Sail Newport
Newport, RI, August 17-18, 2013
Competitors of the 21st New England 100 were greeted by a light northerly wind at Sail Newport on Saturday morning. The start was postponed until 11:00, and after much discussion it was decided that the course would be the circumnavigation of Aquidneck Island. The fleet was comprised of 13 F-18’s, an 18HT, an F-16 and an Inter 20.
It was a reaching start off of Goat Island in a light northerly, and the breeze became even lighter and more spotty as the fleet progressed down the East Passage. There were numerous lead changes as teams searched for wind. On approach to the first mark, R4 off of Brenton Reef, a light southerly began to fill. Bob Merrick and Tyler Burd rounded R4 one hour and twenty minutes after the start. John and Peter Giuliano were about eight minutes behind with Karl Funk and Jan Majer in a close third.
Nine minutes before the time limit expired, Bob and Tyler rounded G4 and bore off down the Sakonnet River. Shortly thereafter John and Pete took the lead in a building southerly. The run down the Sakonnet was fun and scenic with the wind peaking at about 15 knots. At this point the Inter 20 with Joe and Jim was steaming through the F18 fleet.
This breeze held to the end of the Sakonnet River. Here, a favorable current carried the leaders under the Hummocks Bridge and deposited them at the north end of Aquidneck with no wind at all. The entire fleet re-converged in this dead zone.
Finally a bit of breeze pushed the fleet towards the Mount Hope Bridge. Most of the fleet hugged the eastern shore and were able to fly their kites under the bridge. Those that chose the Bristol side found themselves working upwind and crossing under the bridge behind the fleet.
Heading south past Prudence the southerly began to fill again. There was even enough air to double trap north of the Newport Bridge. Joe and Jim lead the race on approach to Rose Island and the finish, and Mike and Tripp couldn’t catch the Inter 20 upwind. Under the bridge it was Jim and Joe, Mike and Tripp, John and Pete, Sandra Tartaglino, then Bob Merrick. The four lead boats chose the east side of Rose, but Jim, Joe, Mike and Tripp did not notice the finish line set up off of the south west corner of Rose Island. They proceeded towards Brenton Cove, becoming aware of their mistake just too late. Even reaching in with their kites up, they missed the Giuliano’s and Bob at the finish. Total race time was over seven hours, with a course distance was approximately 40 miles.
Sunday brought no breeze. Racing remained under postponement until noon, when it was finally called off for the day.
Link to Strava track from USA 753: http://app.strava.com/activities/75461973
All of the competitors would like to thank Todd Riccardi for all of his efforts in organizing this event, and Mike Levesque for running race committee.
Results: http://isailrace.com/Event/Results/1e0929a3-351e-4b3e-a28b-a00d6053e74b
