J/Crews garner silverware in Conanicut Round Island Race
by J/Boats 13 Sep 2021 07:18 NZST
5 September 2021
J/Crews garner silverware in Conanicut Round Island Race © Conanicut Yacht Club
The 2021 edition of one of New England's more famous round island races took place on Labor Day Sunday.
The 21.0nm Round Conanicut Island Race (e.g., Jamestown to many) was hosted by Conanicut Yacht Club for a fleet of seventy-seven boats, of which nineteen were J/Teams (25% of fleet)!
Across many of the PHRF handicap division, J/Crews enjoyed the relatively fast race in the 8-15 kts southerly breeze. While it may have been a little gray and overcast, it was a classic race going clockwise around the island.
A short beat from the start off Jamestown to Beavertail Point, rounding it to starboard, then a long spinnaker run down the west passage to the northern 2 buoys, then back down Narragansett Bay's East Passage to the finish just past the Newport Bridge. As usual, favoring the island shoreline most of the way around was the ticket to ride for more silverware.
In the eleven-boat Non-Spinnaker A division, it was Robert Iriye's J/24 TENACIOUS that took the silver medal. Similarly, in the eleven-boat Non-Spinnaker B division, Owen Harren's J/44 SINGULARLY also took the silver, missing class honors by just over one minute. Finishing in seventh place was Jack Hubbard's J/100 MONITOR.
As he has done for decades, Mike Hill's J/24 OBSTREPOROUS not only won the ten-boat PHRF C Division, but was also tied for 9th overall in what was a "big boat race" for overall handicap honors.
In the eleven-boat PHRF D Division, Don Miller's J/27 SPLASH TANGO took fourth place. Meanwhile, Sam Cushing's J/80 THE PARTY TREE took 6th, Gordon Fletcher's J/70 GIJIMA was 7th, and Doug Young's J/80 LEAD MINE ended up 8th.
As they have done in the past on numerous occasions, the J/105s lead a sweep of the ten-boat PHRF F Division. Winning was Sean & Susan Doyle's KESTREL, with Matt Schmitt's HARDTACK taking the silver. Fourth place went to Dawson & Ben Hodgson's J/100 GRIMACE.
There was almost a near sweep in the ten-boat PHRF G Class. Top J was Stephen Clarke's J/99 NEW WAVE in second place, while taking the bronze was Tom Sutton's strongly campaigned J/109 LEADING EDGE. Just over a minute behind on corrected was Bill Kneller's J/109 VENTO SOLARE.
Collecting yet more silver in virtually every race or regatta they have participated in this summer, Joe Brito's J/121 INCOGNITO flew around the track to take the silver in the nine-boat PHRF H Division. Just two minutes back was Mark Nannini's J/120 SALACIA in fourth and just 12 seconds (!) behind them was Jack Gregg's J/122 TARAHUMARA. In fact, both boats missed the bronze step on the podium by less than 42 seconds!