The fog closed in solid on the Hample and Mitchell College beaches Friday evening making it a nervous time for everyone involved with the race.  Luckily it was clear the next morning and the sun was shining as everyone lined up and fought for the best position on the beach.   Eric Anderson flew his spinnaker right at the start and quickly pulled ahead.   Others followed with their spinnakers soon after for the short run out of the bay.    The chutes came down as the boats rounded the corner into Long Island Sound.    It then became an upwind race on one long port tack in light to moderate conditions as the boats headed along the Conn and RI shorelines.  The wind and chop built as the boats rounded Pt. Judith and headed up the West Passage.   The wind was directly on the nose from there to the finish some 12 miles away.   A few reports of boats having flipped in the sloppy conditions near Pt Judith came in after everyone hit the beach.   Colby's Crew, the first boat under the Jamestown Bridge was smoking as they sailed along closehauled and double trapped.    Their course took them NW toward Wickford Harbor where they tacked and ran the shore to cross the finish line at Quonset Point.    Half of the fleet took a similar course until suddenly the wind shifted 30 degrees in a matter of minutes.    Bobby Noll on the H-21 got buried by the wind shift as he was now headed back where he came from after he tacked.   The rest of the fleet behind him came almost directly from the bridge into the finish.    That evening the 9th Wave played surf music under a tent as Mary Vaillancourt hustled out the food and everyone cooked their own steaks on the grill.    Things quieted down early as the sailors wanted to be rested up for the next day.  

Day 2 started with bright skies and warm sunlight although fog had been forecast.   They were calling for light and variable winds changing to 10-15 from the south at midday.   Luckily the forecast was a little behind the actual conditions when the boats pulled off the beach.   In no time they were around the north end of Jamestown and out of sight.   They proceeded upwind past Newport in light winds of about 6 mph.   Once around Buoy 'R 4' off of Brendan Reef the first spinnaker went up and away went Team Tybee.    Soon after, Accelerated Chaos with their spinnaker flying, located some fish traps which they described as a spider web.    Their rudders popped up and they lost steerage causing their boat to careen into a steel drum.   The dolphin striker was seriously bent backward and a hull was badly scraped along almost the entire length but it didn't seem to slow them down.   

The winds slowly increased along with the chop as everyone motored toward new Bedford.   Boats starting appearing about 1:30pm out past the old radar dome at the end of Padanaram as the shore crews watched with binoculars from the finish line jetty.   The wind had by then increased to 15 mph straight downwind and was still climbing.   Reports came in later from power and big sailboats that the winds got up to over 20 back near Newport.   The old faithful Buzzard conditions hadn't failed us.   Spray was streaming off the bows as the boats streaked across the opposite shore.   Team Tybee was holding a good lead as they entered the outer harbor and they finished about 13 minutes ahead of the next boat.   The jibing duels of the next teams were exciting to watch as the boats drew closer.     Norton and Accelerated Chaos were pushing each other hard and covering each other jibe for jibe.   Colby's Crew was ahead and lower but without a spinnaker it was uncertain whether they could hold off the charge of the two spinnaker boats.    First Norton jibed and momentarily hourglassed the chute, then Chaos jibed to cover and did the same thing.   It was anyones race to lose.   The spinnaker boats were closing fast but it was possibly too late.  I guessed that Colby's Crew would take it but was wrong as Norton surged ahead of them and then so did Chaos.   So close after all those miles.   The excited crews piled onto the beach and broke the boats down on the lawn as Doreen Coughlin brought out the food and Andrea Jannarone cooked up some hotdogs.   

The beautiful trophy's which were made by Nora Zellmer were awarded to the first three teams in the spinnaker and non-spinnaker classes and to the first three teams in the N6.0NA one design snuffer spinnaker class.   The Overall Corrected Time trophy was awarded  to Team Tybee.   They were also awarded prize money in the amount of $250.   There weren't enough boats in the non-spinnaker class for the prize money.

The fastest elapsed time for Day 1 was Team Tybee at 4:48:12 followed closely by Team Colby's Boss at 4:50:48.    The last boat in was Team Riccardi at 7:21:32.   The fastest elapsed time on Day 2 was Team Tybee at 4:36:57 with Garrett Norton coming in at 4:49:51, with Accelerated Chaos - Chris Titcomb only feet behind at 4:49:57 and Colby's Crew - Phil Vaillancourt only 11 seconds behind them.   Colby's crew did start 20 minutes before the spinnaker class but it was exciting to watch them all pouring it on for the finish.   The last boat in was Blue Dog Sand Groats at 5:46:12 elapsed.  

I would like to thank the many people and organizations who helped with different aspects of this event.  Mr. and Mrs. Larry Hample, Mitchell College, Fleet 448, Mary Vaillancourt, Nora Zellmer, Rona Prentice, Doreen Coughlin, Bob Konkel, Barry Moore, Eric Anderson, Jen Hamwey, Hattie, Chuck and Judy Bargeron, Todd Williams, Christie, Marty from Vaillancourt's Market and the many beach crews.