Crews rise to challenge in 2026 Ida Lewis Distance Race presented by Kiel James Patrick
by Barby MacGowan 17 Aug 14:22 PDT
August 14-15, 2026
The 21st edition of the Ida Lewis Distance Race presented by Kiel James Patrick got under way Friday morning, August 14, with 46 teams in six classes timing spinnaker sets for a downwind start.
The fleet of sailboats, ranging in size from 30 to 88 feet, began in Narragansett Bay's East Passage (between Rose Island and Fort Adams) and carried chutes past Castle Hill onto Rhode Island Sound for an overnight coastal race renowned for testing seamanship and stamina.
"This year's challenges included lighter-than-predicted winds and periods of calm that lasted longer than expected," said Sam Howell, leader of the event's Course Design Team. Prior to the start, the team selects from several preset courses based on wind and weather, with the goal of giving each class the best chance of finishing in 24 hours. Courses ranged from 135 nautical miles for the slowest PHRF boats in Bagheera to 220 miles for the fastest ORC 1 boats.
Devin McGranahan's (Miami, Fla.) Kernan 47 Dream Crusher, from ORC 2, took line honors Saturday morning at 08:11, finishing in just under 21 hours. But it was Bruce Chafee's (Boston, Mass.) R/P 42 Rikki, finishing next at 08:55, that won ORC 2 on corrected time after sailing the class's 150-nautical-mile course. Rikki also won the Commodore's Trophy awarded for fastest corrected speed in the ORC division.
"We got a leg up on everyone with a good start and found breeze on the Conanicut Island shore," said Chafee, describing the fleet's departure as a light northerly all but died before transitioning into a southwesterly. At the Narragansett Buoy turning mark, Rikki crossed Bryon Ehrhart's Juan K 88 Lucky, which went on to win ORC 1 and the Lime Rock Trophy for fastest average speed in the ORC division. Lucky crossed the finish fourth overall after just under 23 hours.
"They had to dip us because they were on port. It was pretty great, because we are less than half their size," said Chafee.
Rikki continued on a scenic course that led east to Buzzard's Bay Tower, past Block Island to Montauk and under the wind turbines at Coxes Ledge before returning to Buzzard's Bay Tower and home. Overnight, the team was treated to a meteor shower and dolphins breaking the water's surface in a breathtaking display of bioluminescence.
James Phyfe's (Cranston, R.I.) J/44 Digger, winner in PHRF Coronet class, added a hammerhead shark sighting to the list of wildlife encounters, but the boat's young crew barely noticed. "We were busy making sail changes, because it was shifty sailing," said Ethan Brown from East Greenwich Yacht Club's junior program. Eleven of Digger's 13 crew members were junior sailors, qualifying the boat for the Youth Challenge, which it handily won. At Saturday's awards party, Digger was awarded the Youth Challenge's Arent H. Kits van Heyningen Trophy and the Lime Rock Trophy for fastest corrected speed in the PHRF division.
"Where is sailing going to go if there are no kids in the pipeline, if we aren't recruiting, training, nurturing, and mentoring young sailors?," said Joe Cooper, who leads the effort to encourage entries in the event's Youth Challenge and Collegiate Challenge. Three teams qualified for the Youth Challenge and five for the Collegiate Challenge. NEKA Sailing/Zachary Doerr's (Newport, R.I.) Modified Figaro 5 Groupe 5, which finished seventh in ORC 2, won the William Tuthill Collegiate Trophy.
Winning PHRF Doublehanded, which had an impressive uptick in numbers this year with 10 entries, was Gregory Manning's (Warwick, R.I.) Seaquest 36 Goat Rodeo. The Baltic 50 Crazy Horse, representing the Community Boating Center of New Bedford (Mass.), won PHRF Aloha class while Jeffrey Wilson's (Fairfield, Conn.) Sabre 42 Tacktile took PHRF Bagheera.
"At the start, we had a good drift, but the rest of the race was magnificent," said Wilson. "Overnight, it was light wind, but we never stopped, never even went slow."
A handful of boats, however, realized on the return from Coxes Ledge that they would not make the 7 p.m. time limit and retired from racing.
"We absolutely love the format," continued Wilson. "The 24-hour concept - giving the faster boats a longer course and the slower boats shorter courses - is not done anywhere else. And what a good job the Race Committee does of it, choosing from 11 different courses, and they largely did it right!"
Besides Presenting Sponsor Kiel James Patrick, other support for the Ida Lewis Distance Race comes from Gold Sponsors Palm Beach Motor Yachts, Tuckernuck Logistics, Van Liew Trust Company; Silver Sponsors Contender Sailcloth and Cay Electronics; Bronze Sponsors Big Weather Gear, Brenton Hotel, Gooseneck Vineyards, the Hilb Group, Safe Harbor Newport Shipyard, and Serhant. Contributing Sponsors are, Gosling's Black Seal Rum, Mac Designs, Stella Artois, and Toni Mills Graphic Design.
For more information and full results, go to www.ilyc.org/distancerace or contact Race Chair Anselm Richards, . Follow the Ida Lewis Distance Race on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.