Spring 2016 Race Highlights
It was the 79th running of this perennial event and 109 skippers and their crews enjoyed solid breeze, dying breeze, shifting breeze, sunshine, clouds, and drenching rain. 1BI reared it’s ugly tidal head each day and the uncertainty of wind direction, coupled with the variety of wind strength turned tacticians into dart throwers, hoping to end up in the wrong place at the right time. What happens on Block Island, stays on Block Island, and often, only happens on Block Island.
The old school approach was highlighted on Friday by a left over westerly that got the fleet off in good stead with Group 1 heading to Nebraska Shoal on a fast reach for course (N) Z.
Group 2 set off fetching 1BI on the course (B) Z. It seemed in the first many years of my experience racing in Off Soundings, this was the go to Friday course. It is also the first time we have set two courses in many years. This year is likely the final time for that course since the US Coast Guard plans to remove Nebraska Shoal buoy at the end of this year. And good riddance, say some!
With 13 classes off, Nor’easter quickly raised anchor, anticipating a fast race in the solid breeze. It is always a challenge to get to the finish line before the fast sleds, many of whom were planning right off the start line. But, there turned out to be no worries. The RC set mark Z in place 2 miles west off the finish line, hoping everyone would get some windward work in after the long reach to Block. We saw some of that for the early leaders, but mainly we saw the
Westerlies shift to Northerly, Northeasterly, Southerly for a bit, Nothing for another bit and finally, as the first boats were fetching the finish line from Z, a solid Easterly filled in from out of the new harbor and we had an upwind finish! Hey, if you don’t like the breeze direction, just wait a few minutes.
All was forecast by the Weather service provided by North Sails to the fleet as part of their sponsorship of Yacht Scoring…except for the Easterly!
Delta class Milago was first boat to finish covering the 21 miles in 2 hours 43 minutes.
The Viper 830 Suspect 2nd in 3 1⁄2 hours and then Spectre and Settler less than a minute apart, covering the long course in about 3 hours 23 minutes.
Wave Dancer was the first of the Group 2 boats to finish, covering the 18 miles in just 4 hours. Valkyrie in C-2 and the Nonsuch Mistral took the final nod from the RC as they covered their respective courses in just over 5 hours. Thankfully, our gracious host Henry Dupont IV has a well stocked food locker and plenty of cool drinks to keep the RC crew on task.
Friday’s rendezvous under the tent included the new era of scoring. Yacht Scoring made it’s debut and proved an unqualified success. Scores were posted by the time Nor’easter docked and the results were scrolled on a TV under the tent. The focus was on enjoying the party and reconnecting with old friends and new stories about the Block and her ever changing Saturday, the forecast predicted nasty weather late in the day and it was the RC intent to get around the island as quickly as possible. The wind was perfectly out of the south and we couldn’t have set it better if we had picked our direction. The fleet headed off upwind for the long beat down the West side of the island for a course of 4 B. It was my intent to keep it old school by allowing the fleet to play along the rocks if necessary, especially on the East side in case the Ebbing tide took effect late in the race. The ever present sea lawyers forced an amendment to the SI’s to keep the island to port rather than looping 4 and staying on the west side to loop B. We took care of that and off we go, 108 boats starting.
Once again, the Block took control and the breeze shut down, stalling some of the slower boats, including the Nonsuchs. Many of them couln’t get around 4 in the flooding
current. The wind continued to vary, with many able to enjoy a decent spinnaker run up the East side, but facing the ever changing current and wind shifts at 1BI. Even the boats who got around early, ran into major shifts during the final miles along the Northwest side of the island.
The Rich family took the first gun in Settler, changing sails twice in the last half mile.
They covered the 16 mile course in just over 3 1⁄2 hours. Direwolf and Spectre were a few minutes behind, followed by Suspect and Caliente finishing in just over 4 hours.
In the end, 81 boats finished, 26 boats retired and one had the time limit expire at 5 pm.
A long day for all and did I mentioned just when it was going flukey it rained and rained hard.
But, hey, we need the water. And where else would you rather be!
In summary, a good event from the Race Committee perspective, plenty of good stories and while conditions were rarely perfect, they were perfectly typical of an Off Soundings event where the wind never blows from the same direction consistently and you have to be smart and lucky and ready to enjoy being with your mates in trying moments. And the sun came out for the party!
I was pleased with Yacht Scoring. It worked as advertised and I know many of the racers were dialed in to it. We need to perfect the TV set up in the tent to have the results scrolling for all as part of the presentation. The North Sails giveaways went over big and I think we might remove our baby shoes and allow them more exposure under the tent. No one blinked that they were involved.
As I mentioned, the final results were posted shortly before Nor’easter hit the dock.
The weekend results with BOW were up immediately. The ECSA results without BOW were posted on YachtScoring by Tuesday evening. To date, there have been no scoring inquiries.
The results will be made final on Friday, June 24th just to allow any inquiries.
If anyone has any suggestions for the Fall Series and how we can improve our game, please pass them along.
Submitted 6/19/16
Greg Gilmartin
director@mystv.com.
