Sailing Central's inaugural running of Block Island Race Week was concluded
with many class winners surviving closely fought battles. This year, "The
Block" provided 5 sunny days of sailing with only Thursday s early arrival
of fog shorting the day's racing. The committee wisely delayed the harbor
start giving the sailors the morning to relax while waiting for the fog to
lift and the sea breeze to develop.
The largest class racing in this years event was J Boats rapidly growing
J-105 Class with (28 boats) competing. After racing 8 races that allowed the
competitors one throw-out, Doug Esdorn's Kinesem eventually won over Carl
Olson's Morning Glory by a single point. Going into the last race Morning
Glory had to win the race with Kinesem finishing no better than thirteenth.
Glory did what she had to do by winning the last race however, Kinesem held
on to an eleventh to win the class by only a single point. The close racing
was evident throughout the evenly matched one design boats. Dr. Robert
Salk's Picante, Don Priestly's Wet Paint and Sorenson's Wet Leopard rounded
out the top 5 with only 5 points two days and four races Class A found
itself in a three way tie with Tim Woodhouse's custom Thompson 35 Rumours,
Dr. Gino Bottino's custom IMS racer Tripp 43 Raven and Prebben Aras's new
Carroll Marine built one design racer/cruiser Farr 395 Tsunami. Wednesday's
running of the "Round Island Race" finally broke the tie with Tsunami coming
on strong on the final leg to the finish. Sailing in a freshing breeze and a
strong following tide Tsunami corrected over Rumours which finished 5th and
Raven's 4th to break the tie. Steve Garland's Wired who started slowly on
Monday's racing has come on strong with a 1st in race 3 and now a 2nd in the
Round Island Race. After three days of racing Tsunami sailing with a largely
new crew find themselves leading Class A. Little did they know they would
go on to dominate the class with finishes (2-4-1-1-1-1-2) winning over
Rumours in 2nd and Raven in 3rd.
The fleet witnessed John Esposito's J-29 Hustler win Class C barely over
Sirprize a very well sailed Sweden 38 owned by Bill Healy. Healy never gave
up closing the winning to only one point after Friday's racing.
Class D's winner Doug Davies' J-27 Amethyst battled with Ron Leaven's
Soveral 26 Hellfire and Mike Karen's and Lori Mover's Mariah 27 Insatiable
over the first three days racing. Winning some and losing some, but as the
week began the second half Amethyst came on strong to win the remaining
three races to win the class by four points over Hellfire in 2nd and
Insatiable finishing 3rd.
To say that Bob Johnstone was in "The Zone", the winning zone that is, is a
fair and true statement. Johnstone's J-120 Gannet won Class B with five 1st
and three 2nd's over Jim Nicols well sailed J-35 Zorro with North Sail's
Bear Hovey aboard and Mike McCarey's Beneteau 42 Chardonnay.
The Cruiser non-spinnaker Class E was the smallest class racing at this
year's event but holds the greatest promise for upcoming racing. Each day
the 5-boat class would decide their own point to point course to sail. Their
decisions were predicated on the expected wind and sea conditions
determining the direction and length of course. It was great to see sailors
who are not accustom participating in major race events enjoy the more
relaxed racing allowed their class at this year's Block Island Race Week.
Odette a Swan 431 chartered by Jim Pakos with his friends, all retired from
the Coast Guard won the class. The event organizers expect to see a major
increase in the cruiser class at the next Sailing Central Block Island Race
Week to be held in June of 2004.
At the conclusion of the event sailors from all the classes expressed their
thanks to Sailing Central and Zuse for picking up the event after Premiere
Racing announced its intention of dropping the event from its current events
it currently manages. Sailing Centrals' Block Island Race Week 2004 will
continue in the tradition of great sailing events.
