Classic Margaritaville Block Island Race Week

Sun, Fog, Wind, Rain, & Jimmy Buffett!
(Block Island, RI)- In a throwback to yesteryears, the Storm Trysail Club’s biennial Block Island Race Week lived up to its storied past, producing a myriad of challenges to the sailors on the water, as well as a “block buster” entertainment program onshore.

Nearly two hundred boats sailed the 2019 Storm Trysail Club Block Island Race Week, sponsored by Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville brand. The island weather Gods were up to their usual tricks. The first day was simply spectacular and most fleets completed four races. However, a huge frontal system was rolling offshore during Tuesday’s Around the Island Race, making for a thunderous, memorable, wet, windy, cold race.  Wet, indeed, like nearly 2.0” of rain in 2 hours, that is a lot of rain. Then, Wednesday was declared a “day off”, a true “lay day” where crews enjoyed the foggy but sunny day in cool temperatures ashore with tug-o-wars, badminton wars, and corn-hole wars, and even “mudslide wars”.  Thursday and Friday both dawned with foggy mornings that gradually gave way to sunny days and, thankfully, warm seabreezes building that permitted good racing on the final two days.

J/crews across the board enjoyed the week-long bacchanalian festival of sailing and onshore festivities.  In the ORC 2 Class, the Team family (Robin, Alston, & Colman) on the J/122 TEAMWORK from North Carolina managed a 2nd place in a very competitive eight-boat class.  Third was yet another J/122, Paul Milo’s ORION.

In the J/121 class, Joe Brito’s INCOGNITO won, followed by Peter Lewis’ Whistler team from Barbados in second, and Don Nicholson’s APOLLO in third position. One of the highlights of the week was the J/121 class reception hosted by Joe Brito for the five J/121 teams participating in the event; it was a family affair that was much enjoyed by all the owners (Peter Lewis, Don Nicholson, Greg & Sarah Manning) and crew.

In the eight-boat J/109 class, it was a classic “schooling” by the top team from Annapolis YC- Bill Sweetser’s crew on RUSH; posting seven 1sts and two 2nds to win by a significant margin.  Second was one of the strongest teams from Long Island Sound- Carl Olsson’s bright red MORNING GLORY; the only team to ultimately match Sweetser’s RUSH crew in the last four races, going “mano-a-mano” with them trading off 1sts and 2nds.  Third was Robert Schwartz’s very successful crew on NORDLYS.  Rounding out the top five was Tom Sutton’s Texas-based crew on another bright red boat- LEADING EDGE.  Fifth was Don Dwyer’s GUARDIAN J.

Matching the J/109 RUSH for best record (exactly) in the entire Block Island Race Week fleet was Mike Bruno’s crew on his J/88 WINGS from American YC in Long Island Sound, New York. While the WINGS crew eclipsed their fleet, it was a donnybrook for the balance of the podium over the course of the five days. In the end, it was the determined team on DEVIATION, skippered by Iris Vogel from Huguenot YC on Long Island Sound that took second place. DEVIATION posted their best record of the series on the last day with a 2-1 to take the daily class win. Third in the regatta was Bill Purdy’s WHIRLWIND. Like the J/121s, the J/88 crews enjoyed a wonderful fleet party hosted by Iris Vogel’s team at their house on the island.

While the 88s and 109s saw dominant fleet leaders, the J/105 class had an epic three-way battle for the top of the podium. As usual, it was a combination of luck, good tactics, speed, and Race Committee mistakes. Combined, it made for an interesting week for the leading teams. In the end, Paul Beaudin’s LOU LOU crew won in the final, epic battle in the last race to determine the class winner. Taking the short end of that stick was Bruce Stone & Nicole Breault’s GOOD TRADE, posting a 7th place to take 2nd. They won a tie-breaker on 33 pts over John & Marisa Koten’s GRAY MATTER. Rounding out the top five was Bill Zartler’s DEJA VOODOO in fourth and David Willis’ SOLUTION in fifth. Like their 88 and 121 counterparts, the J/105 class also enjoyed a large class get together on the island.

In the world of handicap racing, there were mixed results for some J/teams. In the PHRF 1 Division, Ken Comerford’s J/111 MONEYPENNY was one of the fleet leaders until their 6th race produced a 12 pts scoring penalty. As a result, the penalty torpedoed their chances for the class win, dropping from 2nd to 5th place in the end. Meanwhile, Bill & Jackie Baxter’s team on the J/111 FIREBALL had flashes of brilliance, posting finishes of 1-2-3-4-4, but their other results hurt their hopes for a podium finish, ending up in 4th place.

In the PHRF 2 Division, Rod Johnstone’s J/99 AGENT 99 managed a fourth place against remarkably tough competition.  Their highlight was Tuesday’s classic Around Island Race, winning the race boat-for-boat and correcting out to third place in the windy, foggy, rainy affair.

Not surprisingly, PHRF 3 class has been dominated by J/29s for decades. This time around, it was Jack McGuire’s DIRTY HARRY taking class honors over a past winner of the regatta, Steve Thurston’s MIGHTY PUFFIN.  John Cooper’s J/29 COOL BREEZE placed 4th.

The Pursuit Cruising 1 division saw Brian Prinz’s J/125 SPECTRE take the silver, with Len Sitar’s J/44 VAMP losing a tie-breaker for third place to settle for 4th place.

Two J/crews swept Pursuit Cruising 2 division, with G. John Krediet’s J/97 PARTICIPANT II winning class with Eric Bicknese’s J/105 BIG E.Z. taking the silver medal.

There was more good performances by J/29s in Performance Cruising 3 (non-spinnaker), with William Maher’s RIFT taking the bronze, while Peter Hilgendorff’s MEDDLER took 5th place. Sailing photo credits- "Block Island Steve"/ Stephen Cloutier. Follow Block Island Race Week on Facebook here  For more STC Block Island Race Week sailing informationAdd to Flipboard Magazine.


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