Shorthanded racing in the Rhode Island Sound

The New England Solo/Twin Race on July 25 is a near shore shorthanded race held in the waters of Rhode Island Sound. There are classes for singlehanded and doublehanded boats, cruising canvas and spinnaker, monohulls and multihulls, and courses from 67 nm to 100 nm. This race is designed to introduce new skippers to overnight racing in the hopes of enticing new skippers into the Bermuda One-Two Race. Course of 100 nm was given to the spinnaker boats and 75 nm to the cruising canvas boats.

Two spinnaker twin monohull classes, two cruising canvas twin monohull classes, one spinnaker solo monohull class and one twin multihull class were created. Twenty-seven boats started with one boat not finishing and one Retired After Finishing. While Class 1 boat Goat Rodeo was reporting in at the first rounding mark at a buoy SW of Block Island and reporting other Class 1 boats rounding it was observed that Epiphany, a Class 2 boat, was about to round the same mark with the Class 1 boats. Epiphany rounded Block Island clockwise (all other boats were rounding Block Island counter clockwise) to get to this mark and had a big current advantage and gained about a 45 minute lead on fellow Class 2 boats and held the lead to the end.

Seven of the boats were families, twenty boats were repeat skippers and eleven were new skippers. A new trophy brought out this year combines the single handed results from the Offshore 160, which was held two weeks earlier, with the spinnaker monohull double handed results from the New England Solo/Twin (similar to the Bermuda One-Two; single handed to Bermuda & double handed back to Newport). The first award went to Samba, Tristan Mouligne, who won his class as well as first to finish in the Offshore 160 and won his class in the New England Solo/Twin.

The following are partial results:

Class 1 Spinnaker Twin Monohull
1. Samba – Quest 30 – Tristan Mouligne & Ted Winston
2. Breakaway – J-35 – Paul Grimes & David Moffet
3. Goat Rodeo – Sequest 36 – Todd & Robert Johnston
Class 2 Spinnaker Twin Monohull
1. Epiphany – S2 9.1 – Jeff Roy & Pete D’Anjou
2. Dark Star – C&C 34 – Mark Gervais & Carol Tobian
3. Choucas – Jeanneau SF – Fred Cosandey & Ernest Berger
Class 3 Cruising Canvas Twin Monohull
1. Ursa – J/109 – Brooke Mastrorio & Mark Franklin
2. Allegro Vivace – J-37 WK – Dick & Sam Waterman
3. On the Mark – Beneteau 361 – Mark Leinhauser & Dave Natalizia
Class 4 Cruising Canvas Twin Monohull
1. Larvik – Pearson 10M – Kim Andersen & William Beebe
2. Finisterre – Freedom 32 – Mike & Olivia Chapman
3. Pau Hana – Catalina 36 Mk 2 – David & Kate Wilson
Class 5 Spinnaker Solo Monohull
1. Eagles Dare – J/111 – Mike Piper
2. Windswept – Pearson 33 – Richard McCally
3. Trifion – C&C 33-1 – David Paine
Class 6 Multihull Twin
1. Flying Fish – Corsair F-27 Mod – Steve & Josh Parks
2. Bazinga! – F-31 – David Lussier & Gary Brophy
3. Gwas Y Neidr – Dragonfly DF3 – Penry Jackson & David Ryan

Full results: http://www.newportyachtclub.org/Racing/Offshore/NESoloTwin/new-england-solo-Twin

Report by Roy Guay