This past weekend, the Ida Lewis Yacht Club’s eponymous annual race celebrated two decades of challenging, exciting racing. The race, which is designed to take roughly 24 hours, starts and finishes in Newport, making an offshore loop through the night that ranged from 104 to 150nm this year, depending on the classes’ projected finish times. 35 boats in six classes (two ORC, one doublehanded, and three PHRF) competed.
“This year’s edition stayed true to its reputation, serving up the full spectrum of offshore sailing: strong breezes, tidal currents, and sometimes frustrating stretches of light to no wind at all,” said Event Chair Anselm Richards. “The racecourse tested both seamanship and strategy, keeping crews and tacticians on their game from start to finish.”
Despite a sporty downwind start that saw billowing spinnakers off the line, stretches of light air made for a challenging, tactical race for those who stuck it out. 10 boats retired.
First to finish after 22 and a half hours was the S&S 60 Running Tide, raced by Beau Van Metre of Middleburg, Virginia and crew. They won the PHRF Coronet class, which sailed a 114nm course. The next finisher was Captain Sluggo, a Hobie 33 Mod skippered by Tommy Henshaw of Newport, Rhode Island. They finished in 23 hours 20 minutes and won the PHRF Bagheera class.
Henshaw said that nailing a pin end start was key to their success. “It was the same start we did when I crewed to win on the J/99 Agent 99 last year. On the Hobie 33, we can head deeper with the same boat speed, so we had the fleet where we needed them.”
Other class winners were Elliott Merrill’s LM 46 Arcadia in ORC 1; Charles de Coquet’s Class 40 Concise 8 in PHRF Aloha; Will McKeige’s Figaro 2 Groupe 5 in ORC 2 (and the ILYC Commodore’s Trophy for best corrected time overall); and Chris Benzak’s Sunfast 3300 Low Profile in Double Handed.
It was like three races in one,” said Benzak, who doublehanded with Ben Chafee. “From a breezy start to a full stop at the MOA mark, then a fresh start after the boat did a full pirouette in zero breeze. We had three hours of dead calm again in the pre-dawn to dawn hours, and I went for a lovely swim. After that we cooked pasta on a flat boat with a full kite, in 14 knots of breeze at our hip. Doublehanded is an exciting way to sail, and we like that this is like sailing’s 24 Hours of LeMans.”
This year also marked a strong showing for the young sailors, with youth and collegiate teams (40% or more of the crew) representing 14 and 17% of the fleet respectively. Bill Kneller’s J/109 Vento Solare, third in its PHRF Coronet class, won the Arent H. Kits van Heyningen Trophy for the Youth Challenge. William Denker’s J/99 Falcon, second in Coronet class, won the Tuthill Collegiate Trophy for the Collegiate Challenge.
“It was an outstanding showing of the next generation of sailors,” said one of the race’s Youth/Collegiate coordinators, Adam Witham.
For more information, go to http://www.ilyc.org/distancerace
