The Round the Island Race (RTI)

We decided to enter the RTI which is hosted by Edgartown Yacht Club. We competed last year, had a blast and wanted to incrementally improve this year. Our core crew were not available but I managed to get Willie to join me, together with two sailing friends of his. So we have a crew of four experienced sailors and they have lots of racing experience. My hope was to learn lots…..Willie sails on many boats and helps coach skippers. On Wednesday evenings he sails on Charisma 2.

Willie and I delivered the boat from and to Boston for the race in Martha’s Vineyard. We started off at 9pm on Thursday and motored through the night arriving near Edgartown by 11am Friday. As we were arriving the fast boats were coming out of Edgartown to compete in the Round the Buoy races that take place in the days prior to the RTI. It was drizzling then raining but we decided to watch before heading into the harbor. These boats race all up and down the east coast and even head to Key West in the winter for competition. These boats were flying machines. As the countdown to the first start occurred a system came in and the wind dropped to 1-3 kts. The kiss of death for us if we were racing, but the countdown continued. Incredible to watch these boats accelerate in such low wind.

The system produced so much rain that visibility was awful. The race committee boat asked for another boat to head over to the pin end so that they could help see if boats were over the start line early and to help record sail numbers! That’s how bad visibility was.

We took our mooring, had a nap then went to shore to test the local establishments, pick up our race bag and attend the skippers meeting and pre race party. Given that Mount Gay sponsors the event the rum was flowing. During the evening Lars and Dale arrived who were to join us in the race. More rum, dinner then we headed back to the boat.

Since we had not sailed together before and Willie, Lars and Dale had not sailed on Prairie Gold we set off early to have some practice (6:30am). Tacking, accelerating, hoisting the kite and so on.

That's us practicing in the distance (EYC facebook page)

Before long it was our start time (8:30). Winds were low at 3-5kts but we started going and they grew to 10-12 kts.

The start - EYC facebook page

The course was a clockwise circuit around the island. Beneath is a SPOT tracker of our course around the island.

Fortunately the current was with us (2-3kts) heading south down the east side of the island, and again with us as we came up the sound and on to the finish. Very fortunate indeed since the winds dissipated significantly. With a 2-3kt current in our favor in the sound we were making some wind just by drifting which allowed us to sail. But more on that later.

 A little refreshment helps (Dale, Willie and Lars)

 Willie trimming the kite

 It exhausted him

Dale at the helm

Heading down to the southern most mark in the Atlantic we made good pace and were able to close in on many boats. As we rounded that mark we were able to play with a CYC boat, Uncle Joe, and force them up a little. A good bit of banter between the boats. We lost ground heading west because we have a smaller "do it all sail" that doesn't give enough power in low winds. We crawled back and then rounded the mark in the SW corner of the island. Heading up the sound was torture. Current was in our favor, wind was almost non existent. About 5pm (8.5h into the race) Willie calculated that we wouldn’t be in until midnight. All eyes were on the skipper. I went down made dark n stormies to cheer up the crew. A little later the mood was somber again. I said “don’t worry, give me 30 minutes and I will work a wind miracle”. 20 minutes later the wind grew to 10 kts and we were able to finish by about 8pm. This called for a little Elvis Costello - Miracle Man. Phew, I thought we might get mutiny.

Overall we did better than last year. We beat 15 boats who made the full course (fleet 8 and 9 were allowed to have a shorter course because of the slow going). We did manage to beat our CYC competitor Uncle Joe and finished two places behind Enya (also from CYC) in our fleet.

Working with these guys was a lot of fun – they know their stuff and the team gelled together pretty quickly.

On the way home the next day I had Willie working with me on spinnaker hoist and take downs. The goal 15secs. As we sailed up Buzzards Bay we stopped in Onset, just because, then through the canal and then used the kite to sail up to Scituate then the genoa to Minot’s ledge and on home arriving at Constitution Marina at about 1am on Monday.

Willie told me the story of the Minot’s ledge light house light pattern. Apparently a newly wed’s husband went to sea and was lost. She felt he was still alive and asked the lighthouse keeper to send a signal to him in number of flashes – 1-4-3 – I love you.