Past Royal Bermuda Yacht Club (RBYC) commodore Ralph Richardson has long dreamed of sailing in the Newport-Bermuda Race.And that dream will finally become a reality when the veteran navigator sets sail in the 635-mile race aboard the Nautor Swan 48, Patriot, next week.Had it not been for conflicting commitments, Richardson’s debut in the ‘Thrash to the Onion Patch’ may have arrived much earlier.“I’ve been invited to do the Newport-Bermuda Race on numerous occasions and every single time I had other commitments so it was just a timing issue,” he said. “Also, at the time I served as a flag officer, one of the rules was that flag officers were not allowed to race.“For several years while a flag officer, even though I was invited, I was unable to do it. So I’ve been looking forward to the point when I could step down from being a flag officer to do the race. It’s been a long awaited occasion and I have been looking forward to it for a long time.”Patriot, which is competing among the 96 entries in the St David’s Lighthouse Division, was formerly known as War Baby and previously owned by legendary local sailor Warren Brown.“Warren had some great success in winning regattas in that boat,” Richardson said. “So it was very fast in that time he owned it and I’m sure it’s just as fast today.“I’m pretty happy to be doing my first Newport-Bermuda Race and doing it in a boat with such pedigree.”This year marks Patriot’s 40th birthday and the 40th anniversary of her maiden Newport-Bermuda Race.The boat was built in 1972 by famous designers Sparkman Steven’s.Although he has yet to sail in the race, Richardson is far from being a blue water rookie, having navigated in at least six Marion to Bermuda Races and also the Annapolis to Bermuda Race.As a teenager the past RBYC commodore sailed in the Sunfish and in 1981 he got a first taste of offshore sailing which had a profound effect on him.“My first real sailing experience was in 1981 when I went as engineer aboard the Great Britain II,” he recalled. “At the time it was one of the most famous yachts in the world, it was a 78 ft Maxi which had won the first two Whitbread Round the World Sailing Races.“They were looking for an engineer and I went as an engineer to the Caribbean and we sailed around the Virgin Islands for a week and then came back and that was my first ocean experience. We were in a boat that had been around the Cape twice, so I didn’t fear for my life and it was a fantastic experience.”Richardson eventually made the transition from engineer to navigator after successfully completing a Celestial Navigation Course at Bermuda College. The rest is history.“About a month after graduating with a certificate in Celestial Navigation I did my first Marion to Bermuda Race (1983),” he said. “I always wanted to cross the ocean and that experience in 1981 was it for me.“I knew then I loved to do it, and that’s how I got into sailing. You can probably count on two hands the number of races I’ve done locally around the can because whenever I step onto a sailboat I get the feeling I should be travelling to another country.”