Block Island Race Week 2002: Daily Reports

Photos

Saturday, June 22: Final report

BIRW 2002 is history. It was a light air regatta with windspeeds rarely getting beyond the low teens. The weather was terrific with the possible exception of a little cloudiness and cold in the first couple of days. Other than that we had sun. Owners were pretty low key about the racing and there were no major incidents, damage, or injury. There were few protests and only one general recall. As Billy Baldwin put it -- "This was my fourth Block Island Race Week, and this was the best." He and others appreciated the fewer number of boats and the general lack of crowding. The Race Committee received high praise from most of the competitors I talked to. They didn't give us the 12 races anticipated due to weather considerations, but eight is the most we've ever had. The appreciated when the RC posponed the harbor start on Thursday instead of having them sit outside for three additional hours. Ted Zuse of Zuse, Inc. (along with the J/105 class) made it happen this year after Premiere Racing dropped out. We hope that he will be back in 2004 with an even better regatta.

Here are some quick facts about this years' regatta

Here are the sailmaker reports:

Friday, June 21: Sixth report

The sun rose at 5:13 and it is light a good 20 minutes before that, so going for a bike ride at 6 a.m. is really not that early. The honeysuckle and the red winged black birds seemed to be everywhere this morning. There were some flags flying and there was dark water away from the island. The weather radio was predicting about 10 knots from the SW building to 15. Sure enough, they fired off the harbor start at 8:30 a.m. and got the racing started at 10:30, right on schedule.

They ran two races of 4 legs to 210 at 1.5 miles. The first race saw the first general recall of the regatta, and the next two starts were clean under the "I" flag. All the courses have had gates and offsets. Both races were sailed in 8-10 knots with little of the 15 knots that was predicted for the afternoon. The ebb started at The Race at 9:18 a.m. and continued for the two races. This meant an easterly flow toward the island and then a southerly flow along the southwest shore. The boats going to shore both upwind and downwind seemed to make out the best. The current streams were not quite as much in evidence as previous days.

MORNING GLORY had a big day with a 2-1. In the second race they were what seemed like a half mile clear of the rest of the fleet, which was tightly bunched. PICANTE also had a big day with a 1-5. KINCSEM held on to first place by the skin of their teeth with a 7-11. WET LEOPARD took themselves out of contention with a 18-4. SCARAMOUCHE also had its best day of the Regatta with a 3-2.

Joerg Esdorn on KINCSEM won the regatta with an average finish of 5.125 for the 8 races with one throwout. Carl Olsson on MORNING GLORY was only a point behind, moving from seventh to second on the last day. Rob Salk on PICANTE also moved up on Friday into third. Don Priestly on WET PAINT and Jim Sorensen on WET LEOPARD were fourth and fifth respectively.

Thursday, June 20: Fifth report

At 8:30 the RC announced a postponement of the harbor start until 11:30 because the prospects for wind were negligible. At 11:30 they sent us out, but the wind was still not willing to cooperate. We again waited for a couple more hours until the wind came up. The committee set a four leg course of 1.5 miles to 180 degrees. The first classes played the beach along the island and the 105 class followed suit. The wind was light all the way up the beat and all but disappeared at the weather mark at the same time as the ebb was moving right to left. KIMA and KINCSEM arrived nearly overlapped and they tacked for the offset. KINCSEM fetched it and KIMA hit the offset causing a 360 and losing four boats. KINCSEM extended on the downwind leg, followed by MORNING GLORY, DRAGONFLY, LAST TANGO, and KIMA. The second lap followed the same pattern as the first with boats going to the beach. KIMA managed a pass on LAST TANGO for fourth and PICANTE was a close fifth. DRAGONFLY passed MORNING GLORY for second.

The Oar sponsored the drinks and chips at the tent tonight. People seemed to appreciate the informality of this years' Block Island. Nobody seemed to be too disappointed that there was no daily silver. It seems like a very low-key group of owners. Going into the last day and pending the throwout, KINCSEM is first, WET LEOPARD second, and WET PAINT third. Nobody is safe and the winner will have to do well on Friday.

Wednesday, June 19: Fourth report

They say that Block Island has 365 ponds, one for every day of the year. I don't know about that, but I've counted quite a few. The smaller ones are filled with water lillies, worthy of a Monet painting. Today the ocean was nearly flat and the flags were limp, so no chance of an Around-the-Island Race. Right?

Wrong! We sat and sat and sat for about three hours until there was enough breeze. During this period, there was an impromptu meeting of the J/105 owners on ELMO. Well maybe there weren't all 28, but there were a good percentage of them, and we managed to polish off all the beer on the boat. When the wind was seeming to come up, there was a scramble of the owners to get back on their own boats. Then we waited for another two hours before the wind really came up. Such as it was. We thought that they would just do buoy racing, but they decided to send us around the island anyway, since Thursday promised to be lighter yet.

The wind was out of the south at about 8 knots to start and by 5 p.m. when we finished, it was 14 knots or so. The 105s were the fourth start and we watched veterans Bob Johnstone and Todd Bermann in the forward classes bang the southwest shore. But the boats that stayed out seemed to get the best of it around R4 going agains the beginning of the flood. Then there was a close reach across the bottom under spinnakers where the racers tried to make their runner chutes into reachers. Some saw 65 apparent. There was a lot of adverse current all the way around the island. On the east side, it paid to stay outside again as the flood started pushing north around the island. By the time we reached 1BI, the flood was in full fury, pushing us toward Long Island. More than one of us who stayed in the rip found ourselves tacking back to the leeward mark. The beat back down the west found that the flood wrapping around the island was preferable to being swept west. The newbies were amazed by how the wind seemed to die as they were carried by the current. It was a very challenging race.

Meeting the challenge the best were Jim Sorensen, WET LEOPARD, Carl Olsson, MORNING GLORY, and Don Priestly, WET PAINT.

Tuesday, June 18: Third report

Did I mention how cold it has been? Yesterday crews had on full foul weather gear even though there was no foul weather. Today, on my bike ride, I had to look twice to convince myself that the foam at the edges of Fresh Pond was really not ice. Thank goodness that yesterday and today had some sun.

The race committee was a little slow in getting off the racing, much to the chagrin of the competitors. There was enough wind for most, but they seemed intent on having perfectly stable direction. First they started a race to 210 magnetic, but after the second fleet got started, they abandoned the race waiting for the sea breeze to fill in. And waited ... and waited. Finally they set a four legger to 230 at 1.5 miles. The wind was not much more than 8-10 knots. There was still some ebb and those who tacked early on the layline were swept out to it. KIMA got to the weather mark first, overlapped by VALE. The top seven boats all finished within about 30 seconds. They included PICANTE, WET PAINT, VALE, CYAN, WET LEOPARD, KIMA, and KINCSEM, not necessarily in that order (no results yet). KINCSEM is definitely still in the lead.

The second race was sailed in a decent sea breeze (10-14 knots). This time the RC called for six legs at 2.0 miles for a 12 mile course late in the afternoon. This time KINCSEM took an early lead and never looked back. By finish time it was nearly 5:30 p.m. People wanted more racing, right? The cocktail party at Mossup's got started a little late tonight. It doesn't look like there will be enough wind for the around-the-island race tomorrow, but we will see.

Monday, June 17: Second report

The 6 a.m. bike ride around the island is often a portent of the day. If the ocean is glassy smooth there a good chance that there will be a wait for the sea breeze to fill in. On this morning there were clear ripples and the flags were extended, so there was a good chance of starting at 10:30 on schedule. In the first race the 105s were the third start of five (only one circle this year). At the start there was 8-10 knots of wind out of the west. Joerg Esdorn's KINCSEM was one of about five boats called over early, so they banged the left and rounded second to Linc Mossup's CAT CAME BACK on the ensuing left shift. KINCSEM made the pass on the first downwind leg and never looked back. The RC decided not to reorient the course, so the race the second downwind leg turned into a parade. There was a lot of traffic at the first weather mark and there was more than one 720 executed there. CAT finished second and WET LEOPARD third.

The first three starts of the second race went off to the south, but then the wind shifted to the SW and the RC realigned after a short postponement. The 105s had a clean start. In this race there were rivers of current across the course at 2 knots and those who took advantage were able to make good gains. The best at this game was Don Priestly aboard WET PAINT, closely followed by KINCSEM, with MORNING GLORY third.

Tonight was the dinner party at Joerg Esdorn's house with many of the crews attending. Burgers, chicken, beer, wine, and desert provided by the comptetiors. After one day of racing there were four boats bunched with 9 and 10 points. The top five: KINCSEM 2,1-3; CYAN 5,4-9; MORNING GLORY 6,3-9; WET PAINT 9,1-10; WET LEOPARD 3,7-10. Rounding out the top ten were PICANTE, VALE, PRETTY SKETCHY, TERN, and KIMA.

Sunday, June 16: First report

Those who sailed over on Saturday had fair sailing whether they came from East, West, or North. The wind was NNE at 15-25 kts and many boats flew their spinnakers on the way in. KIMA made the 25 miles from Wickford in 3.33 hours for an average of 7.6 knots. By Saturday night we saw the WETs, KIMA, CAT, VALE, COOL KIS, JATO, MORNING GLORY, 40 WHACKS, KINCSEM and ALL RIGHT at the Boat Basin. More boats were at Champlins and on moorings. New Harbor was remarkably quiet, with few boats of any sort for the third week in June. Under the tent Ted Zuse and Mike Thompson were getting organized for registration and practice for the RC. There are 28 105s and 45 PHRF boats for the regatta.

Sunday was a perfect sailing day. The wind was SSW at about 10-12 knots and the fleet made full advantage of the practice conditions. About a half dozen boats gathered at the location of the starting circle to do a couple of windward-leeward practice races. After practice, boats had their bottoms scrubbed, gathered their registration materials, participants weighed in, and several boats who won "the lottery" were inspected and had their spinnakers measured. The evening saw a little rain, but everyone was ready for an outstanding week on the water.

2002 Block Island Race Entries as of 6/22/01

Bobbi Coffey, ELMO, #25, Fleet #6, North
Hugh/Ken McLean, ALL RIGHT, #56, Fleet #14, Halsey Lidgard
John Coffey, TERN, #73, Fleet #6, North
Paul/Jayme Strauch/Fagas, ANDIAMO, #176, Fleet #6, UK
Ken Colburn, WITCH, #200, Fleet #23, North
Don McClusky, KETCHUPLESS, #211, Fleet #14,BI Sails/Quantum/Quantum
John Peterson, LAST TANGO, #212, Fleet #6, Doyle
Billy Baldwin, CYAN, #239, Fleet #6, Doyle
Bill/Buddy Riker/Rego, VALE, 247#, Fleet #21, North
Linc Mossup, THE CAT CAME BACK, #256, Fleet #14, North
Nelson Weiderman, KIMA, #300, Fleet #14, North/North/Banks
Jim Sorensen, WET LEOPARD, #307, Fleet #14, Ullman
Joerg Esdorn, KINCSEM, #324, Fleet #6, Ullman
Skip Young, DRAGON FLY, #333, Fleet #14, North
Don Priestly, WET PAINT, #334, Fleet #14, Ullman/Ullman/North
Bill Riggs, RIGADOON, #350, Fleet #14, Banks/North/Banks
Deborah/Larry Whitehead/Hennessey, WOODY, #353, Fleet #14, North/North/Sailrite
Bill/Steve Purdy, 40 WHACKS, #354, Fleet #14, North
Carl Olsson, MORNING GLORY, #389, Fleet #6, UK
Robert Salk, PICANTE, #413, Fleet #14, Ullman/Ullman/North
Bob/Ed Hooper/Feeley, MGOBLUE, #417, Fleet #2, UK/UK/Ullman
Jerry/Trudie Ficks, COOL KIS!!!, #458, Fleet #14, North
Jim Grover, PUGILIST, #460, Fleet #14, NorthB
Andy/Pam Gillis/Morris, JATO, #461, Fleet #14, Banks
Kent Harman, SCARAMOUCHE, #462, Fleet #14, North
Jim Brigger, TRUE NORTH, #489, Fleet #6, UK
Jim Doane, PRETTY SKETCHY, #485, Fleet #19, Ullman
Andy Schoettle, LOTUS, #490, Fleet #14, UK

-- Nelson Weiderman, for Fleet #14 and Fleet #6