautiful day of sailing.”
They arrived in Newport a bit less than five days after the start, placing second on the leg but doing well enough for first overall.
“Some of these guys have done this a number of times, and here comes this guy with this older boat, and nobody knows him,” Paulling said. “He hasn’t been racing for years, and his racing reputation isn’t very well known on the East Coast. He gets first place going down and I was thinking, ‘I hope we do well to back it up, prove it wasn’t a fluke.’ I think we did.”
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