WindCheck Magazine Ida Lewis Distance Race

24-Hour Test of Fortitude

Light air prevailed for the 19th Ida Lewis Distance Race presented by Bluenose Yacht Sales. © Stephen R Cloutier

The 19th sailing of the Ida Lewis Distance Race presented by Bluenose Yacht Sales hosted 45 teams, with almost as many of those new to the event as returning and including both world-class and recreational racers. The competition’s 24-hour format saw seven classes leave Newport Harbor at 11 am Friday, August 16 and return on Saturday to a finish line sighted from host Ida Lewis Yacht Club where volunteers were on watch to record times and meet each team on the water with a congratulatory bottle of Prosecco.

David Greenstein’s Mills 68 Space Monkey claimed line honors in a light-air Ida. © Stephen R Cloutier

“With the forecast for light air, we chose a course of 135 nautical miles for all three ORC classes and a shorter 120 nm for the four PHRF classes (Double Handed, ‘Aloha’, ‘Coronet’, and ‘Bagheera’),” said Will Museler, a member of the Race Course Development Team. “Most of the other established distance races in the country have the same set course, from start to finish, each year. Depending on the wind, you can be gone for a day or three days, you never know. Here you know!”

By all accounts, the sailors were pleased with the courses, which for ORC took the competitors out to Buzzards Bay Tower, then west past Block Island to a mark off Montauk, back to Buzzards Bay and home again.

“The organizers said they wanted it to be 24 hours and they pretty much nailed it,” said Dean Curtis, captain and pit man for Victor Wild’s Botin 52 Fox (San Diego, CA), which won ORC 1 after finishing at 6:23 am. Explaining his team’s earlier-than-anticipated arrival, Curtis explained, “We got some lucky breaks through the light areas and managed to get in before the tide change. If we had parked more, we would have been 24 hours for sure.”

Victor Wild’s Botin 52 Fox won ORC 1 on corrected time. © Stephen R Cloutier

Also arriving early – and for the record, finishing before all others at 4:51 am – was David Greenstein’s Mills 68 Space Monkey (Stamford, CT), the largest boat in the fleet. For posting the best elapsed time overall in ORC, Space Monkey took home the Russell L. Hoyt Memorial Trophy; on corrected time, she placed second behind Fox in ORC 1.

Greenstein agreed that for the larger boats it was easier to get out in front and ahead of the curve. “It was the best we’ve ever sailed as a team,” said Greenstein, who also took second last year with Space Monkey. “I came quite late to the sailing game, so I just drive and leave the big stuff to the others on my crew,” he said, adding with a big grin, “It’s like owning an NBA team and then getting to play with the likes of Michael Jordan.”

Aside from the big-boat anomalies, Paul Zabetakis’ Swan 42 Impetuous (Jamestown, RI) and Edward Kaye’s J/111 Pravda (Marblehead, MA), finished in 1d 0h 3m 12s and 1d 1h 39m 20s, respectively, to win ORC 2 and ORC 3.

“This was my first Ida Lewis Distance Race,” said Zabetakis. “I applaud the Ida Lewis Yacht Club for all the hard work that clearly went into pulling this event together. Meeting us at the finish with a bottle of Prosecco was a delightful and wonderful touch. Well done all around!”

Impetuous crew Peter Cronin mentioned that it was most difficult on the way to Montauk. “It was touch-and-go with the shifts, but we kept moving, connecting the dots,” he said, adding that it was the “perfect course” for practicing for the offshore races in the ORC Worlds coming up this month in Newport. PHRF’s shorter course sent the teams first to the south side of Block Island, then east to Cox Ledge, Buzzards Bay Tower, and back to Newport.

Carl L.C. Kah III (left) and co-skipper Ervin Grove sailed Kah’s Class40 Privateer to a win in PHRF Double Handed…and won the Lois J. Muessel Memorial Trophy for best elapsed time overall in PHRF! © Stephen R Cloutier

Carl L.C. Kah III’s Class40 Privateer (North Palm Beach, FL; co-skippered by Ervin Grove) killed it on speed to win PHRF Double Handed and take home the Lois J. Muessel Memorial Trophy for best elapsed time overall in PHRF, an accomplishment that clearly impressed the crowd at Saturday’s awards party. (Typically, this trophy is won by a fully crewed boat.)

Paul Zabetakis’ Swan 42 Impetuous was victorious in ORC 2. © Stephen R Cloutier

“We had light air only at the finish,” said Kah, who traded boat handling and navigation duties with co-skipper Ervin Grove. “On the last stretch to Point Judith it was fluky, but the boat goes well in that. We were battling it out with Running Tide, which was not in our class, but let’s face it, when you are out there every boat is a competitor, right? You’re out to pass everybody you can!”

Running Tide (Middleburg, VA), an S&S 60 with owner Beau Van Metre at the helm, won PHRF Coronet and took home the Lime Rock Trophy for PHRF Best Corrected Time while Richard Moody’s R/P 66 Boudicca (Jamestown, RI) and Jeff Johnstone’s J/99 Agent 99 (Newport) won PHRF Aloha and PHRF Bagheera, respectively.

“Running Tide is a heavy boat, and downwind in light air is not our forte,” said Van Metre, who sailed on the boat from 1971 to 1984 with his father as it became one of the winningest maxi boats of her time. “We owed everybody time, so we had to be in front, in some cases by hours. We were barely hanging in downwind to the end of Block Island, but then it blew 12-14 after the sun went down and we took off, sailing upwind all night long. I don’t know where we’d have been if the wind hadn’t dropped out behind us, but that’s sailboat racing, anyway.”

Johnstone’s Agent 99 pulled off a daringly strategic downwind start, launching a spinnaker well before crossing the pin end of the line. The boat rode low on a puff to separate from the fleet and then capitalized on a right shift that eventually enabled the team to get a mile ahead of the fleet within the first hour of racing. “That start set us up mentally for the next six hours,” said Agent 99 crew Tom Kirk. “In sailing, anything you do well motivates you; the key is not to let the bad things slow you down.”

Winning the Arent H. Kits van Heyningen Trophy for the Youth Challenge was James Phyfe’s J/44 Digger (Cranston, RI), which finished fourth in Coronet. Digger had a total of eight youths and two adults on board, and they were up against three other Youth Challenge entries. (Youth Challenge entrants must have more than 40% of the team reaching their 14th birthday but not their 20th birthday prior to August 16.)

Ida Lewis Distance Race Gold Sponsor was Contender Sailcloth. Silver Sponsors were Safe Harbor Newport Shipyard and Hogan Associates/Christie’s International Real Estate. Bronze Sponsors were Gold’s Wine and Spirits, Langan Design Partners, Newport Construction Services, Inc., and North Sails. Contributing Sponsors were Toni Mills Graphic Design, Mac Designs, Gosling’s Black Seal Rum, and Stella Artois. For more information, visit ilyc.org/distancerace. ■