By Timothy Grimes, Commodore
The Twenty Hundred Club’s first race of the season took place on Narragansett Bay on Saturday, May 31 with 21 boats spread out over four classes taking part. What looked like an obvious early decision to take the tide north to the Mount Hope Bridge first, gave way to some indecision in the fleet at the time the racing got started. At least as it relates to the Spinnaker A class, three boats (Zephyros, Slim Shady, and Bully Circus) chose to tempt fates and head on port tack towards the favored end of the line at the Race Committee boat. Unfortunately, due to the orientation of the line, the RC was also the favored end of the line for the starboard fleet of five boats (Captain Sluggo was a little late to start so didn’t play a part in the fracas). It should be noted that the thick fog led to a deceiving line and racetrack in general.
On Zephyros, we planned to head South to Newport first and set up perfectly just to weather of Slim Shady on port tack and to leeward of the committee boat. It became readily apparent that the line was going to be very tight at that end and we decided to stuff the bow up with about five seconds to go to hold as close to the committee boat as possible and let the starboard traffic blow through to leeward. Unfortunately, this led to falling into Slim Shady’s bad air and a quick clearing tack was necessary to break away. The remainder of the Newport leg was a port favored beat towards Gould, which didn’t appear out of the fog until it was about 250 meters away. The order at the bridge was Bully Circus – Zephyros – Slim Shady. However, we decided that we would try to attack the Jamestown Bridge next and had a beautiful lifting port tack (we only had two tacks on the leg, both in the last moments to set up under the bridge).
Despite the massive lift, we were the only boat at the time in the West Bay…. Never a good idea in a navigator’s race. Score Newport-Jamestown-Mt. Hope in the loser category.
Spin to Moose McClintock on Slim Shady (and your Vice Commodore Buster Pike on Bully Circus) who decided to take the tide to Mt. Hope from Newport. This strategy guaranteed an additional 2 miles to the overall course. However, as Moose explained, the increased distance was offset by the additional time in favorable tide. He reasoned that he could get to Mt. Hope before the tide change and ride the tide south to Jamestown for the final bridge. Both he and Bully Circus were able to beat the tide to Mt. Hope (just barely). He noted that on the day, he sailed 19 miles in positive current, 4 in neutral current, and only 9 miles in adverse. That extra knot or knot and a half clearly made up the distance of 2 miles. Remember 1 knot of tide – 1 mile/hour. Score Newport-Mt. Hope-Jamestown in the winner category.
Next on to Mike Zani, on Vela, sailing with a Scoring Penalty from his triumph last year and EC Helme on Spirit. As Mike Zani explained, he couldn’t fathom adding the distance that would be required for a Newport-Mt. Hope approach and decided his boat couldn’t match the horsepower of Slim Shady and Bully Circus. So, he and the bulk of the fleet chose the north route first. EC, likely being too modest when he credited the slight easterly component in the breeze for his second place finish as he stated the breeze favored Spirit and the asymmetrical folks as opposed to the “pole-back” folks. When I asked Mike what his strategy was, he said he spent his time ducking the current close to shore and even ducked inside of Dyer Island to avoid the worst of the current. He will have to spend the next year thinking how he will be able to make up for another 15 second penalty. Can he keep his streak alive? His post-race strategy….. “Maybe trim better, maybe sail cleaner, or maybe packing a bit more beer. By the photo he provided me, it’s obvious that it’s because only the young buck is paying attention.
Score Mt. Hope-Newport-Jamestown in the winner category as well.
The pressure and conditions were perfect to get a critical mass to Newport Yacht Club for the grill and some libations. Thanks again to Newport Yacht Club for their support and thanks to all the sailors that made this early season event a memorable one (as it always is).
The Twenty Hundred Club’s next events are Saturday, June 7th for the Around Aquidneck Race and Saturday, July 20th for the Cuttyhunk Race. If you have any interest in these upcoming races or the Twenty Hundred Club more generally, reach out to the Commodore directly (commodore@twentyhundredclub.org).
