Blustery Conanicut YC Round Island Race

J/29 Dominates Class B, J’s Sweep Class G!
(Jamestown, RI)- Sunday dawned with a rather intimidating forecast.  The remnants of Hurricane Harvey that left a catastrophe in its wake across the Texas Gulf Coast had moved northeast and was rolling over New England on Sunday morning.  Strong rains and wind gusting 15-30 kts greeted the sailors ready to participate in the 90th Annual Around The Island Race- an end of summer tradition for most active sailors on Narragansett Bay.  This year, an enormous fleet of 101 boats were registered, 23 of them J/Crews (about 23% of the fleet) in various classes!

The Conanicut YC Race Committee wisely postponed the start of the race for nearly two hours to let the strong easterly winds abate into the 15-25 kts range.  By noon, the small boats took off on a shortened course going north up Bay towards Prudence Island, rounding the green buoy and heading back down beneath Newport Bridge for a fast, safe race.  Offshore, the storm swells were hitting upwards of 10 to 12 ft at the traditional turning point off the southern end of the island- Beavertail Point bell.  The big boats- the last four divisions to start, did sail the traditional race, but also heading counter-clockwise, going north beneath Newport Bridge, leaving the green bell and green can at the northern end of the island to port, back south through Jamestown Bridge, around Beavertail Point bell to port, back up the Bay past Castle Hill Lighthouse, leaving Clingstone Rocks to port and into the finish line at Jamestown.

With a strong ESE breeze, it was a quick race for the two race tracks as it was essentially a “fetch” in all directions to each turning point.  In the small boat fleets, the race was less than two hours elapsed.

In Class B Spinnaker, it was Dennis Nixon’s J/29 LYNX that won their class quite handily.  Then in Class D, the two J/24s that raced could still hold their own in the demanding conditions, with Mike Hill’s OBSTREPROUS finishing 3rd and Rob Lambert’s BARFLY taking 4th in class.  Similarly, in Class E, the two J/30s both finished in the top five, with Chris Tate’s BLITZ finishing 4th and Daniel Borsutsky’s FLYING HIGH taking 5th place.

For the larger boats that actually did race around the island, it was Classes G, H, J & K- four classes in total.  Class G saw a clean sweep of the podium by J crews, with Sean Doyle’s J/105 KESTREL winning, followed by Paul Grimes’ J/35 BREAKAWAY just over 3 minutes back on corrected to take 2nd.  Third position went to Doug Newhouse’s J/88 YONDER, just 40 second back corrected.  Fourth was Dawson & Ben Hodgson’s J/100 GRIMACE another minute back and in 5th was EC Helme’s J/92S SPIRIT.

Finally, in the “J” class, appropriately enough, it was the first shakedown race for the new J/121 INCOGNITO co-skippered by Joe Brito and Jeff Johnstone. INCOGNITO led the class off the start and through Newport Bridge on a close fetch with the J1 sheeted to the rail. Half way to the north end as the reaching angle broadened, three smaller sport boats in the class leap-frogged ahead with early Code 0 sets. INCOGNITO eventually followed with a Code 0 and by the north turn, the four had stretched out from the rest of the class. Then the J/121 crew proved their mettle and ground down all but one sport boat on the port tack fetch to the Beavertail, rounding that mark 2nd before heading back to the finish under J1 jib trimmed to the rail to Clingstone Rock bell, then popping an A4 kite for the short burst to the finish for second on elapsed and third on corrected. The J/122 TARAHUMARA sailed by Jack Gregg from Corinthian YC of Philadelphia, took 5th in class, correcting our 4 minutes behind the J/121. All in all, it was a fun day for the INCOGNITO team who has their sights set on the 2018 Newport to Bermuda Race. Sailing photo credits- Paul Todd/ Outside Images  For more Conanicut YC Around Island Race sailing informationAdd to Flipboard Magazine.Add to Flipboard Magazine.


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