2015 Ida Lewis Distance Race - A different experience each year

by Kirsten Ferguson on 17 Aug 2015 The Ida Lewis Distance Race, a popular sailing overnighter hosted by Ida Lewis Yacht Club in Newport, R.I., wrapped up its 11th edition this weekend with the entire 36-boat fleet finishing within the time limit – a stark contrast to last year when many entries had to retire due to inclement weather.

The race started Friday (August 14) at 12:30 p.m. off Fort Adams, near the mouth of Newport Harbor, with a steady breeze and calm seas that remained consistent on two courses: the 153-nautical mile Block Island Course for the IRC Class and the 121-nautical mile Point Judith Course for PHRF and Doublehanded Classes. Brian Cunha’s (Newport, R.I.) Ker 55 Irie 2 crossed the finish line on Saturday morning at 5:50 a.m., claiming line honors and taking the overall win in PHRF division.

“This is the first time we’ve done the Ida Lewis Distance Race, and it was a lot of fun,” said Cunha, who was awarded the Lime Rock Trophy for best-corrected time in PHRF and the Lois J. Muessel Trophy for best elapsed time in PHRF. “The conditions were perfect for us, with the wind staying between eight and 12 knots throughout the entire race.”

Although the fleet was divided on two courses, all boats had to incorporate an approximately 37 nautical mile upwind leg from Buzzards Bay to Montauk Point. The “tricky beat” called for teams to decide whether to head right or left around Block Island, and for Cunha and his team, the choice was clearly left because of the wind angles, but the following leg posed larger challenges for Irie 2.

“After we hit Montauk we headed back down to Buzzards Bay and had to navigate our way through a fleet of about 200 fishing boats that were right in the middle of the course,” said Cunha. Despite the unusual obstacle, the team finished the race with a three-hour lead on the rest of the fleet.

In addition to event newcomers like Cunha, a slew of returning race veterans competed, including Steve and Heidi Benjamin (Jamestown, R.I./Norwalk, Conn.) aboard the Carkeek 40 Spookie and Tristan Mouligne (Boston, Mass.) aboard the Quest 30 Samba. Both teams defended their wins in IRC Overall and PHRF A, respectively.

“This is the sixth Ida Lewis Distance Race that I’ve done in a row, and what is great about it is you never experience the same race twice,” said Mouligne, who was also awarded the newly-established Rhode Island Offshore Challenge Trophy for best-combined score in the Ida Lewis Distance Race and the Sid Clark Offshore Race (which took place in July). “I’ve had Samba for a while and have done a lot of point-to-point sailing and distance racing. I’ve gone to Bermuda and back twice with the boat and raced in six New England Solo/Twin Championships, a very similar race to this one. We’ve done that offshore leg between Buzzards Bay and Montauk about 25 times, so we are starting to figure out what to look for and which way to go. Last year, we had a really heavy-air start and a tough port-tack beat all the way up to Montauk, but this time it was a very pleasant sail, and we were on starboard tack the entire time.”

Mouligne added that the level of competition at the Ida Lewis Distance Race is what brings him back every year. “We are always trying to race against as many boats as we can. This year in the PHRF class, we had an awesome offshore fleet of 25 boats.”

The separately-scored Youth Challenge also saw a repeat victory with Alfred Van Liew’s (Middletown, R.I.) J/111 team aboard Odyssey winning the Arent H. Kits van Heyningen Trophy for the second year in a row.

When asked about how her experience on Odyssey differed this year compared to last, 18-year-old Kate Nota (Newport, R.I.) said, “We definitely approached racing with a different mindset. Last year, the wind was pretty crazy. With calmer conditions this year we were able to focus on all the little details and make every second count. It’s good to have different conditions to test us as sailors and build up our experience.”

The Youth Challenge was developed by the race organizers nine years ago as a stepping stone for junior sailors interested in transitioning into offshore racing. This year, the Youth Challenge hosted five teams. (To qualify, more than 40% of the crew had to have reached their 14th birthday but not turned 20 prior to August 15, 2015.)

Nota added that the Odyssey team consisted of seven junior sailors and two adults: Van Liew and David Brodsky. “We had a few junior sailors on our team that were new to the event and one who had never sailed in an overnight race before, so it was fun to go through the experience with them and see how excited they were.”

The Ida Lewis Distance Race also is a qualifier for the New England Lighthouse Series (PHRF) and the Northern and Double-Handed Ocean Racing Trophies (IRC).

Preliminary Results Race 1

Sail Number Yacht Name Yacht Design Owner/Skipper Status Rating Finish Time Elapsed Time Corrected Time Class Fleet Ida Lewis Distance Race Racing IRC Division IRC 1 USA 95 Spookie Carkeek HP 40 Steve & Heidi Benjamin 1.270 15/Aug/15 - 10:54:00 0:21:34:00 01:03:23:23 1 1 2 USA 50069 Temptation-Oakcliff Ker 50 Arthur Santry 1.253 15/Aug/15 - 11:14:40 0:21:54:40 01:03:27:17 2 2 3 USA 60456 White Rhino 2 Carkeek 47 Todd Stuart 1.345 15/Aug/15 - 10:35:57 0:21:15:57 01:04:36:09 3 3 4 USA 50095 Kodiak sloop Llwyd Ecclestone 1.416 15/Aug/15 - 09:58:51 0:20:38:51 01:05:14:13 4 4 5 USA 93499 Valkyrie Beneteau First 44.7 Drew Chapman 1.100 15/Aug/15 - 16:12:22 1:02:52:22 01:05:33:36 5 5 6 USA 60564 Warrior Won Xp44 Christopher Sheehan 1.142 15/Aug/15 - 15:23:27 1:02:03:27 01:05:45:28 6 6 7 USA 60782 HH42 HH 42 Glenn Walters 1.234 15/Aug/15 - 14:24:34 1:01:04:34 01:06:56:38 7 7 8 USA 51990 Oakcliff Farr 40-Blue Farr 40 Oakcliff Sailing 1.175 15/Aug/15 - 15:46:04 1:02:26:04 01:07:03:38 8 8 9 USA 51695 Oakcliff Farr 40-Black Farr 40 Oakcliff Sailing 1.173 15/Aug/15 - 15:51:30 1:02:31:30 01:07:06:50 9 9     PHRF Division PHRF A 1 USA 301 Samba Quest 30 Tristan Mouligne 89.0 15/Aug/15 - 10:55:09 0:22:05:09 00:19:05:40 1 2 2 USA 12 Invictus Sun Fast 3600 Paul Fenn 60.0 15/Aug/15 - 10:34:24 0:21:44:24 00:19:43:24 2 8 3 USA 203 URSA J 109 Brooke Mastrorio 72.0 15/Aug/15 - 11:12:39 0:22:22:39 00:19:57:27 3 11 4 USA 266 Vento Solare J 109 Bill Kneller 72.0 15/Aug/15 - 11:15:00 0:22:25:00 00:19:59:48 4 12 5 USA 42258 Breakaway - Youth J 35 Paul Grimes 80.0 15/Aug/15 - 11:36:44 0:22:46:44 00:20:05:24 5 13 6 USA 1976 Mischief Lyman-Morse 40 David Schwartz 85.0 15/Aug/15 - 12:15:33 0:23:25:33 00:20:34:08 6 15 7 USA 1 Jazz - Youth J 88 Douglas McKeige 87.0 15/Aug/15 - 12:31:46 0:23:41:46 00:20:46:19 7 16 8 USA 50895 COCO Swan 36 Ian Scott 115.0 15/Aug/15 - 14:15:06 1:01:25:06 00:21:33:11 8 18 9 USA 56 Spirit J 92S EC Helme 96.0 15/Aug/15 - 13:42:15 1:00:52:15 00:21:38:39 9 19 10 USA 42700 Duck Soup C&C 37 R/XL Bill Clavin 85.0 15/Aug/15 - 14:14:06 1:01:24:06 00:22:32:41 10 20 11 USA 51020 Momentum Hinckley sou'wester 51 Paul Kanev 76.0 15/Aug/15 - 14:06:32 1:01:16:32 00:22:43:16 11 21 12 USA 51920 Elan Beneteau First 36.7 John Hammel SCP 82.0 15/Aug/15 - 12:30:27 0:23:40:27 00:20:55:05 11 27 13 USA 20145 Four Suns - Youth Swan 41 Charles Beal 112.0 15/Aug/15 - 16:26:26 1:03:36:26 00:23:50:34 12 23 14 USA 60541 Kiska Hanse 445 Will Richmond 78.0 15/Aug/15 - 17:26:19 1:04:36:19 01:01:59:01 13 26   PHRF B 1 GRE GRE 55 Irie 2 Kerr 55 Brian Cunha -60.0 15/Aug/15 - 05:50:09 0:16:45:09 00:18:46:09 1 1 2 USA 60003 Tarahumara J 122 Jack Gregg 36.0 15/Aug/15 - 09:28:09 0:20:23:09 00:19:10:33 2 3 3 USA 53520 Heron J 120 Greg Leonard 45.0 15/Aug/15 - 09:52:01 0:20:47:01 00:19:16:16 3 4 4 USA 43950 Temptress Taylor 41 John Gowell 51.0 15/Aug/15 - 10:06:53 0:21:01:53 00:19:19:02 4 5 5 USA 2036R Shearwater Sydney 36 Joe Whelan Chris Bjerregaard 54.0 15/Aug/15 - 10:31:56 0:21:26:56 00:19:38:02 5 6 6 USA 51233 Vamoose J 120 Bob Manchester 54.0 15/Aug/15 - 10:34:52 0:21:29:52 00:19:40:58 6 7 7 USA 60085 Moxiee J 122 Daniel Heun 36.0 15/Aug/15 - 10:03:58 0:20:58:58 00:19:46:22 7 9 8 USA 711 Odyssey - Youth J 111 Alfred Van Liew / David Brodsky 42.0 15/Aug/15 - 10:20:25 0:21:15:25 00:19:50:43 8 10 9 USA 36 Next - Colligiate Martin 36 Ryan Walsh 36.0 15/Aug/15 - 10:29:43 0:21:24:43 00:20:12:07 9 14 10 USA 33555 Fearless - Youth Baltic 55 Shaun Ensor 27.0 15/Aug/15 - 13:16:50 1:00:11:50 00:23:17:23 10 22 11 USA 118 Manitou J 111 Greg Slamowitz 42.0 15/Aug/15 - 14:22:32 1:01:17:32 00:23:52:50 11 24   PHRF - Doublehanded 1 USA 60511 Eagles Dare J 111 Jonathan Green 42.0 15/Aug/15 - 11:22:04 0:22:47:04 00:21:22:22 1 17 2 USA 25391 Meridian Tartan 4600 Murray Beach 91.0 15/Aug/15 - 17:15:26 1:04:40:26 01:01:36:55 2 25