Yet another wacky easterly

Race Report – Hope 201
September 17th, 2025
Fall Race #4

Yet another wacky easterly

What is it about this year and the easterly whenever we’re racing south of the bridge? I’m starting to miss the battlefield of short-tacking up the Newport shore in a southwest breeze on the way to Hammersmith. This week’s start line was set just outside Jamestown Harbor near Clingstone. With high tide at 5:25 pm, the current was already ripping out at the bottom of the course, making it tough to stay under the line. Two “practice” starts went off, first under P flag, then I flag, before the fleet finally got away under a U flag, with some boats definitely flirting with over early starts.

Because of the tide and breeze, 201 wanted get onto port early to minimize time against the current on starboard. We started near the boat third end of the line, tacked shortly after, ducked a boat or two, and sent it right to escape the channel. We found pressure and connected a righty that brought us back into the fleet, rounding the top mark second, behind 245. Since we rounded the top mark in a right phase, we were able to set on the offset leg and gybe right at the offset mark, which was smart since there was an island in the way. Shoutout to 107 for clarifying that we indeed needed to obey the green can. On the run, we gybed back to starboard early to stay up current, which worked tremendously, as we quickly passed and extended on 245 and the fleet.

Unfortunately, we threw it away by rounding the right-hand gate, putting our bow directly into the current, and going the opposite way in which we found success on the first beat. We couldn’t tack right away because of the blanket of spinnakers coming for us, which meant we massively split the two boats, 245 and 107 we needed to protect. No good. 245 was rightfully launched, and so it became a battle for second between us, 107, 217, and 181. We learned from our mistakes and stayed in control of the boats we needed to and finished the race in second place. All in all, it was a lovely night consisting of a shifty easterly, changing tides, and a little bit of mist here and there. Always a pleasure to be sailing with 20-30 of the most beautiful boats in Newport. Special thanks to Simon for letting us take Hope out for a sail, although we know he was dreading missing it.

Andrew Sheerin

Hope 201