Ida Lewis Distance Race 2012Friday, August 17, 2012Newport, RI Save the DATE! NEWPORT, R.I. - The 2012 edition of the Ida Lewis Distance Race will feature a 177nm and a 150nm race course over some of the most storied and beautiful sailing grounds in the world. With a spectacular start off Fort Adams in Narragansett Bay, the race includes turning marks at Castle Hill, Brenton Reef, Block Island, Montauk Point, Martha’s Vineyard and Buzzards Tower on its way to a signature champagne finish inside Newport Harbor off the historic Ida Lewis Yacht Club. The race's eighth edition is scheduled for Friday, August 17th, 2012 wih classes are for IRC, PHRF (including Cruising Spinnaker and a Youth Challenge division), One Design and Double-Handed boats of 28 feet or longer. It is a qualifier for the New England Lighthouse Series (PHRF); the Northern and Double-Handed Ocean Racing Trophies (IRC); and the US-IRC Gulf Stream Series. For more information, contact Dirk Johnson, RaceChairman@ildistancerace.org, 401-965-9189, or go to www.ildistancerace.org, where the Notice of Race and online entry will soon be available. |
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Ida Lewis Distance Race 2011Beautiful Conditions Highlight Late Season FavoriteNEWPORT, R.I. (August 21, 2011) – This past Saturday morning (August 20), as the sun was barely peaking out from behind the horizon, the Ker 11.3 Oakcliff Racing, with its double-handed crew of Claudia Delahoy and Jeffrey MacFarlane (of Oyster Bay, N.Y.), began its entrance back into Newport Harbor after becoming the first boat to cross the finish line in the 2011 Ida Lewis Distance Race (ILDR). Delahoy and MacFarlane, who had never sailed together before, mastered the variable wind conditions on the 104 nm Buzzards Tower course, making it back to Newport by 5:44 a.m. after starting on Friday off Forth Adams at 1:05 p.m., with the rest of the 35 boat fleet.
“We kept the boat going the whole time, and it wasn’t until we headed back into Newport that it started to get light,” said O’Hanley. “We’ve had just about every finish position in this race – second, third, fourth, fifth – but this will be our first year winning our class.” O’Hanley has sailed in every ILDR but one and found Stephan Frank’s (Darien, Conn.) 69’ custom sloop Gracie and Christopher Culver’s (New York, N.Y.) Swan 42 Blazer, which finished second and third respectively, to be the biggest competition throughout the race. |
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Ida Lewis Distance Race 2011Starting Gun to Fire: 35 Boats on the LineNEWPORT, R.I. (August 18, 2011) – Tomorrow (Friday, August 19) at 1:00 p.m., the starting gun will fire for three separate starts in the seventh annual Ida Lewis Distance Race (ILDR), which will see 35 IRC, PHRF and doublehanded boats embark on one of four courses ranging from 104 – 177 nautical miles. With winds forecasted between 10-15 (Friday) and 5-8 knots (Saturday), the Race Committee expects that the smallest boat will finish before 5:00 p.m. on Saturday night (August 20), just in time for a spectacular finish line party at Ida Lewis Yacht Club. “The Ida Lewis Yacht Club is very hospitable to competing racers and this is our one race in the Newport area every year,” said Rick Orichhio (Fairfield, Conn.) who does most of his racing on Long Island Sound and took home third in last year’s IRC Class 1 on his boat J/120 Rocket Science. “I’ve enjoyed the Ida Lewis Distance Race in the past, but 2010 was the first year that we did it on my boat. Our goal is to sail fast and be safe. I’m looking forward to another fun race.” Talk of the Youth Challenge, which started in 2010, has drawn a lot of curious junior sailors, including 15-year-old Hannah Davis (Newport, R.I.) who will be making the jump from her 420 to a high-tech Class 40, Toothface skippered by Mike Dreese (West Newton, Mass.) and crewed by three other experienced sailors. “I’m the youngest crew onboard and was on the boat today checking it out. It is so stripped down for racing,” said Davis who has never raced in an offshore event. “I’m really looking forward to the learning experience and getting good instruction from seasoned sailors. I want to learn as much as possible about offshore racing, because it is not something I’ve been exposed to in the past.” Read More... |
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Ida Lewis Distance RaceCountdown to Early Entry Deadline
Who’s Coming “In the past we’ve done a lot more buoy racing, but after a friend of ours requested we do the Ida Lewis Distance Race back in 2009, we decided to try it out and ended up having a great time,” said John Wayt (Jamestown, R.I.) who placed second in the cruising spinnaker class that year on his S&S Swan 44 Vixen. “We did the race that year with four crew members, including my wife. It was a really relaxing sail but also competitive.” Read More... |
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An Offshore Experience for Youth Sailors and a Challenge for AllNEWPORT, R.I. (March 28, 2011) - This summer, junior sailors will broaden their horizons -literally-as they escape the confines of Narragansett Bay to embark on an offshore adventure covering up to 177 nautical miles. The Organizing Committee of the Ida Lewis Distance Race introduced its Youth Challenge last year, and it was met with huge success when six boats out of a fleet of 35 signed up to compete. It will be repeated this year when the seventh edition of the Ida Lewis Distance Race starts Friday, August 19 and sends competitors on a choice of four coastal race courses between 104 nm and 177 nm over some of the most storied and beautiful sailing grounds in the world.
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Ida Lewis Distance Race · Friday, August 19, 2011
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“We didn’t get any sleep the whole time,” said Delahoy, explaining that the winds were much more consistent than originally forecasted, especially for those who took the southern route around Block Island rather than the northern route, which had lighter breeze. “We kept planning that if the wind died off we could take some breaks, but it didn’t and so we didn’t stop pushing. I think that is what got us the lead in the end.” The strategy worked and Oakcliff Racing took home first in the PHRF Double-handed Class, correcting out a little under one hour ahead of Jason Richter’s (Mt. Sinai, N.Y.) J/35 Paladin. Ron O’Hanley’s (Newport, R.I.) Cookson 50 Privateer finished first on corrected time in the IRC Class – consisting of eight boats sailing the Block Island Course (150 nm) – and finished the race in just over 19 hours, earning him the Ida Lewis Distance Race Commodore’s Trophy along with the perpetual Russell L. Hoyt Memorial Trophy for best elapsed time. 
NEWPORT, R.I. (July 21, 2011) – The 
"The goal of the Youth Challenge is to introduce the junior sailing world to offshore sailing," said Event Chair Dirk Johnson (Newport, R.I.). "There is a whole new skill set that is needed to sail in an overnight race, and this is the perfect distance to get juniors onboard and excited without overdoing it." Johnson explained that the race attracts family cruisers as well as grand prix racers, offering classes for IRC, PHRF (featuring a cruising spinnaker class as well as the Youth Challenge division), One Design and Double-Handed boats of 28 feet or longer.