Block Island Race Week
2011 Block Island Race Week News
Allen Clark/PhotoBoat.com
F R I D AY • J U N E 2 4 , 2 0 1 1
Summer’s Here, and the Time is Right for Racin’ ‘Round the Block There was palpable excitement on the docks yesterday morning as word spread among the 134 crews at Block island Race Week XXIV presented by Rolex: We’re going around the island! After long postponements on Monday and Tuesday and no racing at all on Wednesday, and a forecast for 8 to 12 out of the East/Northeast, this was going to be a great day. By 1025, the Race Committee had set what appeared to be a very square starting line for a clockwise circumnavigation of the Bermuda of the North, and signals commenced at 1030. The combined IRC 1 and 2 classes were off first. Jim Swartz’s TP 52 Vesper (Park City, UT), the points leader in IRC 1 going into Thursday, incurred a costly foul at the start. After completing her penalty turns, the striking neon green and black boat headed toward shore for current relief.
In the second start, for the Farr One-Design and Swan 42 classes, Preben Ostberg, Todd Olds and Bud Dailey’s class-leading Farr 40 Tsunami (Annapolis, MD), was over early, as was Paul Hewitt’s Beneteau 36.7 Panacea (Fort Lee, NJ) in IRC4. As the sequence continued, most of the fleet stayed close to shore for the beat to the first mark, “1BI.” At North Light, Vesper rock-hopped alarmingly close to the beach, perhaps for an up-close view of the seals in the surf. Gwen & Austin Fragomen’s J/V 52 Interlodge (Newport, RI) was first around 1BI, with Richard Oland’s Southern Cross 52 Vela Veloce (St. John, NB) nipping at her heels. As the only IRC 1 boat to have sailed the outside of the first beat, the U.S. Naval Academy Sailing Squadron’s J/V 52 Anema & Core’s (Annapolis) gamble paid off and they rounded 1BI in third. In IRC 2, Jack LeFort’s