Dockery wins Block Island Race

Keith Taylor reports on a front of the fleet clash of the titans

Ray Dockery's 81-foot Reichel Pugh sloop Carerra was first to finish in the Storm Trysail Club's 58th annual Block Island Race this weekend, while his old Farr 60, now named Harrier, was handicap winner in the International Measurement System [IMS] Class One.

Harrier, owned and sailed by Steve Munger, was the fifth of six IMS boats in Class 1 to finish the 185-nautical mile course from Stamford, clockwise around Block Island and back to Stamford Harbor entrance, but she won on handicap from Robert Towse's Reichel Pugh 66-footer Blue Yankee, by nine minutes and four seconds. The race started on Friday night.

Although the race record has been broken three times in the last six years, a long rainy nighttime beat to windward out to Block Island's 1BI Buoy in a building easterly breeze and lumpy sea conditions killed any hopes of a record this year.

With 52 boats in contention, the Harvey Conover Memorial Trophy for the overall winner was awarded to John Santa's Swan 46 Galadriel, winner of Class 6 in the Performance Handicap Racing Fleet (PHRF). The prize goes to the boat that has won her class and in the judgment of the Race Committee has turned in the best performance.

Galadriel also won the Terrapin Trophy for the best corrected time in PHRF.

Munger's Harrier won the Commodore's Grail Trophy for the best corrected time by an IMS Racer. John Storck's veteran Ericson 39 Jonrob won Class 8 PHRF and was awarded the Commodore's Trophy for the boat that won her class and beat the second and third placed boats in that class by the greatest margin of time.

Dockery, skippered Carerra, formerly Hasso Plattner's Morning Glory, which set a record in the race in 1998. Carrera's helmsman this weekend was America's Cup helmsman Kenny Read who headed a crew of 19 including America's Cup sailors from Team Dennis Conner and Team New Zealand.

During the overnight race, Carerra's crew worked constantly to stave off Tom Hill's new Reichel Pugh 75-footer Titan, making her first race outing. Although five feet smaller, Titan pressed hard, crossing the finish line just four minutes and 20 seconds behind Carerra.

"We had a great race against Titan," said Simon Davidson, Carerra's professional boat captain. "We thought we'd pulled away from her overnight but then she reappeared out of the mist as we ran down Long Island Sound."

Davidson described the conditions beating out to Block Island as "pretty chunky" as the boat at times launched itself off steep six to eight foot waves. Running back from Block Island to Plum Gut under spinnaker before a freshening breeze, the boat was surfing at speeds up to 25 knots. "We almost broached when a steering cable broke," Davidson reported. "Fortunately each of the two steering wheels has separate cable systems and Kenny dived for the leeward wheel and regained control in time."

One casualty in the race was Colin Rath's X412 Googolplex. She was dismasted in Long Island Sound at 5:31 AM. Two other race boats went to the aid of Googolplex when the mast collapsed at the first spreader but her crew was able to secure the broken mast and she retired from competition under her own power.