Tight racing at ORC North American Championship in Block Island
by Offshore Racing Congress 26 Jun 23:16 AEST
June 22-27, 2025
ORC North American Championship in Block Island Race Week © Stephen R Cloutier
With three days of racing completed over 7 Windward-Leeward courses, the scorelines are filling up for all three classes competing in the first ORC North American Championship at Storm Trysail Club's Block Island Race Week.
Racing has been held in near-ideal 7-15 knot wind speeds on all three days to promote close combat conditions in all classes.
Leading the Open ORC 1 class is the reigning ORC Class 0 World Champion team, Victor Wild's TP52 FOX, with victories recorded in all but the first race of the series. Their closest rival has been Andrew Berdon's TP52 SUMMER STORM 52 as the runner-up in the class, with Øivind Lorentzen's Botin-designed Brooklin Boat Yard 43 JAX lying in third.
In Class 3 Robin Team's J122 TEAMWORK is doing the same as FOX to that class, with runner-up Jeff Johnstone's brand new J/40 DOV taking a victory in Race 5. Andrew Weiss's Italia 11.98 CHRISTOPHER DRAGON XII is currently in third, but tied in points with Ian Hill's Cape 31 SITELLA.
The real battle royale for final podium positions is in ORC Class 2, where there are no less than four teams have taken race victories and the points totals are tight. David Faas's Swan 42 ZAMMERMOOS is in the lead now, with only one victory in Race 1 but a string of low singe-digit scores to have them 4 points ahead of James Coffman's Swan 45 GEMINI II. In third is Tom Rich's GP 42 SETTLER who would likely be in the lead were it not for a hiccup they had Race 5.
With so many boats of similar size and speed, this class has exceptionally tough racing boat-for-boat on the water, and this is reflected in their corrected times: on average the corrected time margins between the top five finishers in each race has been only 21 seconds after just under an hour duration for each race...this is only 0.7%.
"It's a real fight out there," said ZAMMERMOOS tactician Seadon Wijsen. "The races are pretty short - less than an hour - and the course area pretty crowded so finding clear lanes and positioning while also being fast is a challenge for all of us."
Today will be a different kind of challenge in positioning and space as the entire fleet of 168 entries will sail the legendary Round the Island Race that has been a part of every Race Week event in its 60 year history. The slower boats will start first with the fast boats overtaking them throughout the race, making for a true spectacle of sail for sailors and shoreside spectators alike.
They will, however, have to be a bit intrepid: the weather has changed from being hot and sultry to cool and raining, with lots of 15-20+ knots of northeasterly wind to make for a fast race.
Racing in the ORC North American Championship will then resume on Friday on more Windward-Leeward courses before the final positions determined for the three new 2025 ORC North American Champions.
Standings after 7 races:
ORC 1
1. FOX (USA 55052) - Botin TP52 - Victor Wild - 2-1-1-1-1-1-1 = 8 pts
2. SUMMER STORM 52 (USA 520) - TP52 - Andrew Berdon - 1-2-2-2-2-2-2 = 13 pts
3. JAX (USA 2022) - Brooklin Boat Yard - Øivind Lorentzen - 3-3-3-3-3-3-3 = 21 pts
ORC 2
1. ZAMMERMOOS (USA 4224) - Club Swan 42 - David Fass - 1-2-2-4-2-2-3 = 16 pts
2. GEMINI II (USA 45454) - Swan 45 - James Coffman - 6-1-3-3-1-5-1 = 20 pts
3. SETTLER (USA 8668) - GP 42 - Thomas Rich - 2-3-1-2-9-1-4 = 22 pts
ORC 3
1. TEAMWORK (USA 52939) - J/122 - Robin Team - 1-1-1-1-2-1-1 = 8 pts
2. DOV (USA 61878) - J/40 - Jeff Johnstone - 2-2-3-3-1-2-2 = 15 pts
3. CHRISTOPHER DRAGON XII (USA 2277) - Italia 11.98 - Andrew Weiss - 4-5-6-2-3-4-6 = 30 pts
For more information about the 31st Block Island Race Week, visit here.