By Timothy Grimes, 20HC Commodore
When you have a 2.5hp engine, you often have to leave the dock extra early to get to the starting line. So, to get to Hog Island Light for the start of the Twenty Hundred Club’s Spring Around Aquidneck Race on Saturday, June 7th, Zephyros set off at around 7:30am into the foggy morning from Newport. Because of the nearly zero visibility and the precariously light forecast, we were left wondering, would we be alone or were we going to have a race? But, after more than 2 hours of silently motoring along in perceived isolation, the fleet started appearing out of the abyss one by one. We were going to have a race!
Twenty boats braved the conditions and the forecast for the annual race around Aquidneck Island (which was shortened to the length of Aquidneck Island to end at R2 – Brenton Reef pre-start). By the start, the boats were able to enjoy a steady breeze of about 7-8 knots and an ebbing tide that would make for some early favorable sailing. But, 7-8 dwindled to 3-4 knots very quickly as the boats headed south and neared the Newport Bridge. By this time, the tide had switched and the competitors were sailing in adverse current. To avoid the current, the fleet split with half of the boats attempting to find protection in the Jamestown Harbor and the other half playing the Newport shoreline. By house on the rocks, tactics went out the window as the fleet converged fighting to maintain any headway in every tack. Because of the impending shutdown of pressure, the Race Committee shortened the race to finish at R6, but the 1.5 nautical mile reduction made the prospects of finishing the race no more optimistic. At times (read: most of the time), the fleet drifted in place, sometimes with positive fractional VMG, and sometimes with negative fractional VMG. To best understand the difficulties faced by the fleet, you need look no further than Whalayed’s track:
After approximately 1-1.5 hours of drifting with the fleet, with no significant headway to the finish line being made, the VHF began ringing out with abandonment after abandonment. I mean, how could one possibly make it to the party at Tiverton Yacht Club if it looked like the finish could never be reached. But, while many retired (16 of the original 20 boats), four soldiered on. The first finisher was Ben Hodgson’s J100, Grimace, sailing solo in just over six hours.
And, after nearly 7 hours of sailing, Whalayed, Mental Floss, and Relentless crossed the finish line, with the last two boats finishing within 30 seconds of one another. When I asked John Whaley why he decided to continue despite the hail of abandonments over the radio he responded: “Stubbornness, perseverance, or idiocy.” When asking Ben Hodgson the same question, he credited the fact that he was sailing solo (“I didn’t have anyone aboard to tell me to be reasonable and turn around”) and the fact that his chart plotter quit north of the Newport Bridge, so he never had negative VMG reported digitally, which as many of us know can be a real gut punch. As these results were being posted, the crews of the abandoning boats raised a dark and stormy at Tiverton Yacht Club to the tenacious skippers and crew who proved you can get there….. if you try long enough. To see the race results, click here. A special thanks to Gregg Morash and Tiverton Yacht Club for acting as race committee and party host. Fingers crossed, July 19th serves up champagne sailing for the Twenty Hundred Club’s Cuttyhunk Race!
