25th Anniversary of Race Week 1965-2013
June 23-28
25
The Storm Trysail Club th Block Island Race Week XXV
2013 Block Island Race Week News WEDNESday • June 26, 2013
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The Right Combination When the Race Week News editorial staff put the Tuesday edition to bed in the wee small hours, the race report indicated that the Round the Island Race would be held on Wednesday. An early morning phone call however, set the record straight: it would be on Tuesday, based on an updated forecast from Commanders’ Weather that called for less breeze on Wednesday. In a light southwesterly and on an outgoing tide yesterday morning, the Storm Trysail Race Committee announced that they were sending boats around in a counter-clockwise direction, with the IRC 1, Swan 42 and IRC 2 classes heading out to the first turning mark, two miles out. All other classes would be heading for a mark set at half that distance. After the first of ten class starts, Navy Offshore Sailing’s TP52 Corsair (Annapolis, MD), along with Carkeek 40 sisterships Stephen Murray’s Decision (New Orlreans, LA) and Heidi & Steve Benjamin’s SPOOKIE (Norwalk, CT) headed for shore on starboard tack, where there appeared to be both less current and
more breeze. Corsair had an excellent first beat and began building a lead, with Decision and SPOOKIE in hot pursuit. But when the plebes set their chute at Red Bell 4 just off Southwest Ledge, “Big Blue” took flight and would not be challenged for the rest of the day. As the 183-boat fleet made its way around the west side of the island, John Hele’s Daring (Rye, NY) had a nice lead in the 11-boat Swan 42 class. Although the building breeze was a bit better offshore, the boats that hugged the shore had made noticeable gains over those that ventured out. With the breeze faltering on the east side, teams deployed a variety of headsails and tactics in an effort to find pressure. Those who hit upon the right combination were rewarded with substantial gains. “The east side of the island was a big game-changer,” said Dave Schrader, jib trimmer on Damian Emery’s J/105 Eclipse (New York, NY). “We managed to sail around a big hole outside Old Harbor, and we held our line all the way to 1BI, where they finished us.” Eclipse has a perfect scoreline in the J/105 East Coast
Storm Trysail Club 2013 Block Island Race Week News • Wednesday 1