50th Anniversary of World's Longest Sunfish Race - Around Shelter Island, NY

2021 is the 50th anniversary of the World's Longest Sunfish Race - Around Shelter Island, NY. Race is July 10, 2021 out of Southold YC. 37 sailors entered so far and they are raffling off a new Sunfish and two new Sunfish sails - the only raffle tickets are your actual entry in the race. Even if you don't think you'll win, it's quite an adventure and a scenic and challenging race. Sign up online at 50th Annual World’s Longest Sunfish Race, Around Shelter Island, NY : Southold Yacht Club
 
This was on US Sunfish Class Facebook page.
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I hadn’t done the race before and it is an incredibly interesting and fun - and challenging - race. I really want to do it again when there is more wind and we can get all the way around the island. We started in 8 knots or so. You can see some pix and a few minutes after the start here 50th Worlds Longest Sunfish Race - TedCremer (smugmug.com) I have attached a pic of the course we sailed until the wind got verrrryyy light and the RC set a finish line and shortened course.

What is odd is that we tacked on each section of the course! Considering the wind was supposed to be N/NNE, it was pretty strange we tacked heading east, southeast, and then heading back north!! The fleet really diverged where it says "Shelter Island" on the blue line on the map. Most boats tacked to hug the shore and pick up a breeze off the shore. A few of us headed further south, and the fleet was really spread out at that point. We had to converge some when we got to where the ND in Sound is on the map, but some boats played the Long Island shore and some stayed up by the SI shore. The current changed from in or possibly slack at this point to out (easterly.) There were two ferries crossing back and forth and heavy powerboat traffic in this area. One powerboater shouted to me that my friends and I had picked the worst possible place to go sailing!

The point where we turned north had some tricky currents and bunched things up a bit. As we headed north, with a couple tacks, the current was quite strong, moving us north. As the wind died, the RC set up the finish. After we finished, club powerboats took us on the 12+ mile tow back which took well over an hour.

It was amazing how much positions changed and how big distances were made up, or lost, then made up again, as the race went on. If you watched Lee Montes' video on race prep, he said that would happen. As the race progressed, there were quite a few boats a good ways ahead of me, and it never occurred to me I would catch them, much less pass them. But things bunched up at the aforementioned point, and I played some shifts and moved ahead. John Condon was a good example of the big gains to be made. He had fallen quite a ways behind in the area near the ferries, but caught up to third and was within easy shouting distance at the finish - an amazing comeback, and just what Lee said was possible.

The club did a fantastic job handling the 71 boat fleet. Tons of volunteers pitched in, and who knows how many tow boats they had. They also had a great dinner for us when we eventually got back, and a good band played. A fellow who had apparently just taken delivery of a new Sunfish two weeks ago won the raffle for another new boat, and the two racing sails went to local LI sailors (I think.) Now that I have finally gone to the event, I really want to go back!!!

Complete results are here 50th Annual World’s Longest Sunfish Race, Around Shelter Island, NY : Southold Yacht Club (regattanetwork.com)

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