2021 Edlu Distance Race

Larchmont Yacht Club ran on May 8 it’s 66th Annual Edlu Distance Race, a mid-distance race on a 32-mile course up and down Long Island Sound. While the forecast for the 7-10 knot nor’easter became suspect with everyone expecting the traditional southerly sea breeze to fill in at some point, the RC’s wisdom proved correct as they shortened the course to 18 miles anticipating the wind would soften dramatically.

In the end, two boats went home with a solid collection of trophies. Bill and Jackie Baxter from Riverside (CT) Yacht Club, aboard their J/111 Fireball, finished first in PHRF to take home both the Commodore Wilfred M. Kluss Trophy for the PHRF win but also the Edlu Trophy having been chosen by the Race Committee as having turned in the best performance overall.

“I’m a really big fan of having a going-in strategy, but will sail in the wind you have rather than what you expect,” said Bill Baxter. “Most everyone went to the Long Island side of the course looking for the southerly that only came with about 10% of the beat left to be sailed. We had stayed in pressure on the Connecticut shore having tacked short of all the boats that had gone south. When the wind veered south, we were lifted and the vast majority of the boats had overstood costing them a lot of time.

“Coming back, we gybe set like 90% of the fleet and sailed about 60% of the leg down the rhumb line until we got a shift and went to Connecticut again. That gave us slightly better pressure, and, towards the end, we were able to get out of the foul current everyone was facing in the middle.

“We went hard right to the Rye shoreline in about 10 feet of water to avoid the current. We again ducked north into the Mamaroneck harbor, and then took another hitch out of the current to the finish at the Larchmont breakwater. We made up a lot of distance in those final few miles by avoiding the current.”

In the ORC division, it was Chris Schoen’s XP-44 Phantom that took two major trophies, too. Schoen, LYC’s Rear Commodore and Edlu Co-Chair, was sailing with a crew comprised almost entirely of fellow members. Phantom turned in the best elapsed and corrected time in ORC.

“On the beat to the turning mark, there were lots of 10-15 degree shifts so you had to be patient and steady on the wheel to maintain max boat speed,” noted Schoen. “We choose our tacks wisely, hoping shifts would hold as we watched what was happening with the smaller boats that started ahead of us.

“We also favored the Connecticut shore both out and back but, with our deeper draft, had to stay further offshore than some. We were glad to finish when we did because just afterwards the wind died before a massive wind shift to the west. The tenacious competitors who rapidly shifted from spinnakers to jibs did a great job.”

Division Winners:
ORC (A/P Single Tot): Phantom, Chris Schoen
PHRF Doublehanded: Sky, Ty Anderson
J/88: Deviation – Iris Vogel
PHRF III Spinnaker: Southern Cross, Brian Higgins
PHRF II Spinnaker: Freedom, Cory Eaves
PHRF I Spinnaker: Fireball, Bill & Jackie Baxter

Full results: https://yachtscoring.com/event_results_detail.cfm?Race_Number=1&eID=14271

Source: Buttons Padin