For J/ Owners it was a Memorial Day weekend of fun and challenging racing during Storm Trysail Club's Block Island Race, a 190nm course from Stamford, CT sailing east out of Long Island Sound, around Block Island and then back again. For many, this was the final shakedown distance race before the Newport Bermuda Race in June. Fair weather and challenging winds were the rule... J/ Owners were out in force.In her first east coast race, Jim Madden’s J/65 Brand New Day managed a third in IRC 0 class just ahead of Mark Hansen’s J/145(c) Sweet Lorraine, beating many of the Super 0 class on corrected time (all the while enjoying gourmet meals). Tom Carroll’s J/133 SirenSong topped the IRC 1 class and took the IRC “Tuna Trophy” with John Levinson’s J/46 Tabasco finishing third.
In the second one-design event of the season for the new J/122 class, it was Andrew Weiss’ Christopher Dragon bouncing back to his winning ways finishing ahead of Patriot and Partnership. J/44 and J/120 classes were also out in force with the Vamp team besting Maxine and Honalee in the 44s and Rick Oricchio’s J/120 Rocket Science dominating his class and winning the Commodore’s Trophy. John Towers aboard his newly refit J/37 Ripple won IRC 7, and Peter Rugg’s J/105 Jaded took both the double handed class and the Gerold Abels award correcting ahead of Hewitt Gaynor’s J/120 Mireille. Finally, The Roddie Williams Team Race Trophy was awarded to the Storm Trysail #1 team of Lora Ann (Express 37) - Vamp (J/44)- Christopher Dragon (J/122). ...Whew... if you made it this far into the results you’ll probably agree it was a great race for J/ skippers and crews... Well done all. complete info.