2015 Block Island Race

I sailed the 2015 Block Island Race with Rocket Science, a J-120. I've sailed with Rocket Science before, and her skipper Rick a bunch more as well on other boats.

Here's a link to the race website:
http://www.yachtscoring.com/emenu.cfm?eID=1263

We gathered Friday morning for the early afternoon race start.

There she is, Rocket Science. There's a story behind the boat name , of course. I won't go into that now.

We motored from Fairfield CT to the start line in Stamford. At anchor was Comanche, which I think is the fastest 100' sailing vessel (monohull) in the world. Fast is fun, and sexy! She's less than a year old. Her first race was Sydney-Hobart on Dec 26th. All carbon fiber, of course.

Another Comanche pic from camera #2.

This was shortly after the start. Skipper Rick grabbed the spin sheet. We had a nice broad reach after the start, doing 8.19 through the water, 9.5 over the ground. Actually the speedo was under-reporting our speed through the water. Bottom to top -- Rich, George, Jeff, Fady, Connor, and skipper Rick.

Rob handled the helm duty at the start and into the first segment of the race.

Skipper is still working it.

I am clearly not the handsomest fellow on the crew.

Jeff got sme helm time. Fady at left and Rick at right. It was a really fun sail eastward on the sound.

My domain -- the nav station. We run Expedition.

Looks like Rob took a turn at kite trim. We all had a chance. Plenty of time to get a crick in the neck looking up at that curl.

Jeff grinding, Rich (eating dinner with his spork), and Dr. Mark at helm.

Another shot shortly after.

Well, a lot of stuff happens during sailboat races that does not get photographed. Especially when it's dark. Plus, ya know, I'm supposed to do stuff on the boat other than snap selfies.

We had a code zero mishap near Plum Island (dusk, 8PM?)

We saw Comanche around 1030 PM off Fisher's Island as we transited the race -- she had rounded Block and was headed home. DANG, that's fast! They were westbound, we still headed to Block. Then we had another sail change issue approaching 1BI shortly after midnight. Then some sloppy sail work rounding the SE corner of BI at 2AM, even with all hands. Then another bare-headed change shortly after dawn, about halfway from Block to the Gut. (THANKS JF for texting me in the middle of that mess!)

HL, nice dawn picture on FB.

We transited the Gut and flopped to starboard. We held starboard tack until 16 feet of water, then tacked to port. The weather forecasts were conflicting -- and consistently disagreeing with our local "now" conditions. Gribs did not agree with the weather maps from the same company.

By taking the starboard tack right into the beach, we were able to hold port tack to the finish as we got persistently lifted. It seemed efficient. The crew appreciated no more sail changes. I caught up on some sleep (sort of).

After we finished the race at 5:49.56 PM we tacked and headed toward home. We spotted a number of our competitors headed toward the finish line. Here's J105 Young American (with a youth crew from American YC).

I like them and have sailed with them. We decided not to protest them for sailing with their sprit extended unnecessarily.

We waved at them and congratulated them. They beat us handily on corrected time. Smoked us, actually. We finished 4th in division. Results:
http://www.yachtscoring.com/event_results_detail.cfm?Race_Number=1&eID=1263

Another of our competitors. TR?

Our finish time pool, won by Fady. When I run the pool I always choose start time first -- and before I run projected finishes using routing software. Otherwise it's skewed toward me.

I enjoyed a fast race, finishing in daylight, elapsed time less than 27.5 hours. Thanks, skipper Rick, and thank you crew-mates.

2015 Block Island Race

Monday, May 25, 2015

Scuttlebutt Write-up

2015 Block Island Race on Rocket Science