(Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard, MA)- Here’s the story on how they did it from Gary Leduc at Quantum Sails Bristol.“The race started at 8:00 am in 11-13 kts true from the East. We had a short port tack favored beat out to a drop mark, then a jib reach down Muskegett Channel to the sea buoy. The second leg was pretty much dead downwind, but the starboard jibe was a little favored.
The breeze stayed easterly until the very end of the 16-mile run, when the wind clocked a little SE and freshened. That made for a nice broad reach from Squibnocket to Devil’s Bridge. On the approach to Devil’s Bridge, the breeze slammed back to the East and started to freshen slightly to 14-16 kts. The tide was slack at Devil’s Bridge, but due to start flooding soon.
The key is to get up inside Middle ground in Vineyard Sound for the flood and ride a 2 kt boost all the way past Vineyard Haven.
That did happen for us, and as we came out of middle ground at West Chop, we where doing over 10 kts SOG right into the 14-16 kt Easterly! Those conditions made for very, very close, steep chop.
One
issue we did have was the Ferry coming out of Vineyard Haven. We could
not cross her bow. So, we had to tack onto port. We wanted to continue
on starboard, but the ferry altered that plan slightly! Once clear, we
tacked back onto port to a layline for the finish line.We where bottom-rated boat in PHRF Class A, while the highest rating boat was Aurora- a 65 footer. Also, in our class were Chessie Racing and Irie and Crazy Horse- all big fast boats over 55 feet.
Our Corrected Time was 6:38:11, winning by margin of 19min 20sec!
Since 2013, the J/111 WICKED 2.0’s race record in the Around The Vineyard race looks like three 1sts and one 2nd. The TP 52 SPOOKIE won last year.
There was a good J/Boat duel going on in Class B. Ultimately, the J/109 beat out a couple of very well sailed J/120’s! It was a great day for sailing and going around the 60nm course! Add to Flipboard Magazine.
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