WindCheck Magazine The Cuttyhunk Race

By Nick Bowen

Elizabeth Amelotte trimming the spinnaker on the way to victory aboard Coconut. © Tom D’Albora

The Twenty Hundred Club had their third race of the season on Saturday, July 23. This was also their first of two destination races. The “Cuttyhunk Race” starts just south of Rose Island near the “G3” buoy, takes the sailors about four nautical miles south to buoy “R2” at Brenton Reef. This mark is about two nm south of Castle Hill where the boats turn east for a 19.5 nm run across Rhode Island Sound and finish at buoy Middle Ground “RGN” just north of Cuttyhunk Island. The total distance for the race is 23.5 nm. Ten Spinnaker boats raced, and for the first time ever there were no Cruising class boats.

The forecast for the day was southwest winds at 5 knots for the start and building to 9 knots in the afternoon. Low tide was at 7:06 AM, which meant the boats would have to fight an incoming tide all the way out to Brenton Reef. But for the long leg to Cuttyhunk it would be a reach.

Mark Nannini’s J/120 Salacia made the fastest passage at 3:36:26. Tom D’Albora’s Coconut won the spinnaker class on adjusted time. The Cuttyhunk race is one of Tom’s favorites of the season, and he has been participating since the late 1970s. This year Tom introduced several young people to keelboat racing – Christopher Pearson (URI Class of 2020), Ryan Palardy (URI ’22), Elizabeth Amelotte (UVM ’24) and her brother Zach, who is the Captain of the East Greenwich High School Sailing team.

The club was able to secure several moorings in the inner harbor and enjoyed relaxing rafting after the race. After some cooling off in the water and dinner, they had an awards ceremony at Twenty Hundred Hours (8:00 PM) at the Cuttyhunk town dock. ■

Nick Bowen is the Commodore of the Twenty Hundred Club and races his Lyman-Morse e33 on Narragansett Bay. He can be reached at commodore@twentyhundredclub.org.

Spinnaker Class

1. Coconut, Tom D’Albora