Leading the Block Island Stampede

Block Island, RI (June 21, 2015) – This year marks the 50th anniversary of Block Island Race Week, the iconic East Coast sailing regatta organized by the Storm Trysail Club. The regatta will take place from June 21st to 26th and will include multiple races per day, many shoreside activities, and a Round the Island Race. In addition, this year’s event includes several new initiatives, including new classes of boats that will be invited to race and an emphasis on youth and environmental awareness.

Over 170 entries are participating in this incredibly fun week of sailing and 75 of them (44%) are various J/Boats from across the northeastern seaboard and points as far west as California. Both one-design J’s are represented (J/88s, J/105s, J/109s & J/44s) and J’s sailing in the various PHRF fleets. Additionally, the J/109s are hosting their North American Championship.

With twenty-five boats on the starting line, the J/109s are easily the marquee fleet for the event, with teams from as far as Nova Scotia, Canada and the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. Over the years, the J/109 class has continued to maintain its popularity due to its “cruiser-racer” appeal. It can be just as much fun cruising her as racing her. This attraction has meant that many former J owners have hopped into the class in recent years and become very competitive in a short period of time.

The de facto J/44 East Coast Championship always seems to be at Block Island STC and this year sees seven of these cruiser-racers entered to compete for class bragging rights. Class rules keeps the racing even, with one design sails consisting of only a main, #2 genoa and one spinnaker. Each J/44 races with sails that are owned by the class association, with each team getting sails for the week “drawn out of a hat” beforehand.

The new J/88 class will be racing their first one-design event on the East Coast at Block Island. It should be tremendous fun for this group as each boat learns how to step-up their learning curves as the week progresses. On the other end of the spectrum, the well-established J/105 class is showing up en-masse looking for a great party and some good sailing. This entertaining class has some of the closest competition going at BIRW and many of the top boats have come from as far a California, Texas, Bermuda and Annapolis

In the world of handicap racing there will be five J/122s vying for class honors with IRC 4 class. In PHRF 1 Class, three J/111s are sailing in a diversified class that also includes a J/125. The J/111s are all coming off four days of racing in the J/111 World Championships recently completed in Newport, RI.

In PHRF Cruising Spinnaker Class will be Greg Slamowitz’s J/111 MANITOU from Block Island YC. Then in PHRF 2 there will be two vintage 35 ft J’s participating, Tom Sutton’s J/35 LEADING EDGE from Lakewood YC in Houston, Texas and Tom Wacker’s J/105 TRADING PLACES from Old Cove YC.

The real shoot-out at the O.K. Corral may be PHRF 3 Class, notorious for having a slew of hotly contested J/29s in their midst. The 50th anniversary event of BIRW will be no exception. Four J/29s are registered, who will be joined by a J/70, two J/80s and a J/95.

Event details – Race documents – Entry list