New England 100 2018

Official Site: http://www.regattanetwork.com/event/17072#_docs

Eight boats entered, race started at 1125 today.

Course:

Start at Rose Island (G3)

Newport Bridge center span

Hope Island to starboard

Patience and Prudence Islands to starboard

Hog Island RN2 to port

Hog Island Shoal Lighthouse to port

Mount Hope Bridge center span

Fall River R10 to port

Mount Hope Bridge center span

Bristol RN2 to starboard

RGN (north of Hog) to port

Newport Bridge center span

Finish at Rose Island (R12)


Mike

Of the eight boats, seven are F-18s, one is a foiling Nacra carbon 20.

Breeze is easterly, around 8-10 knots at the start, forecast to build to mid-teens towards the end of the day.

After a beautiful downwind start, the boats rocketed out of Newport, blasting up the bay on a spinnaker reach.

First casualty was Mike Easton and Eric Witte (ITA 77), spinnaker down north of the Newport Bridge. They're ashore on Gould Island to make repairs.

The rest of the fleet is heading to the North end of Jamestown.

Mike

We're back with the fleet, leaders are Joe Valente / Jim Zellmer (156, N20), rounding the top of Prudence now.

Next boat is Pete and John Guiliano (94), followed closely by Skip White / Nick Sertl (286).

Next is Chris and Max Bulger (1864) and then Sandra Tartaglino / Seth Herzon (1719).

Next is Ben and Rachel Setateh (1563).

Ian Ray and Peter Libre (162) further back.

Mike

Nice upwind leg to Hog, Zellmer/Valente starting to extend after being nearly caught by Guilianos after rounding Patience.

Mike

Unofficial times at the first Mount Hope Bridge passage (roughly halfway point):

Zellmer Valente 13:03:00

Guilianos 13:12:25

White Sertl 13:13:45

Bulgers 13:13:45

Tartaglino Herzon 13:14:15

Setareh 13:25:33

Ray Libre 13:36:30

Easton Witte 13:41:00 Back in it!!!

Mike

Sorry for the delayed updates...

Some drama north of the Mount Hope Bridge. Zellmer and Valente had a bit of an uncontrolled foiling moment, Joe somehow would up inverted while on the wire, banged his head on the hull, filled his ears with seawater, and lost his glasses. Jim kept sailing... (just kidding). They recovered, and eventually shot so far ahead of the fleet that we couldn't catch them before they finished!

Whyte and Sertl capsized, but quickly recovered.

After getting back down through the Mount Hope, the fleet headed Northwest up into Bristol harbor. Giulianos picked the wrong mark and got passed by Bulgers. Took them quite a while to get back out front.

As mentioned, we tried to catch (find!) Zellmer and Valente, but didn't even spot them until we got back to Newport to the finish line area. They'd already finished, and were sailing in. We caught them, had a nice chat, got their finish time, and headed back over to set up the finish for the rest of the fleet.

No more drama (other than stopping the fast ferry from cutting through the finish line and wiping out one of the F-18s....).

Got packed up, and scoring is online. Note, it's under the Race Docs header (not the Results header). I'm working on my remedial Regatta Network skills...



Tomorrow's forecast is a major problem. Not too many models say it'll be safe to actually sail (lightning and heavy winds and gusts), but the fleet elected to wait it out to make a final call in the morning. We had them tie down boats or drop masts to protect themselves and other boats on the property from damage if we get the 40+ knots of predicted gusts overnight tonight...

Mike

Nearly 70 views, and no comments? Is this site just left to the robots???

Mike

Human here! Thanks for the reports, great job.

Need pictures!

Thanks Damon!

We did take a bunch yesterday (with a real camera), I'll try to post a link if they get put online. I tried to upload one taken with my phone, this site said the file is too big.

We're cancelling for today. Today's weather forecast isn't looking better than it did last night. Small craft advisory in effect, and a special marine statement has been issued for a line of thunderstorms that is approaching. Winds are expected to be 10-20 knots, but with frequent gusts over 30 knots, and lightning. The TV guys said we had a 2% chance of tornadoes as well...

Mike

Of course, it appears that the forecast was overblown. While the early morning was rough, it didn't get as bad as the forecast (winds and gusts in the teens), and the lightning dissipated before coming ashore. Still, had the forecast been accurate, the carnage would have been spectacular (and unacceptable).

BTW, one correction above: Valente's boat is a carbon Nacra 20, but is not set up for foiling (c-boards, no t-foil rudders). They still smoked the fleet...

More stories about yesterday's racing:

Bulgers tried to cut behind a rock pile near Hog Island, but ran aground, capsized, broke their tiller extension, and jammed a dagger board (which required major effort to remove later ashore). They managed to recover quickly, and were able to get ahead of Giulianos after their navigational error. It was a close battle to the finish after that, and Joe and Peter edged Chris and Max by 40 seconds (elapsed) at the end of the race!

Ian Ray and Peter Libre capsized once or twice near Prudence, and were really slow afterwards. They mentioned that their spinnaker had issues, and they wound up leaving last night after finishing last and seeing today's forecast.

Easton recovered after losing the ability to fly their chute (broken tack line), managed to edge out Ian and Peter by 20 seconds (elapsed) by the end of the race!

Mike

Good job to Joe and Jim for crushing it as that rocket ship should!

We had our own adventure in the weather you had Sunday but a day earlier, well, not too big of an adventure but a low 20's gust had me slammed into the back of the daggerboard on a C2. It was sail-able but the low visibility during rain outs would make a distance race questionable IMO. I would launch for a Tybee or Worrell day but into Newport Harbor with all the traffic plus rocks, no thank you. Bottom line, you made the right call!!

-Sam

Thanks Sam!

As you know, there are very few soft places to land in Narragansett Bay, and the commercial traffic has no where to turn to avoid hitting you.

Honestly, one of the deciding factors was our expected lack of pleasure boaters due to the weather. We run a lean operation (one power boat), and with the fleet spread out over several miles by the second half of the race, it's very likely that sailors will need to rely on Joe Six-pack in the event of a problem.

Of course, in the old days, we were on our own (no power boats), Worrell-style...

HEADS-UP: 2019 is the 30th anniversary year for this event! We're working on dates, but start thinking now about attending this awesome race!!!

Mike