Newport RI

The New England 100 is a challenging catamaran distance race that has been being held annually for nearly 20 years. The courses vary each day depending on weather conditions but usually take competitors through Narragansett Bay, RI Sound, the Sakonnet River, and etc. This year the race was held out of Sail Newport. Each day the start was held just off the northern point of Fort Adams in Newport Harbor.

Competitors began arriving at 7am Saturday morning to dense fog and light wind, however as if meant to be the fog cleared just enough to safely start the race as planned at 10AM. The course for day 1 took sailors from Newport to Point Judith to Old Harbor, Block Island and then back to Newport. To the delight of the fleet, the seabreeze came in unusually early picking up to 12-15 knots allowing for speeds of around 15 knots upwind all the way to Block Island. After rounding the mark off Old Harbor spinnakers came up and the catamarans came to life, averaging just over 20 knots all the way back to Newport. Despite having sailed approximately 80 miles through all sorts of conditions, the fleet was miraculously close and at the finish 7 boats finished within a 5 minute spread. The last few boats finished over the next hour and the very last limped in about an hour and a half later with a broken rudder.

Saturday evening brought a great BBQ dinner accompanied by delicious beverages provided by Narragansett Beer. The crowd of weary competitors barely managed to finish off dinner when exhaustion set in from a tough day of sailing and everyone decided to call it a night.

Sunday morning was déjà vu as more fog covered Newport. Due to lower temperatures the wind did not come in like it had the previous morning. A shifty 5-7 knot breeze allowed for the start to happen on time and the fleet to get on their way at a good pace. The wind would gradually build over the course of the day ending with a perfect 15 knots. The course for day 2 took sailors clockwise around Jamestown, Patience, and Patience Islands and then back to Newport. As the Race Committee sat at the North end of Prudence, the entire fleet passed by over the course of just a few minutes! As soon as the fleet rounded the North tip of Prudence the seabreeze finally hit the fleet allowing for average speeds of 15 knots on the upwind beat back to Newport. After sailing approximately 50 miles, at the finish the first 7 boats were just 8 minutes apart with the last boat finishing 45 minutes later.

Though extremely tired after having sailed over 130 miles in 2 days a great time was had by all, likely due to perfect sailing condition and great competition.

Top 3 finishers, going home with in First: Mike Easton & Nate Rosenberg-Team MicroWind trophies provided by Harken: in Second: Sandra Tartaligno & Trevor Burd –Team Tigerless in Third: Eric Witte & Chryssa Rask – Team Dynamic Sailing

F18  Sailing Series – Regatta #10

2009 Roton Point Regatta

Coming Up!