CHRISTOPHER DRAGON & PALADIN Repeat Winners!(Larchmont, NY)- The 186 nm Block Island Race, which has been held annually for 67 years, is a staple on the calendar of many New England competitors starting their summer of offshore sailing. It is notorious for the “fork in the road” decision that Plum Island forces after 60 miles of sailing: competitors must decide to take either Plum Gut, “The Race” or even Fishers Island Sound while leaving Long Island Sound. This decision often determines the outcome of the race. Then, after rounding Block Island to starboard (the normal course), it's back through the same "fork in the road" and a choice of which part of Long Island Sound to sail through, the Long Island shore, the Connecticut shore or simply rhumbline down the middle of the Sound. A total of 84 boats participated, with nine classes (seven IRC and two PHRF) sailing the traditional long course while a third PHRF class tried out this year’s new “all inside” Plum Island Course (126 nm) option.
“The
first two-thirds of the race was medium air so it provided good fair
sailing for everyone,” said one skipper. “We even sent a guy up the mast
looking for wind bands,” he explained. It's a trick learned long ago by
the fast clipper ships when they sent crew up into the crow's nests,
often for days near the tops of their masts. Said another skipper, "it
was all about calling the breeze, which was higher than expected but
incredibly variable within even short distances.” While typically this
race is won or lost on making the correct call on exiting or entering
Long Island Sound through either Plum Gut or “The Race” or even Fishers
Island Sound, this was not so much the case this year. “We kept
extremely close to shore to minimize current on the way out (through the
The Race),” said another navigator. “Coming back (through Plum Gut),
the current was on the nose but just changing, so we really never had to
worry about it. We 'parked up twice' because of no breeze. Generally,
it was nice sailing, but it was fairly miserable fog-wise, so it’s nice
to have decent sailing when you have to endure those conditions.”There were two excellent performances by J/Teams sailing the classic race around Block Island. A repeat winner of the IRC 40 Class was the J/122 CHRISTOPHER DRAGON sailed by Andrew Weiss and his family crew from Mamaroneck, NY. Finishing fourth in class was the J/120 ROCKET SCIENCE sailed by Rick Oricchio.
The other repeat winner was Jason Richter's J/35 PALADIN sailing in the IRC Doublehanded Class. Also sailing well was Hewitt Gaynor's J/120 MIREILLE capturing a well-earned third place in this highly competitive division of twelve boats. J sailors were 50% of the fleet! Filling out the top five was Mike Lachance's J/105 DARK'N'STORMY in 4th place.
The IRC 35 Class saw the J/42 cruiser GLIDE sailed by Tanner Rose of Palm Beach, Florida finish in third place overall.
The J/44 One-Design class had a nice turnout of five boats. This time is was BEAGLE taking line honors for Phil Gutin and his team. Second was CHARLIE V sailed by Norm Schulman and third was Len Sitar's VAMP.
In the IRC 45 class, the J/130 DRAGONFLY sailed by Colin McGranahan from Larchmont sailed a good race to land their first podium finish of the season with a third overall in the largest class in the race.
Finally, the J/109 DRAGONFLY sailed by Skip Young from Guilford, CT sailed a solid race to finish second in PHRF 2 Class. For more Storm Trysail Club Block Island Race sailing information
