Strong winds blow for Whitebread race
A string of spinnakers running downwind in this year’s Whitebread race. Plenty of wind and competition made for a great day of racing.
Saturday, October 10, saw the running of the 16th annual Whitebread “round the whirl” sailboat race. The 36-nautical-mile race started in
Cutchogue Harbor, circumnavigated Shelter Island and finished in
Cutchogue Harbor. The race is a spoof on the Whitbread, or as it is now known, the Volvo “’round the world” sailboat race.
Sixteen years ago only 10 boats participated in the race — 118 entered this year, possibly a record. There are four divisions with three classes in each division, plus a Catboat division. Boats are grouped according to their Performance Handicap Racing Fleet (PHRF) rating, a system used to determine racing performance between different types of boats. A boat may cross the finish line dead last, as I have done in the past, and still outperform boats that finished earlier.
The Whitebread is held in early October when the weather is usually foul and the wind out of control. I have now competed in the Whitebread nine times and only finished five. A couple of times in the past, my crew mutinied even before the start because the weather was so bad, with the wind gusting to 35 and 40 knots. My boat, Flyer, a C & C 24, is only 24 feet long. The last two years the winds were very light so the race committee shortened the course. In fact, the conditions the last two years were more suited to sunbathing than sailing. The forecast for Saturday was early rain and strong west to northwest winds at 15 to 30 knots.
With an 8:30 a.m. start and the knowledge that the tide and winds were going to slow us down, my crew, consisting of Dave Olsen, Richard Smith, Charlie Modica and I, all Menantic Yacht Club Sunfish sailors, cast off from my mooring in West Neck Harbor before 6 a.m. The winds did not materialize and we had a smooth run under motor to the start. The sunrise, or should I say heavy cloud cover with some light showing through, was spectacular. We sailed out of West Neck along with Bill Martens and his crew of sons-in-law on his boat, Segue.
Charlie had never been on Flyer before but Dave and Richard had sailed with me in previous Whitebread races, Dave twice before and Richard once. They were not part of the mutinous crews I mentioned earlier. We arrived in Cutchogue Harbor in time to practice tacking and starting, which really paid off. Flyer was the first boat off the line and in great position. We were the second boat to round the first mark and the fifth or sixth boat to pass Jessups Neck. What a way to start the race!
The race committee sent us south around Shelter Island because of the tide and wind direction. The race committee also did something new this year. Normally the different fleets would join up around the North or South ferries. This year the race committee staggered the starts. With the strong winds and a following tide, the faster boats did not start catching the slower boats until Hay Beach and continued to pass the slower boats all the way to the finish.
It made for exciting times. For instance, I looked behind me at one point and saw two larger boats dueling it out. The leeward boat was forcing the windward boat up, and Flyer got in the way. The windward boat passed Flyer to starboard narrowly missing her transom and the leeward boat passed Flyer to port, a little too close for comfort considering the wind was howling and Flyer was heeled over with her rail in the water.
It was a perfect day for a long sailboat race. The wind intensity kept increasing, but only towards the end when rounding Nassau Point to the finish were we and most other boats over-powered. For most of the day we sailed a reach, which is Flyer’s fastest point of sail. We were speeding along at over 6.3 knots at some points and finished the race in a record time for me, just over five hours.
All along, I knew that I had to beat a certain boat that always takes first place in my class. I figured that if I could beat that boat, Shadow, I might take home a trophy. We led all the way around the course and finished in front of her. However, I was the scratch boat and had to finish first and give time to all the other boats in my class. I knew that Shadow beat me in corrected time, but it was not until the final results were published that I went down in the agony of defeat again, finishing in 5th place, less than two minutes behind the third place finisher.
We all had a great day of sailing and I’m already gearing up for next year!
