(Newport, RI)- A growing favorite of the summer New England sailing
schedule is the fun, overnight Ida Lewis Distance Race. A relatively
short race by offshore standards, it does provide its challenges to the
sailors as the fleet criss-crosses Rhode Island Sound on one of the many
courses chosen for a given breeze and current direction (course length
ranges from 104nm to 177nm). The longer courses take the fleet from
Newport southwest to the Montauk Point sea-buoy, then east across the
Sound leaving Block Island to port and round No Man's Land sea buoy off
Martha's Vineyard island. Thereafter many courses take the fleet north
to Buzzard's Bay Tower then home to Newport. In its ninth edition, the
event has already surpassed last year’s entry numbers, with 34 boats
registered to date.“I would really like to see this be the beginning of a much bigger thing,” said Race Chairman Simon Davidson (Newport, R.I.), adding that a number of competitors are traveling from outside Rhode Island to race, and currently ten states, as far west as Colorado, are represented. “In my opinion, competitors like this race because it is long enough that you can experience the overnight and offshore component but short enough that you can finish it in less than a weekend.”
There are a number of J/Teams sailing in this popular event that will be on the starting line on Friday, August 16th at 12 noon. Sailing in IRC Class 1 will be four J/122s, including AUGUST WEST (Jamey Shachoy from Beverly YC), ORION (Paul Milo from New York YC), TARAHUMARA (Jack Gregg from Corinthian YC Philadephia) and TUMBLEWEED (George & Carole Shaw from Boston YC). Sailing in PHRF Class 2 is the J/120 BRAVEHEART skippered by Bob Manchester from Barrington YC. Participating in PHRF Cruising Spinnaker Class is the J/109 URSA sailed by Brooke Mastrorio from Lakeville, MA. For more Ida Lewis Distance Race sailing information
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