2026 Block Island Race DeBrief
What an exciting BI Race!
Thanks to Ray Redniss, Whitney Simon, and the entire team at Storm Trysail Club and Stamford Yacht Club for putting on another wonderfully managed race. And it was great seeing a lot of you at Stamford YC and talking shop and sharing wisdom. This is something I love about our sailing community, especially the shorthanded community.
This post:
Shares a few thoughts from aboard Abilyn
Rescores the entire DH fleet under the hypothetical scenario where we all raced together under PHRF
Looks ahead at what’s coming up for the shorthanded community
But first off, congrats to Todd Aven and Todd Diffee for winning 1st in ORC DH aboard Thin Man, and to Peter Becker and Adrien Blanc for winning PHRF DH aboard Young American. Well-earned.
With Todd’s win, he takes a commanding lead for the Series Championship.
Check out the Live Leaderboard here:
https://sailshorthanded.org/series-leaderboard
My Thoughts Aboard Abilyn
The pressure was variable and light enough (at least up until about 2130 Saturday night) to create real intellectual complexity on the race course.
And we found a new mode, coined by co-skipper Doug Lynn as “full flaps mode.” Traveler all the way to weather, boom above center line, main slightly eased. With a reefed main and large, overlapping genoa, we launched out of the Sound with enough power to get through the lingering easterly swell.
But it was the return into the Sound where true gains (and losses) were realized.
As we rounded SE light and started heading towards the Race, we saw Thin Man still tacking upwind towards 1 BI. That was the last time we checked in on Todd.
BIG MISTAKE! HUGE!
The breeze filled in from behind and allowed Todd and others to claw us back in.
And as night fell and we felt the breeze and swell intensify from the east, the shorthanded fleet had to start making tough decisions between sailing tactics and reducing the probability of a sail handling error.
Close to the finish, we were sailing on port gybe high of R32. On AIS, I saw boats gybing back but not laying the mark. I was watching Skye on AIS—he was laying R32 on starboard gybe.
I told Doug we needed to sail 3 nm and hit that layline. One gybe and in—it’s dark, and breeze and waves are picking up. Let’s limit maneuvers.
But we had been gybing well all day. Outside gybes with the AP driving the boat through the turn—a single button click and we could go from 155 TWA to 155 TWA with no driver.
So, instead of sailing to the layline, we chose to consolidate.
Instead of one gybe and douse, it was now 3 gybes and douse.
We set up our maneuver and then executed. For the first time over the past 80+ miles, we snagged the soft shackle of the spinnaker clew on the tack line Tylaska. The AP continued to turn the boat while the clew was stuck. The spinnaker started to twist.
“GYBE BACK!” I yelled to Doug.
First rule of Spinnaker Twist Club: If you twist going through a gybe, gybe back immediately.
We cleared the twist and re-executed the gybe, this time with Doug driving through the wind with me releasing, floating the clew, and trimming the new sheet.
Day saved.
We sailed a bit and gybed back. Thankfully, no issues on the second gybe.
With breeze building, on port gybe, we chose to douse the kite on starboard with the ATN Sock, and hoist the J3. We gybed around R32 sailing 10 knots BSP on a reach in 18–20 knots.
Todd continued to grind, and finished within 2 hours of us to take the win.
Interestingly—and this is an issue for all RCs using YB—Todd was not tagged as being part of ORC DH. So when I pulled up the leaderboard, I never saw Todd’s name.
I routinely check all available data sources—YB, AIS, head out of the boat. I probably focused too much on YB. And not seeing Thin Man on the leaderboard led me into a false sense of security.
Lesson learned.
Instead of focusing so much on YB, I should have been more concerned with sailing too much distance in BI Sound.
That said, Doug and I were very aware of the extra distance we sailed all day!
What If We All Sailed Under PHRF?
The DH fleet was split between ORC and PHRF.
What if we all had raced together under PHRF?
See below for how the results would have shook out. Claude did the math.
What’s Next for the Shorthanded Community?
In shorthanded ocean racing, we have the Newport-Bermuda Race and Shorthanded Return in June.
Peter Becker and Adrien Blanc will be racing on Young American. Michael Kohler and Doug Britton will be on Eventyr. Tim Kent (Long Island) and Rory Meunier Mott (RI) will be racing aboard the Class 40 Kent Racing. And local sailmaker Emmet Dickheiser will be racing with Cat Chimney aboard the J/44 Kenai.
Good luck to our local shorthanded sailors and everybody else racing to Bermuda!
Locally, there are two local races in June to satisfy your shorthanded cravings:
The City Island Yacht Club’s Annual Distance Race on June 20
The Riverside Yacht Club’s Stratford Shoal Race on June 27
There are already two DH boats signed up for the Riverside Race.
July is big—with shorthanded races in the Newport area and the ALIR on July 23.
So get your practice in during these June races!
See you out on the water.
— Josh