Middletown Father-Son Sailing Team Races Across Atlantic [VIDEO]

Middletown resident Dirk Johnson is the navigator of the local favorite Carina, one of about 30 vessels making the 3,000 mile journey that began Sunday in Newport and will finish in about three weeks in South Cornwall, Britain.

The youngest member of the 48-foot sloop crew and of the 2011 Transatlantic Race this year is his teenage son, Dirk Jr., also of Middletown. Including the Johnsons, the Carina has four fathers and five sons on the crew.

At just 16 years of age, Dirk Jr. has been sailing since he was a baby and has always wanted to sail across an ocean, according to Transatlantic Race organizers in a recent update before the second of three starts gets underway Wednesday. 

“I don’t like trimming so much as I find it hard to concentrate," he said prior to departure. "But I love my position as float. I like to get involved everywhere on the boat. I have been sailing short offshore races for a while and I really wanted to do this race. I guess I will miss home comforts the most, especially my Mum’s lamb chops. But all of my family are sailors and this is in my blood.”

The Transatlantic Race 2011 got underway Sunday with six of the smallest yachts in the fleet beginning their journey across the Atlantic. A southeast breeze gave the vessels "champagne sailing conditions," before heading out to sea in often dangerous conditions and not seeing land again for several weeks, according to race organizers.

Skippered by Rives Potts, Jr. (Essex, Conn.), the local favorite Carina got away to a great start and hugged the coast to avoid a tough current, race organizers reported. The rocky outcrops and grassy hillsides along Fort Adams and Castle Hill were filled with well-wishers cheering all the boats on as the six vessels crossed the starting line at the Castle Hill Lighthouse.

Read more about this father-son adventure in this recent article by the Associated Press.

Following the 2011 Transatlantic Race

• Follow the 2011 Transatlantic Race on Facebook
• Follow the race on YouTube. (Videos are also available to view in the image gallery above.)
• The second of the three start groups sets off from Newport Harbor on Wednesday and the third and final group departs July 3.
• Wednesday's start group surely has the Aquidneck Island sailing community talking, with the among those participants. The Maltese Falcon is considered one of the world's largest and most state-of-the-art privately owned sailboats. Read more about the Falcon .