| 29.Jun.04 | Despite only three days of sailing, it was a good week. There were no collisions and very few protests (helped by the light to moderate air). And this year the owner's party hosted by Pam and Andy Gillis had great attendance and a good time was had by all. Pam and Andy reported that all the food was consumed and all by a case of the beer was also gone by the end of the evening. In a stroke of genius, Pam invited the RC and Jury and several others. You never know when you are going to need a friend on the RC/Jury! My handicapping was not too bad. Four of the "Likely Top Five" finished 1, 3, 4, and 5. The one I missed was PHANTOM, a newbie, but clearly a boat that was a contender. The remainder of the boats mentioned were 7, 8, 9, 14, 17, 19, 24, and 25, so it is much harder picking the second tier. There were 10 first timers with an average finish of 12.3 (a bit better than average). Of the 16 returnees, 9 improved their positions from their last effort, six dropped positions, and one stayed the same (in a smaller fleet). KIMA (ahem) had the most improvement from her last appearance, moving up 14 places in the standings compared to 2003. Here's the story of the sailmakers in the top ten: Doyle: 1 Ullman: 2,4,5,8 Quantum: 3 North: 6,7,9,10 There is hardly anything for the sailmakers to brag about. They're all pretty much on equal footing and the sailors provide 98% of the differences in the end results (in my humble opinion). It is important to recognize that Block Island Race Week is as much a vacation as it is a competition. If you haven't enjoyed being on the "rock" for a week, you haven't fully appreciated the experience. Think about joining us next year and let me know how I can help. Link to my Block Island photo album. Link to Block Island results (with comparisons and sails). |
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| 25.Jun.04 | Got a late start this morning -- off at 5:20 a.m. after a night of partying
(my eldest son's birthday), giving airplane rides to the four toddlers, changing
diapers for the youngest baby (yes there's photo evidence), babysitting, and
watching the Celtics find their latest jamokes. Today was more typical of Block
Island in June. A fog enveloped the island and the fog horns were warning
the mariners in all directions. The question will be whether the fog burns off
and the sea breeze comes in (it usually does) ...
... but not today. After a posponement in the harbor, the RC kept monitoring the fog and the wind. The fog eventually broke in the harbor, but not outside. And the wind was hovering at about 4 knots, so they pulled the plug at noon. But we got in seven good races during the week and the RC did a fine job. Protests were kept to a minimum and there were no collisions. ECLIPSE did an outstanding job, in mostly light conditions. They threw out a five and became the first two-time Block Island winner in the nine year history of the event. They take home the yellow winner flag and will return next year to defend their title. They are also planning on the NAC in September and Key West in January. Those of you who are monitoring this may have some interest in coming to Block next year. Please let me know if I can help in any way. We'd also like to see some of you return. This includes Brian, Steve, Andy, Jim, Joerg, Tom, Billy, Skip, Bruce, John, Paul, Jim, Jerry, JP, Bobby, Bobbi, Bill, and Dimitris. It would be great if we could top the 33 boats we had in 2003. Start your planning now and make your reservations (house and ferry) in January. Let me know if you'd like to be added to my Block Island mailing list. Mailto: nelson@j105.org. It's about 8-10 e-mails over about six months. Thanks for reading my web log (blog). I'll try to post a some summary information on sails and crew weights sometime on Monday or Tuesday. |
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| 24.Jun.04 | Have you ever wondered how early "early" is in "The early bird catches the worm?" Well
they are charming the worms with gusto at 4:30 a.m. at Block Island in the summer.
So I took the opportunity to get up and get some nice sunrise shots at Old Harbor
with the ferry in the background so you know it is not a sunset. It looked to be
a clear day and good prospects for the southwesterly sea breeze by start time at
10:30.
The sun brought very consistent wind today. It was from the SSW at about 10 knots with very little variation. There were three races, all four legs. The first was 1.25 miles to 190. The second was 1.0 miles to 210. The third and final race was 1.25 miles to 200. And for the first time this week we saw significant current that was affecting the racing. In the second and third races, the boats that went hard left toward the island got current relief and got the best of the race. KIMA was on the wrong side of it in race 2 and got 24th and was on the good side of it in the race 3 and got a regatta best of 4th. But for some reason, the other side did not pay going downwind. It could have been more consistent wind on the Island side. The wind was oscillating from about 185 to 210 with the committee favoring the pin. Boats that thought that the wind would go right due to the sea breeze were disappointed all afternoon. The left paid time after time. For the fourth day the yellow flag has been carried by a different boat. With a very respectable 1-1-2, ECLIPSE moved into first place for the regatta as the throwout kicked in with seven races sailed. Day three leader PHANTOM dropped to secpmd as they threw out their 16 after a 7-4. Last year's winner, PRETTY SKETCHY, moved into third with a 2-8-1 on the day. Still in contention were SAVASANA and WET LEOPARD. At the party sponsored by The Oar, bowman Kevin Kelly of ECLIPSE said "We planned to move up one place each day and have the yellow flag at the end of the regatta, but now we're screwed." |
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| 23.Jun.04 | Remarkably, the Team KIMA entourage has swelled to 17 this year with two houses.
In addition to Mama and Papa, and a sailor doctor friend, there are three children
and three spouses, five grandchildren, and a son's in-law family of three. After
three years at the same house on Mill Pond Extention, the house was sold and not
renting this year. So house #1 is to the North on Corn Neck Road in the "Minister's
Lot." The other house is south of town across from the high school. One of the
houses on the beach near us (Mansion Beach) just sold for $4 million. But anyone
who can afford $4 million cannot deign to move into someone else's house, so they are
tearing it down to build another one. Some people just have too much money!
It started out overcast today, with little wind, but they decided to go with the "Around-the-Island-Race". By the time of the start, it was 10 knots, sunny, and promising to build. The wind was 290 (WNW) and they set a weather mark at 1.0 miles to get us off. The J/105 class was the third start, but they earned their second general recall of the regatta and were pushed to the end of the line (after the 8th start). The second start got off without incident and initially the right looked like the best, but by the time the fleet made the weather mark, a left shift came in and the boats on the left, particularly WHIRLWIND, reached the weather mark first. The boats that overstood the weather mark, and headed to "R6" late at the southwest corner did well and tended to ride over the boats that tacked early. The flood pushed the boats to the west as they approached the mark. Going along the south coast, the boats that headed inshore under spinnaker got the breeze off the cliffs and avoided the current. Those who stayed outside were toast. After passing Southeast Light, it was close reaching up to 1BI, and then close reaching back to the finish. Very little passing took place after the first third of the race. The top four boats were PHANTOM, WHIRWIND (ex SCREWED UP), ECLIPSE, and WET LEOPARD, not necessarily in that order. SAVASANA was well back, and she will lose the leader flag going into day four of the Regatta to PHANTOM. The leaders all finished within a minute, and PHANTOM did not lead the race until the very end. Tomorrow they will go out with the leader's yellow flag. |
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| 22.Jun.04 | It is hard to imagine a better place to spend the seven longest days of
the year. Block Isand has deserved its reputation as a national treasure.
There are beach roses and honeysuckle in bloom and all kinds of birds singing
their songs starting at 5 in the morning. Even on a bad day (and today was
a bad day), Block Island is better than some of the best days on the mainland.
It looked promising on the morning bike ride with wind and slight overcast. I spotted
two deer today and took the long loop around West Beach Road.
SAVASANA took over the yellow flag from PRETTY SKETCHY as the leader after day one. We had a pretty good sailing breeze going out to the course, but it died around 9:30 a.m. and the forecast warned about what the lack of sun would do to the breeze. By 10:30 the RC decided that there was not enough wind to sail, but after a short delay they got off a start in 8 knots, posting a six legger to 190. They made their decision quite quickly and a few boats were caught off guard far from the start line. KIMA managed a good start at the leeward third of the line, while ECLIPSE was heading to the start line under spinnaker. Damian Emery's crew did their takedown around the RC boat and started about a minute late. John Coffee TERN) was only a little ahead of them. They boat looked for air and went out to the right and were greeted with a beneficient right shift that put them up near the top (and ahead of KIMA). Brian Keane earned his leader status and figured out the right shift and rounded the weather mark in first place. The downwind was pretty much a parade on port with the shift, and the second weather mark was shifted right 30 degrees. During the third leg, the downpours began with fog, and thunder, and lightening. The telltales were pasted to the sails and finding the weather mark was a challenge with the GPS with the moved mark. At the top, the RC saw more cells coming and decided to abandon the race and send the fleet back to the harbor. By 1 p.m. they decided to abandon for the day. The rain continued throughout the afternoon, making the prospects for the evening party look pretty bleak. But the rain stopped just before the party started. With the large deck at the Terrell house, the party was a whopping success. The turnout was fabulous and the burgers, dogs, beer, wine, and muchies were consumed with gusto. Many thanks go to Andy and Pam for hosting us! |
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| 21.Jun.04 | As the sun rose at about 5:20 a.m. there was already enough wind to start
a race, so it boded well for the day. As I went off for my bike ride on
the dirt road there was a large buck who ventured onto the dirt road ahead
of me. It was a bit chilly, but the sun was shining and it had warmed up by
race time. There were a handful of racers coming from the mainland on the
high-speed ferry which docked a little after the harbor start at 8:30. It
was single file out of the harbor as the entrance shoaled to five feet halfway
across the channel.
We got in three great races today. The first and last were four leggers and the middle race was a six legger, all with 1.25 mile weather legs. (They will try to give us 1.5 mile legs tomorrow.) The first race was rather light, but still with full hiking. The second was with more wind (in the 12-14 range) and the third race was even more wind with surfing on the downwind legs. All the courses were to the WSW (240 to 225) and the wind was relatively steady with only minor shifts. Charlie Enright took PRETTY SKETCHY off the line well in the first race at the leeward end and stayed left. They led at the first mark and wire-to-wire. It began to look like the yellow brag flag would be theirs for the whole week after their domination from last year. But then Brian Keane and SAVASANA turned on the jets in the heavier air and closed the day with a pair of wins. PHANTOM was the most consistent with a 2-3-3 for second on the day, and WET LEOPARD was third with 3-9-2. These three made it easier on the measurers who promised to inspect the top three boats after the first day. All three had already been inspected. The J/105 party was postponed until Tuesday night when it was learned that the festivities in the tent were only on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. When I asked various owners in the tent whether any side was favored today, Mike Lague (PHANTOM) offered that they had checked their tracks on the GPS and they were almost identical from leg-to-leg and race-to-race. There seemed to be very little advantage to the left or the right. The key was getting off the line in good shape and finding a clear lane. |
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| 20.Jun.04 | Saturday, the delivery from Wickford to Block Island took about 4.5 hours. From R2 in
Block Island Sound to 1BI, the heading was 250 and the wind was also 250 at about 14-15
knots. I was alone and under power. Some of those heading out of Newport stopped to watch the match racing
between Alinghi and Oracle. Sunday, the wind came up early and was from roughly
the same direction at the same speed. Two outstanding race days on Saturday and
Sunday. The racers were praying for a continuation of the pattern on Monday.
All 26 boats were present and accounted for on Sunday and most of the crews had weighed in. No evidence of heavy fasting to make weight and many of the crews were light by 20 to 120 pounds. It just seemed like most of the crews were here for serious fun rather than cutthroat competition. Most of the boats went out for a Sunday afternoon practice in the excellent conditions. On the way into the harbor, some stopped to get their bottoms cleaned. (Block Island does not allow bottom cleaning in the harbor for ecological reasons.) Two boats won inspection lotteries. For the third year in a row, the last digit of the RI lottery was "7" and WET LEOPARD won again. Jim Sorensen has probably the most inspected boat in the Fleet. The other was ROE RAGE. Four additional boats volunteered for inspections which were conducted between 9 and noon. Water conditions were too rough to inspect floatlines, but all the inspection certificitates (Exhibit 7A), were checked along with sail tags. We're ready to roll on Monday morning. The only problems so far has been with the communications at our cottage. There is no dial tone which makes it difficult to connect to the internet. According to the rental agent, the Verizon technicians cannot look at it until Tuesday. My backups are a phone line at the tent and at another at a house being rented by my son and his family this year. If you are seeing this on Monday morning, one of my backups must have worked. More on Monday night. |
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| 14.Jun.04 | Here is my handicapping sheet. I'll be back after the regatta to give myself a report card.
Likely in the Top Five: PRETTY SKETCHY -- Dr. Tom Enright and his Brown University son Charlie Enright will be back to defend their title, which they won last year in a 33 boat fleet by 26 points. Crack tactician Tim Hotchkiss will not be on the boat, but he will likely be replaced by someone just as skilled. ECLIPSE -- Damian Emery brings ECLIPSE back for the fourth time. He won it in 1999, but had a disappointing 10th last year. He has won the Fleet #6 Season Championship five times. Has a 5th at the NAC in Chicago in 2002 on a chartered boat, and has a passle of 4ths at Key West over the years. He is know as a light air wizard. MORNING GLORY -- Dr. Carl Olsson took over the Fleet #6 Championship last year and has sailed in many MORNING GLORIES over the years (always red) on the Sound. Always a challenger in Fleet #6, Carl finished second two years ago at Block, only one point behind champion KINCSEM, but fell to 19th last year with a different crew. WET LEOPARD -- Jim Sorensen has won three consecutive Fleet #14 Championships. This will be his sixth Block Island. He finished third last year. SAVASANA -- Brian Keane is a two-time Havard All-American sailor who has been moving up in the standings in his two years in the J/105 and had a very respectable 3rd in the 29 boat Key West Fleet in 2004. Nipping At Their Heels & Unknowns expected to challenge: TERN, WET PAINT, SAPHINA, AJAX, & LIQUID COURAGE. And if experience is worth anything, KIMA and ALL RIGHT should do okay. They are the two boats who are attending their ninth BIRW (the first one-design start having been held in 1996). Those not on my lists will note that PRETTY SKETCHY was not on my list last year. You can never tell who might come out of the pack. But if you come in ahead of some (or all!) of those listed, you've beaten some excellent sailors. See how many of them you can put behind you in a race, on a leg, or at the start. And have fun out there! |
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