Three straight bullets for Vesper and Ptarmigan

Light airs second day at Storm Trysail Club’s Block Island Race Week

For a second day at the Storm Trysail Club’s biennial Block Island Race Week presented by Rolex, light wind caused a delay ashore, but just as in yesterday’s opener, the fleet was rewarded for its patience in the late afternoon when the breeze generated enough horsepower for 13 of 14 classes to complete two races each. (PHRF Cruising Non-spinnaker completed one.)

In IRC1 and IRC2, two boats are dominating respectively - Jim Swartz's former B&C designed ex-Quantum Racing TP52, now called Vesper, and Lawrence Dickie's Ker 43 Ptarmigan, both of which has three straight bullets.

In J/109 class, the largest here with 15 boats, it was Bill Sweetser who got the most bang for his buck today by winning both races with his crew aboard Rush. Combined with yesterday’s second, the performance gave him four points to the 12 posted by Skip Young’s Dragonfly, in second.

“Today, we had reasonably comfortable leads with no last-minute scrambling to try to finish first,” said Sweetser, “as opposed to yesterday, when we had several boats on our heels, and when we finished we were asking ourselves ‘did we come in second, third or fourth?’” Sweetser added that he has to watch all the boats, not just one or two. “There are a lot of newer boats here that we haven’t had the occasion to sail against. It’s exciting and almost a record for these boats in one place for one regatta.” Sweetser, who bought his J/109 in 2003, remembers the 2005 Block Island Race Week as the time when the class rules were first put together, and he hasn’t missed a Race Week since.

John Hele on Daring dealt with the full-on effects of tight racing when he had to constantly fend off 12 other NYYC Swan 42s in his class. “I’d call that pretty close racing,” said Hele after posting a 2-3 today and reviewing the top four boat’s scores, which were within one point of each other. “It was pretty much all of us trading places both upwind and downwind. Plus, it was very busy on the race course with other boats from other classes.” He recounted that Vesper (from IRC 1) stole some of his air at the finish of race two, which was sailed in a breeze that had built from 6-10 knots (in race one) to 12-15. Hele, with his team here, will represent the Royal Canadian Yacht Club at this year’s New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup presented by Rolex, and says the NYYC 42 competition is benefitting from several U.S. teams who are vying for a berth to represent the New York Yacht Club there.

Tom Lee, sailing Jammy Beggar, a Melges 32, beat out four newly introduced J/111s in PHRF 1 to top his seven-boat fleet. “There is very good talent on those boats, and they all have plenty of experience at Block Island Race Week,” he said, noting that David and MaryEllen’s J/111 Partnership is only one point behind, with two other J/111s falling in right behind them on the scoreboard. “They seem to be quicker upwind and we are quicker downwind,” said Lee, who has won here several times and at least twice on a J/120, “but they are always very close and our ratings are fairly close.”

As for the overall experience to be had here, Andrew Skibow, who fell to fifth today after leading in IRC 3 yesterday aboard Plum Crazy, said: “This is the biggest regatta we do now; it’s serious sailing but a family atmosphere - I’ve brought my whole family and we are staying in two houses. I like the whole mix of serious sailing with the laid back let’s-have-fun mentality. I don’t’ know if it’s the island or just the history of the event itself but it has always been that way; you can come to have fun or to see if you’re the best IRC boat out there.”

Mark Ploch, who is a world and North American champion in several different classes and is sailing aboard the NYYC Swan 42 Vitesse, added: “The reason they can get away with a full week is that half the people here are on vacation. If my kids were out of school I’d have them here, too, because it’s a great destination and Block Island wants us here. It’s easy to get to, and the diversity of the crowd is much greater and more interesting than at any other regatta; there is more old-style fun mixed in with high end serious racing.”

Today was Vineyard Vines Race Day, and Clarion Partner hosted the post-racing party under the “Big Top” Race Week tent.

Day two, top three results

Cruising Non-spinnaker (PHRF - 5 Boats)
1. Patience, C&C 36, Jim Goldman , West Hartford, CT, USA - 3, 1, ; 4
2. Crackerjack, Cambria 40, Alan Krulisch , Arlington, VA, USA - 1, 3, ; 4
3. Manitou, C&C 110, Greg Slamowitz , New York, NY, USA - 2, 2, ; 4

PHRF 3 (PHRF - 10 Boats)
1. Hustler, J 29, John & Tony Esposito , Mohegan Lake, NY, USA - 1, 2, 5, ; 8
2. Incommunicado, Omega 36, Tracey / Polk , Severna Park, MD, USA - 2, 5, 2, ; 9
3. Rival, Taylor 38, David Curtis , Marblehead, MA, USA - 3, 6, 1, ; 10

PHRF 4 (PHRF - 10 Boats)
1. En Charette, Noe 27, Paul Jennings , Branford, CT, USA - 3, 3, 2.5, ; 8.5
2. Project Mayhem, Santana 30, Doug & Amy Stryker , Cranford, NJ, USA - 7, 1, 1, ; 9
3. Rumor, J 80, John Storck Jr , Huntington, NY, USA - 1, 2, 6, ; 9

IRC 1 (IRC - 7 Boats)
1. Vesper, TP 52, Jim Swartz , Park City, UT, USA - 1, 1, 1, ; 3
2. PowerPlay, TP 52, Peter Cunningham , George Town, Grand Cayman, CAY - 3, 3, 2, ; 8
3. Flying Jenny 7, TP 52, David & Sandra Askew , Annapolis, MD, USA - 2, 4, 3, ; 9

IRC 2 (IRC - 9 Boats)
1. Ptarmigan, Ker 43, Lawrence Dickie , Greenwich, CT, USA - 1, 1, 1, ; 3
2. Cool Breeze, Mills 43, John Cooper , Springfield, MO, USA - 2, 2, 6, ; 10
3. Convictus Maximus, Farr 42, Donald Nicholson , Scotch Plains, NJ, USA - 3, 4, 4, ; 11

IRC 3 (IRC - 13 Boats)
1. Avalanche, Farr 395, Craig Albrecht , Sea Cliff, NY, USA - 2, 5, 1, ; 8
2. Sarah, X 41, Gregory Manning , Warwick, RI, USA - 5.5, 2, 2, ; 9.5
3. Wings, J 122, Mike Bruno / Tom Boyle / Jim Callahan , Irvington, NY, USA - 7, 1, 4, ; 12

IRC 4 (IRC - 10 Boats)
1. Settler, Peterson 42, Thomas Rich , Middletown, RI, USA - 1, 4, 1, ; 6
2. Troubador, Express 37, Jamie Anderson , New York, NY, USA - 2, 1, 3, ; 6
3. Out of Reach III, X-35, Louis Nees , Erdenheim, PA, USA - 5, 3, 2, ; 10

NYYC Swan 42 (One Design - 13 Boats)
1. Daring, NYYC Swan 42, John Hele , Newport, RI, USA - 4, 2, 3, ; 9
2. Blazer, NYYC Swan 42, Chris Culver , New York, NY, USA - 1, 3, 6, ; 10
3. Apparition, NYYC Swan 42, Kenneth Colburn , Dover, MA, USA - 5, 1, 5, ; 11

Farr OD (PHRF - 8 Boats)
1. Tsunami, Farr 40, Preben Ostberg/Todd Olds/ Bud Dailey , Rockville, MD, USA - 1, 1, 3, ; 5
2. Barking Mad, Farr 30, James Richardson , Boston, MA, USA - 2, 4, 1, ; 7
3. Nightshift, Farr 40, Kevin McNeil , Annapolis, MD, USA - 3, 2, 2, ; 7

J 44 (One Design - 5 Boats)
1. Challenge IV, J 44, Jeffrey W. Willis , Huntington, NY, USA - 1, 3, 1, ; 5
2. Maxine, J 44, William Ketcham , Greenwich, CT, USA - 2, 1, 2, ; 5
3. Resolute, J 44, Don and Rick Rave , Huntington Bay, NY, USA - 4, 2, 3, ; 9

J 109 (One Design - 15 Boats)
1. Rush, J 109, Bill Sweetser , Annapolis, MD, USA - 2, 1, 1, ; 4
2. Dragonfly, J 109, Skip Young , Guilford, CT, USA - 6, 2, 4, ; 12
3. Caminos, J 109, Donald Filippelli , Amagansett, NY, USA - 7, 4, 2, ; 13

J 105 (One Design - 13 Boats)
1. Eclipse, J 105, Damian Emery , Shoreham, NY, USA - 1, 1, 1, ; 3
2. Jouster, J 105, Bruce Stone Julian Croxall , San Francisco, CA, USA - 2, 3, 3, ; 8
3. Shakedown, J 105, Jordan Mindich , Huntington Bay, NY, USA - 5, 2, 2, ; 9

PHRF 1 (PHRF - 7 Boats)
1. Jammy Beggar, Melges 32, Tom Lee , Essex, CT, USA - 1, 1, 3, ; 5
2. Partnership, J 111, David / MaryEllen Tortorello , Fairfield, CT, USA - 2, 2, 2, ; 6
3. Wicked 2.0, J 111, Douglas Curtiss , South Dartmouth, MA, USA - 4, 4, 1, ; 9

PHRF 2 (PHRF - 9 Boats)
1. Whirlwind, Beneteau First 36.7, William Purdy , New York, NY, USA - 3, 2, 3, ; 8
2. Freightrain, Frers 36, Dick Hyde , Belmont, MA, USA - 7, 1, 1, ; 9
3. XLR8, Carrera 280, Brad Porter , Westbrook, CT, USA - 1, 3, 5, ; 9