There are competitions that can take place for the better part of a week, generally with off-days — and then there is the five-day Mustang Survival Annapolis to Bermuda Ocean Race. There are no breaks in the action, no recovery days, but plenty of open ocean and challenges to make this experience a thrill for those involved — including Newtown’s own Rick Irving.

Not only did Irving sail the Atlantic Ocean in this marathon race, his US Naval Academy boat came in first in its division, the Performance Handicap Racing Fleet, which featured nine boats. Quite an accomplishment for the 2020 Newtown High School graduate and his fellow crewmen considering such an adventure alone is something special.

Irving spent nearly a month competing with the US Naval Academy varsity offshore sailing team, which also sailed to Newport and Martha’s Vineyard to participate in another race series at Edgartown Yacht Club Race Weekend, closing out a busy June at sea.

For the Annapolis to Bermuda race, Irving and his team sailed a Navy 44 which is, as the name indicates, a 44-foot-long boat. Part of a crew of ten — eight Midshipmen and two coaches —Irving’s primary role is bowman. He is responsible for forward sails and hoist jibs (secondary/upwind sails) as well as spinnakers (secondary/downwind sails).

Detangling lines with a crew and all of that ocean water to think about, and enjoying the calmness when things are going smoothly likely makes competitive sailing both stressful and peaceful on the same journey.

“It’s a lot of clearing lines and making sure everything’s running right. It’s a lot of problem-solving and a lot of things going wrong and trying to fix them,” Irving said.

His secondary role, and one that Irving said is perhaps the hardest part of sailing in the race, is being in charge of food for the crew for this lengthy voyage. Providing meals that make a large group content might be hard enough on dry land. Try five days on the water. Newfound respect for moms (and dads) in kitchens everywhere.

It is probably safe to say Irving and his sailing team members are getting an at-sea education for life as a parent trying to detangle toys, functioning on minimal sleep, keeping things afloat, and making meal time interesting for a bunch of hungry but picky eaters.

“It was pretty tough because I’ve never done anything like that before,” Irving said of his food duties. “I did take suggestions beforehand and drew on some info from previous boats. We did a lot of tortillas, just because it’s less messy, quesadillas, and cold cuts in wraps. We premade a bunch of the dinners, stuff without intense flavors because that tends to exacerbate seasickness, so it was stuff like red beans and rice and pasta with chicken. The big thing is the snacks, so that’s where I got creative and had some variety for everyone. People tend to be a lot less hungry in the middle of the ocean so it’s tough planning for meals when you don’t know who’s even going to want to eat, but we made it work.”

Perhaps like any long race — on land or water — sailing is a test of endurance with some rewarding scenery for competitors to take in along the way. Nearly a week on the waves is quite the extreme.

“Being in competition for five days is kind of rough. It takes a lot out of you,” Irving acknowledged. “Being out there with nothing around you — just open ocean — is pretty cool. It was awesome.”

The crew can have long practices but five consecutive days of sailing is uncharted territory until it comes time for the race. “There is no way to prepare for that,” said Irving, adding that it was even more of a unique experience for the freshmen who had never been in such a long race before.

With ten participants, five get to sleep while the other half makes the boat do its thing. Does not sound so challenging, does it? Well, it’s four hours on and four hours off to sleep in a stretch at night and three hours on and three off during the day in a continuous rotation for the crew during this five-day experience.

“It’s like napping,” Irving said of bedtime on a competitive sailboat. “It’s pretty tough. Three hours of hard sailing followed by three hours of sleep, three hours of hard sailing followed by three hours of sleep,” he explained.

On day five, with pretty blue water all around, Bermuda came into view for Irving and company.

“We were riding pretty high after that,” he recalled. “It was interesting because Bermuda came out of nowhere. There’s nothing around it.”

After spending four days on Bermuda island, it was off to Newport for more sailing.

Irving, who will be a junior, is working toward a degree in political science. He said the Naval Academy is one of few programs with a fleet of boats for big competitions, and that other universities visit the Naval Academy and use the host’s boats for competitions during the fall.

According to the Naval Academy website usna.edu/sailing, the Navy Intercollegiate (IC) team is consistently one of the top programs in the country and has a long history of turning out collegiate All-Americans, College Sailors of the Year, Olympians, and America’s Cup sailors. The team competes in the Mid-Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association (MAISA) and sails in over 60 collegiate events each year.

“MAISA is arguably the most competitive district in the country, and includes such schools as St Mary’s College of Maryland, Georgetown University, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and Old Dominion University. Annapolis is situated far enough south to allow the team to practice late into the fall and start early each spring, giving Navy sailing a competitive edge during each season. The IC sailing team practices five days a week for three hours a day and competes most weekends in both the fall and spring,” according to the website.

“The IC sailing program’s fleet of racing dinghies consists of 42 racing Lasers, 50 training Lasers, 22 420s, 22 Flying Juniors, three Interclub Dinghies, four Tech Dinghies, and three Vanguard 15s. This gives the team opportunities to practice in specific boats that will be sailed in upcoming events. With such a large fleet, Navy is able to play host to a multitude of events every year, including two of the largest college sailing regattas in the Intercollegiate Sailing Association (ICSA): the Navy Fall Intersectional and the Truxtun Umstead Regatta in the spring. Both regattas feature four divisions of 20 teams with all divisions racing at the same time, which allows for some very exciting sailing,” according to the site.

“It’s a really unique program,” Irving said. “We’re a pretty competitive group.”

Practicing each day after practice is something that not only makes Irving and his teammates better but also is something they enjoy.

“It’s really cool to go out there every day and be able to get away a bit,” Irving said.

Irving played soccer and volleyball, and was on the swim team at Newtown High. Always around the water, if not on it or in it, he is helping coach the Newtown Torpedoes swim team this summer.

Sports Editor Andy Hutchison can be reached at andyh@thebee.com.