The Block Island Race is done and dusted. “Comanche” completed the course in 11 hours. “Comanche” was back in Newport before I made it back. For “Snow Lion” it was under 22 hours. The forecast was almost right, the timing of the transitions was not quite as predicted but the general forecast was right.
I have never exited Long Island Sound by 10 pm before; and back in the Sound by 5 am. Nature provided a most lovely starry evening with a stark orange crescent of a moon over New York City.
Next weekend is the block island race, with most of the crew for the transatlantic race aboard.
A brief intermission to watch the volvo inshore race off ft. Adams.
FT. ADAMS CROWDS
Friday was the first sail of the season. New rigging tuned, it will stretch and need re-tuning; everything focused at the transatlantic race starting July 1.
This is footage from the 2011 race. Already so long ago. The Transatlantic race this summer from Newport RI to the Lizard in England. There will be 3 starts beginning in June, the last start in July for boats like “Comanche” and “Rambler”. I intend to sail with many old shipmates once again on “Snow Lion” belonging to Larry Huntington.
transatlantic race 2011 from ws lirakis on Vimeo.
transatlantic race 2011 from ws lirakis on Vimeo.
A lot has changed in offshore sailing since Larry Huntington first raced across the Atlantic in 1957. Advances in yacht design, construction and materials have made the boats exponentially faster and more durable. Modern communications enable boats to remain in touch with other competitors and the rest of the world throughout the nearly 3,000-mile journey. But the essence of the adventure remains much the same.
“Going across the Atlantic is a fantastic change of pace from everyday life,” says Huntington, who is a former commodore of the New York Yacht Club, which will co-host the race with the Royal Yacht Squadron, in association with the Royal Ocean Racing Club and the Storm Trysail Club.
“It’s a chance to think about what Joseph Conrad wrote about the mystery of the sea. ‘The true peace of God begins at any spot a thousand miles from the nearest land.’ All of that goes through your head as you do this kind of adventure. It’s a wonderful time for reflection. It’s also intensely competitive. I find it all-consuming and enormously energizing.”
So it’s no surprise, that more than a half century after his first trip across the Atlantic, Huntington’s 50-foot Snow Lion was one of the first boats to enter into the 2015 Transatlantic Race, which will start from Newport, R.I., in late June and early July of 2015 and finish at Lizard Point, on the southwestern corner of England.
With 15 months until the first gun is fired from Castle Hill in Newport, R.I., more than 20 boats have entered and nearly 70 others have expressed interest. The fleet for 2015 is expected to reach its limit of 50 boats, nearly double the 26 boats that competed in the race in 2011.
“We’re extremely pleased with the significant early interest in this race,” says Royal Yacht Squadron’s Rear Commodore Yachting David Aisher. “The history of the transatlantic race dates back to the birth of recreational ocean racing in the late 1800s. More than a century later, it remains one of the ultimate tests of yachting skill.”
This will be the third Transatlantic Race for Snow Lion, a 50-foot boat designed by Jason Ker and built in 2006. There is an adage that says distance racers should never sail on any boat that is shorter in feet than their age. Huntington, who will be 80 when the race starts, clearly doesn’t subscribe to that theory.
“I had seen some of Ker’s previous designs and admired how they behaved and looked,” says Huntington. “We kept losing races to other Ker designs, so I figured [building one for myself] was a good thing to do.”
In 2011, it took Huntington’s team more than 15 days to complete the course. While that race was notorious for light and challenging wind conditions, the transatlantic course is still one of the longest regular races open to amateur sailors.
“First and foremost, you need a really compatible, competent crew,” says Huntington of the keys to success. “If you have full confidence in your shipmates, everyone gets the proper amount of rest and then you can address whatever Mother Nature wants to throw at you.”
Race website: www.TransatlanticRace.org
– See more at: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2014/04/01/offshore-racing-consuming-enormously-energizing/#sthash.NO8bexoc.dpuf
This weekend is underway; the NYYC Annual Regatta, yesterday was what is becoming a fixture, the round the island race (around conanicut island) plenty of wind and the tide running hard. Today I am almost certain we will sail outside, heading to R2 at the entrance of Narragansett Bay. The weather forecast was spot on as events unraveled as predicted. Today, if the forecast is as predicted we may well start with an answering pennant, signaling a delay; as we wait for the wind to settle.
Francois Joyon and IDEC are now only 31 miles behind Thomas Coville and SOBEDO.
It is Labor Day Weekend and that makes it the Stamford Vineyard Race. For most of my life my calendar was measured by sailing events. Memorial Day Weekend was the Block Island Race. Despite this, I always found it curious that the holidays where most of the country spent time with their families, we were off sailing.
Rambler, George David’s 90 foot RP should be finishing soon.
I am back from the Bermuda Race. I sailed on Snow Lion, a Ker 50. We completed the race in 64 hours, the fastest I have ever completed the race, a personal best, if you like. However, everyone else set new personal bests as well. The new record is 39 hours 39 minutes an 18 seconds,set by Rambler, a 90 foot RP, breaking the previous record by 14 hours.
The weather co operated and by the time of our start we had an ebb tide and 12 knots from the south. After beating out to Beavertail; we set the big chute and jibed down the west passage in order to stay out of the current and in the best wind. After turning the corner at the north end of Connanicut Island we faces a beat to the finish off Ft. Adams. We were in the inside of the fleet for a 30 degree lift, But could not point and gave up any advantage we had gained. A great day of sailing and some rig tuning which should help our performance,
If any of you remember the forecast before the race,the actuality was even more complicated. local topography played, as always in long island sound, a big part. There were many small cells, both warm and cold that took turns moving over us. Even though we had a good forecast, the timing worked at the whim of nature. In the end the 2012 version of the Block Island Race was like almost every other race I have sailed. Click HERE for results.
