Gorgeous, Epic Block Island Race Week!

CAMINOS Wins J/109 North Americans
(Block Island, RI)- Founded in 1965, the Storm Trysal Club's Block Island Race Week is built on a foundation of fun and friendly competition. It attracts rival crews who beat each other up on the racecourse and then laugh about it over a drink afterwards-- like the famous Oar Restaurant's "Mudslides". The competition is intense, but it's the camaraderie that keeps bringing people back.

"This week was epic," said Paul Beaudin, owner of the J/105 LOULOU. "Fantastic weather, no fog or rain, perfect sailing conditions…just perfect. This week is as much about bonding with our families as well as our competitors." The excellent weather conditions have made this year's race week special and two words say it all - no fog!! Rarely has a Block Island Race Week never lost a day, half or full, to fog, but that was the case this year. The fantastic weather conditions allowed the RC/PRO’s to run 11 races over five days, more than have been run since 2005. Coupled with fantastic wind conditions for the four days of windward/leeward racing and 20-30 knots for the Round the Island Race, this year's week will be remembered as one of the best ever.

"This is probably the best race week we've had in the previous 10 editions (that covers 20 years!),” said Principal Race Officer Dick Neville. "We've rarely had the five full days of racing. Usually, the weather interrupts one day. But, the conditions this week have been spectacular. It might be the best race week ever."

This year's fleet totaled 167 boats in 15 classes, and Donald Filippelli's J/109 CAMINOS won the Everett B. Morris Memorial Trophy for Best Overall Performance.  CAMINOS also won the J/109 North American Championship, conducted as part of race week. Hailing from Amagansett, N.Y., near Sag Harbor on the eastern end of Long Island, Caminos is helmed by Filippelli's son-in-law, Ryan Dempsey and includes many family members. They've placed in the top three in the J/109 class each of the past three race weeks before breaking through this year. "I don't sail the boat anymore because of Parkinson's disease, but Ryan and his crew do a tremendous job," said Filippelli. “We have a 10-year-old boat and it takes a lot of abuse, and I love it. Each day I tell the crew 'Be safe, have fun and goddammit win!'" Factors determining boat of the week include class size, total points and margin of victory. Racing in the largest class at race week, 25 boats, CAMINOS finished with the low score of 21 points, won four races, had nine top-2 finishes and finished 17 points ahead of Bill Sweetser's second-placed RUSH.

"They had a whole other gear that we've never seen before," said Vicky Jo Neiner, who sails on Dr. Carl Olsson's MORNNG GLORY. "Just fantastic." “CAMINOS, was really fast," said Dan Cameron, the mainsail trimmer on SKOOT. "Ryan just punches it off the line and they had good speed on the course."

Beyond the trophies, shout outs go to other class winners for extended consistency. Jeffrey W. Willis' J/44 CHALLENGE IV and John and Tony Esposito's J/29 HUSTLER have multiple winning streaks that deserve recognition. Willis has won his class for six consecutive race weeks dating back to 2005, while the Esposito’s have a five-regatta streak dating back to 2007. During those streaks, HUSTLER has won 70 percent of all races sailed and Challenge IV 56 percent. In the venerable J/44 fleet, the key to consistency, according to Willis is, "good starts, boat speed at the line, and in One-Design you have get that 'jump' on the fleet and cover." "It's kind of unbelievable,” said Lenny Sitar, owner of VAMP on the win streak. "They had great tactics, boat speed and crew work. I think Jeff has won the J/44 North Americans 15 times in 25 years."

TUESDAY
Tuesday's Round the Island Race was a highlight of the week for many. With the wind blowing 20-30 knots from the southwest, many crews said they reached a new top speed for their boat. The J/105 ARBITRAGE reported a top speed of 20.9 kts and the J/122 WINGS reported a top speed of 20.1 kts!  The roughest stretch of the race was on the east side of the island, from Old Harbor to 1-BI bell, the buoy off the north end of the island. The wind built to 30 knots in that stretch and the seas built to 5 feet. While some had troubles, many scampered through the maelstrom without incident.

"I give the race committee heaps of credit for running that race," said Ken Read, the President of North Sails who sailed in the regatta. “It would've been easy for them to say it’s too windy.  But, for me it was an epic day! One that all sailors here will remember forever!”

With two courses measuring 21 nautical miles (IRC 1, 2, 3, 4) and 18.5nm (all other classes), the first boats in the fleet of 167 got underway at 11:05 a.m. in winds around 20 knots. By the time the fleet got to the north end of the island, three-quarters of the way around, the wind had built to 30 knots and the seas to 5 feet. Many sailors said they had the ride of their life in testing conditions.

The race committee sent the fleet on a counter-clockwise circumnavigation of the island. After an initial beat into the southwesterly wind, the fleet turned left towards the east for a wet and wild run past Southeast Lighthouse with many bows alternating between submarine and airborne as they caught a wave and took off.

Off Southeast Lighthouse, a jibe to port was required to head northerly towards 1BI, the familiar green bell at the north end of the island. That stretch was the toughest of the race. Many in the fleet doused their spinnakers before 1BI as the breeze had become too strong to carry. Once around 1BI, the fleet had a tough beat to the finish line.

In PHRF 3, John Esposito on the J/29 HUSTLER (past 4x winner at STC BIRW) said, “It was just another day at the office. We had the bow wave back to the shrouds and the rooster tail coming off the transom. RUMOR (John Stock’s J/80) was the only one in the class besides us to carry a chute. It was a great ride.”

WEDNESDAY
After Tuesday’s rowdy 20-to-30 knot winds for the Round the Island Race, a westerly wind between 10 and 17 knots returned on Wednesday with brilliant skies, calmer seas and oscillations of 15 to 20 degrees. Those were sailing conditions for which Block Island Race Week is renowned. Wednesday’s racing saw hierarchies overturned in some classes, notably the J/109, which was hosting its North American Championship, and the J/105, which is hosting its East Coast Championship.

“We ran out of bullets today,͟” said Iris Vogel, owner of the J/88 DEVIATION.  “We had our heads in the boat a little too much and the current was a challenge for us. Others are mixing it up now but that’s good. It’s very close racing.”  DEVIATION posted a 3-1-3 and still led the class, but only by 1 point over Rod Johnstone’s JAZZ.  “They’re a little faster than us upwind, but we feel we have a slight edge downwind,” said Vogel. “It’s good that the others are mixing it up. It wouldn’t be any fun if we won all the races.”

One of the top boats on the day was Donald Filippelli’s J/109 CAMINOS, which posted a 2-1-1 to leapfrog from second into first with the North American Championship hanging in the balance. The 25-boat fleet (the largest at race week) includes Rick Lyall’s STORM and Jim Vos’s SKOOT, winners of the past three North Americans. But it’s CAMINOS firmly in the driver’s seat, holding a 15-point lead over Bill Sweetser’s RUSH.

“We were able to stay out of trouble today,͟” said Ryan Dempsey, the helmsman and son-in-law of owner Filippelli. “We were almost burned at the pin end in the first race. The wind had shifted left and there was a big bunch up. But we were able to get through and tack away.”

“CAMINOS was really fast today,” said Dan Cameron, the mainsail trimmer on third-placed SKOOT. ͞Ryan just punches it off the line and they had good speed on the course.”

In the J/105 Class, Paul Beaudin’s LOULOU posted a 1-5-1 to also leapfrog from second into first. LOULOU now had the low score of 20 points and led last night’s leader, James McDonald’s Bermuda team on DISTANT PASSION, by 3 points. Bruce Stone’s ARBITRAGE was third with 29 points while two-time reigning champion Damian Emery’s ECLIPSE was fourth with 31 points.

For Beaudin, Thursday was about getting his new crewmembers in sync and improving his starts. “We had great speed all day. In fact, we’ve had great speed all week,͟” said Beaudin. “We have a couple of new people on the boat and after a couple of days we’re working very well together. I’ve been over early quite a bit this week but today we got relatively clean starts. That, combined with really good boatspeed has helped drastically!”

In the J/44 Class, Jeff Willis’ CHALLENGE IV put forth the best scoreline of the day, rattling off a 1-1-1 to take a commanding 9-point lead over Don and Rick Rave’s RESOLUTE, which has 20 points.  “We’ve been having troubles keeping the propeller centered. So, I bought a huge clamp and put it on the shaft and that kept the prop lined up,͟” said Willis. “But, the real key today was our starts. We nailed all three starts at the pin end. The pin was hard to get on Monday because boats were coming in on port and tacking to leeward. But today we got the pin and worked the left side of the beats. And we got the laylines right, that was also critical!”

Mike Bruno’s Wings (J/122) also leapfrogged last night’s leader in IRC 4. Wings finished 2-1-2 and had 16 points, 1 point ahead of Ed Freitag’s and Molly Haley’s DownTime (Summitt 40). James Blakemore’s Music (Swan 53) dropped first to third with 21 points after finishing 1-5-7.

THURSDAY
Unlike yesterday, however, the wind was blowing anywhere from the west to the south. One competitor reported an extreme shift of 60 degrees before the start of the second race, but more commonly the shifts were between 20 and 30 degrees. The strength also was lighter, in the 9- to-14 knot range. Some boats even used a Light No. 1 headsail in the second race.

Jeffrey Willis’ (Huntington Bay, N.Y.) CHALLENGE IV ran its winning streak to five in the J/44 class with two additional victories today. After figuring a way to clamp the propeller in line, Willis and crew have had few challenges in the class. Holding a 12-point lead over Don and Rick Rave’s (Huntington Bay, N.Y.) RESOLUTE in the six-boat class, CHALLENGE IV essentially had it wrapped up.

Donald Filippelli’s (Amagansett, N.Y.) CAMINOS was also in the driver’s seat in the J/109 Class. After scoring two seconds, CAMNIOS had strung together five consecutive top-2 finishes and held a 15-point lead over Bill Sweetser’s (Annapolis, Md.) RUSH.

In the J/105 Class, hosting its East Coast Championship, Damian Emery’s (Shoreham, N.Y.) ECLIPSE, the reigning race week champion, scored a 1-2 and moved up to second from fourth the night before. Paul Beaudin’s (New York, N.Y.) LOULOU continued leading with 28 points after finishing 7-1, 6 points ahead of ECLIPSE.

Another crew with a nearly unassailable lead is John and Tony Esposito’s (Mohegan Lake, N.Y.) J/29 HUSTLER in PHRF 3 HUSTLER scored two victories today and led their class by 13 points. A class victory by HUSTLER would be its fifth consecutive at race week.

In the J/88 Class Iris Vogel’s (New Rochelle, N.Y.) DEVIATION and Rod Johnstone’s (Stonington, Conn.) JAZZ each scored a 1-2, which means DEVIATION still holds a 1-point lead heading into the final day.

FRIDAY
On the final day, yet more spectacular sailing conditions blessed the fleet.  Overnight another front had passed through and left the fleet with brilliant sunshine, puffy cotton-ball shaped clouds flying across the horizon and a cool northeasterly breeze of 10-15 kts.  The RC PRO’s were each able to serve up two more races to close out the week of simply fantastic sailing.  It also marked several upsets in three classes on the final day of action in Block Island Sound.

Starting off with IRC 3 Class, Mike Bruno’s merry bandits aboard his J/122 WINGS posted double bullets to score the class win by five points over archrivals Downtime sailed by Freitag/Haley and the four other J/122s.  It was a solid come-from-behind performance for Bruno’s team.  Second J/122 was John Pearson’s RED SKY with Brown University Sailing Director John Mollicone aboard, plus they were fifth in class after posting a strong 2-3 on the last day— perhaps the “most improved” award goes to them!  The third J/122 was Paul Milo’s ORION, 4th was Rupert & Jan Thouron’s DUNDER and 5th was Dan Heun’s MOXIEE.

The next upset was in PHRF 1 division, where Bennet Greenwald’s crew on the J/111 PERSEVERANCE did exactly as the boat’s name implied, persevered until the very end to post a 1-2-2 in the last three races to win by the slimmest of margins- a half point!  Taking 5th in class was Doug Curtiss’s veteran team on the J/111 WICKED 2.0 (themselves a past Round Island winner and class champion at Block Island).

The J/88s enjoyed a fantastic first year as a one-design class at Block; they also saw a regime change on the final day.  Rod Johnstone’s family crew on JAZZ scored two bullets to win by only one point over the very well-sailed DEVIATION, skippered by Iris Vogel from Long Island Sound.  Third in class was David Betts’ INSTANT KARMA.

Another upset and another come-from-behind victory was registered by J/105 class veteran Damian Emery sailing the infamous ECLISE.  Their mistakes were “eclipsing” them in the early part of the week.  However, the overcame that slow start with a 1-2-1-2 in the last four races to take the J/105 East Coast Championship crown with 37 pts.  Just one point back after leading most of the series was a somewhat disappointed Paul Beaudin on LOULOU; as he explained later, “I’m still happy with the outcome considering the fact we were surrounded by J/105 North American Champions!”  Taking third place was past BIRW Rolex winner Bruce Stone on ARBITRAGE from San Francisco, CA.

Nothing changed much in the J/109 North American Championship; the insanely fast and smartly-sailed CAMINOS owned by Don Filippelli sailed off into the sunset with a 2-1 to cement their firm grip on the championship trophy!  Congratulations to him and his family team, an amazing performance!  As anticipated before the series started, the two protagonists always doing battle for class honors took the next two places, with Bill Sweetser’s RUSH team from Annapolis taking the silver and Rick Lyall’s STORM crew from Cedar Point taking the bronze.  Fourth was Jim Vos’ SKOOT and fifth place was Jonathan Rechtshaffer’s EMOTICON.

Similarly, the J/44s also saw a “runaway”, this time in the form of Jeff Willis’ CHALLENGE IV.  Taking no prisoners after race four, Willis’ crew literally “ran the table”, scoring all 1sts from there on end to win by the massive amount of 14 points in a six boat fleet!  Don & Dick Rave’s RESOLUTE sailed a consistent series to take second with 29 pts and in third was Len Sitar’s VAMP sitting on 37 pts.

The PHRF 2 class saw a spirited performance by the classic J/35.  Tom Sutton’s LEADING EDGE won two races on the way to posting mostly top four finishes to take the silver.

As has happened in BIRW’s past, the PHRF 3 Class was simply swamped with super-hot J/29 crews slicing up the race course.  Doing a “seven-peat” was class winner HUSTLER, the J/29 sailed by the father-son combo of John & Tony Esposito.  They eclipsed their fleet with eight 1sts and three 2nds- not bad for a bunch of old guys, eh?!  Giving them a run-for-the-roses and keeping the Espo’s honest was Bristol’s Steve Thurston on his J/29 MIGHTY PUFFIN, taking 3rd place in a very competitive fleet.  Fifth place was past J/80 North American Champion RUMOR sailed by John Storck.  Sailing photo credits- Clark/ photoboat.com.   For more Storm Trysail Club Block Island Race Week sailing information