Sloop Tavern YC Blakely Rocks Benefit Race


“It is never easy sailing in the convergence zone.”


Boats rounding the Rock during the Sloop Tavern Yacht Club Blakely Rock Benefit Race. Photo by Jan Anderson. This year's STYC Blakely Rock


Benefit Race had the first start during an ebb tide. The ebb soon changed to a flood - so for much of the race, we would be going against the current. The key would be where we are when it changes from ebb to flood. Can we hide from the ebb, minimize its overall effect, and then catch the push of the flood for as long as possible on the way to the Rock? The morning brought post-frontal


clearing with increasing atmospheric pressure and a light and fickle southwesterly. Conditions were set for a battle with the convergence zone. Today, I am on Wings, a J/29 owned


by Jim Moynihan and Greg Conway. We are in Class 8 of 12 in this reverse-start race. We watch as seven classes of boats start under this fickle and dwindling southwesterly, most heading for the breakwater. The boats in our class are mostly in


close proximity, on starboard, near the pin end. We had a pretty good start, but we were in a lot of dirty air. It would be tough to get to the breakwater and keep up with our fleet, so we decided to tack onto port and go for clean air, heading out towards the southwest and the Sound. Before long, we were roughly on rhumb line to West Point. The boats along the


48° NORTH, MAY 2011 PAGE 58


breakwater were doing pretty well, but if our breeze held, we might all end up at West Point at the same time. That's when the wind evaporated


and left us in a huge hole. Boats all around us were moving with breeze. Some to the north began to hoist spinnakers, and yachts to the west continued under jib, but our water was as smooth as glass and our jib was just barely holding. We tried to push our way through. I looked to the west: we're gonna swing round and look north, south, and east and west, and go round in a circle, too. Then I looked north and saw a new short-shag carpet, laid out just a hundred feet to the north. This light northerly was working its way down toward us. It teased us, tip-toeing closer then retreating back to the north several times for fifteen minutes before it completely dissipated. Ten minutes later, looking east and saw it was back-- working its way west towards us. Then she retreated. Several others sat with us in that hole as the boats on the eastern shore raced ahead of us and past West Point with ease, including are archrival, Here and Now. Thirty minutes or more passed.


Near the latitude of Fourmile Rock, we looked to the south and saw a southerly pushing north towards us. Please come,


please come. And it did! When we met, it was 6 knots of breeze, and before long she had built to 10-12 knots. This took us to Blakely Rock and around. After rounding Blakely Rock, Bob


King's String Theory, an Olson 40 in Class 11, “gybed onto starboard and set her kite. We reached to a puffy southeasterly with a group of Moore 24s, Trophy Wife, and Penetration. It was a nerve wracking knife fight with no passing lanes on the leading edge of the southeasterly, with the fleet running us down to the west! Working our way to Magnolia Bluff, we gybed in very shallow water, slid under Trophy Wife at West Point, and… another convergence zone! The run turned into a shifty northerly beat. In the flood, String Theory worked eastward and up the breakwater for current relief. On port, we crossed Trophy Wife between the Race Committee and the rocks. Short-tacking Golden Gardens in the local 'Hurricane', we rounded the Meadow Point Buoy, set the kite, and… you guessed it: convergence zone! String Theory transitioned to a headsail; a few tacks later, gunsmoke!” Illusionist, a J/109 owned by David


Maclean, was in the 10th start, and “from our perspective starting in the back of the pack, the early starters


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