J/160 COUGAR Rocks Block Island Race Week Performance Cruising Division!

J/99 Class won by McKeige’s SAVE THE SOUND
(Block Island, RI)- This year’s Storm Trysail Club Block Island Race Week featured a diversity of weather challenges all week long; from clear sunny “shorts & shades” glamma days to grey, cool, ugly, drizzly days to keep everyone honest. In the end, numerous J/Teams filled up the leaderboard, garnering a lion’s share of the silverware across several PHRF Corinthians divisions. One notable performance was registered by one of the most iconic cruising sailboats produced by J/Boats.

PHRF Performance Cruising A Division
After having raced in the Long Island Sound J/44 One-Design class for decades, Len Sitar and his experienced crew opted for even more comfort and performance in the form of a J/160! What’s not to like about A/C, wine coolers, heaters, and icemakers on board! After a complete renovation, Len renamed his J/160 COUGAR and has proceeded to race his “cruiser” extensively in offshore races up and down the northeastern seaboard. Their most recent escapades involved participating in this year’s Storm Trysail Club Block Island Race Week in the PHRF Performance Cruising- Rule 26 fleet (maximum one Category 3 sailor aboard).

With his very experienced crew, thanks to hundreds of J/44 one-design races over decades, Lennie’s COUGAR team vanquished their erstwhile competitors in their sixteen-boat fleet! Like a huge locomotive gathering steam down the tracks, COUGAR started with a 5-4, then smoked the fleet, closing with a 2-2-1 to win handily with 14 pts total!

Not far off their pace were some fellow J/Boats owners. Taking the bronze medal was Joe Brito’s team from Bristol, RI, on his extensively-campaigned J/121 INCOGNITO. Then, fourth place went to Steve Losik’s J/121 HABIRU, fifth to Steve Brownlie’s J/133 ASSARAIN IV, seventh to Kevin Kelley’s J/122 SUMMER GRACE, ninth to Trevor Roach’s J/121 TOUCH OF GREY, and tenth to Brian Prinz’s J/125 SPECTRE. Not a bad outing for J/Teams from across the northeast! 7 of the top 10 and 11 of the top 15!!

PHRF Performance Cruising B Division
In a somewhat similar fashion, the same “movie” played out in this fourteen-boat fleet. Also, veterans of decades of world-class one-design racing in the J/80, the Storck family (J/80 North American Champions) opted for more speed and comfort like Len Sitar’s J/160 crew and got themselves a brand new shiny toy- their J/130 BLITZEN. Having campaigned her for several years, John Storck and family members have learned to extract more and more performance out of their J/130 “cruising machine”. That was self-evident in this year’s Block Island week; winning their fleet handily with a 2-1-3-4-2 for 12 pts! Seemingly, all of BLITZEN’s cruising amenities did little to slow her down in the challenging, choppy waves in Block Island Sound.

J/99 One-Design sub-class
A slew of new J/99s were also sailing in this PHRF B division. Top dog in the J/99 class was Doug McKeige’s SAVE THE SOUND, also taking 4th in fleet. Second was Steve Wadsworth’s TRIPLE WHISKEY (6th in fleet), third was designer Rodney Johnstone’s family crew from Stonington, CT aboard JAZZ (7th in class), fourth was Tom O’Connell’s FINALE, and fifth place went to Kevin Sherwood’s BAY RETRIEVER.

For more Storm Trysail Block Island Race Week sailing information
https://stormtrysail.org/regattas/blockislandraceweek/