The results are in for the 2014 running of the Around the County Race. Summer Salt not only won the white sail division on corrected time, but also had the best corrected time of the entire race! Congrats to Bob Boyce and crew Caley Venn, Kyle Boyce, Aaron Boyce, and Edward Hutchings for a fine showing. Their corrected time was 36 minutes faster than the second place boat Spankin Mad from BQYC.
Hooligan also had a fine showing, placing second (by 57 seconds) in spinnaker division and third over all on corrected time. Congrats to Tim Duffin and crew for a great job.
Winds were reported to be light during the first section of the race, but increased to over 30 knots before it was over. Of the 10 boats that started only 6 finished. A CS 33 lost its rudder and a Nonsuch 33 broke it’s wishbone boom. Holligan reported surfing at 13.4 knots and blowing out two sails.
Bob Boyce, skipper of Summer Salt recalls the following race details:
Summer Salt had a decent start in little wind. We clawed our way to Scotch Bonnet and were the third boat to the island. The wind and waves increased and the boom vang fitting gave way. Kyle Boyce jury rigged the vang with line. The noise of the line under load added to the growing sense of tension on the boat. In a very gutsy move, our own Hooligan popped their chute and left us in their wake.
Here’s the thing; Summer Salt seemed to be at ground zero for all the wreckage in this race. The shark flew from wave to wave and we saw their chute shred before their skipper did. In some sort of trouble, the CS suddenly altered course for New York State.
By the time we rounded the False Ducks the waves became horrendous The big Nonsuch went by us, her boom hit a wave sending her into a weird speed wobble. In survival mode, we dropped our main. The Nonsuch tore her mainsail, the boom and wishbone looking horrible, like a broken limb.
Edward Hutchings took the helm, tacking, in the dark, up the Adolphus Reach. Caley Venn used the gps chart plotter and wisely knew, when she clearly saw people moving around their living rooms on shore, it was probably a good time to tack!
The helmsmen, Arron Boyce, made a cheery response to the committee boats inquiry about damage. We were in a good mood. The cabin was warm and smelled of coffee and Caley’s breakfast egg and meat thingy. It wasn’t all bad; we heard wolves and coyotes, saw shooting stars and a tremendous sunrise. We crossed our wake and made the dock at PYC. Safe home at last.
