The 70th edition of the Storm Trysail Club Block Island Race yielded winners in 10 classes and a place in the record books for Jim and Kristy Hinze Clark’s new 100-foot Maxi Comanche.
Fifty-eight boats started the 185 nautical mile race (from Stamford Yacht Club in Connecticut, east through Long Island Sound, around Block Island, R.I. and back to Stamford) on Friday afternoon (May 22) of Memorial Day Weekend, with Comanche finishing exactly one second after 2:50 a.m. the next morning, giving her an elapsed time of 11 hours 25 minutes and 01 second.
“Each year I ask the fastest boat in the fleet to give me a call when they are abeam of New Haven on the return,” said Event Chair Ray Redniss about Comanche’s call that came in at 0024 Saturday morning. “This was the earliest one yet, and a new record was established!”
Redniss said that to be precise, this year’s race was one mile shorter than that on which the 90-foot Rambler’s 2013 record of 13 hours 15 minutes and 55 seconds was set.
