Mark Hansen’s Sweet Lorraine Wins Around Long Island Race
July 27-29, 2012
Sea Cliff, NY
Mark Hansen’s J/145 Sweet Lorraine was the first to finish the 190-mile Around Long Island Race, and held on to win the IRC and PHRF fleets overall on corrected time. The nine-person crew included seven LYC members: Com Crocker, Kerry Klingler and Buttons Padin were joined by LYC juniors Ian Brown, Andrew Brown, and Owen Zimmermann.
Reaching down the Sound at 10 knots aboard Sweet Lorraine in the
2012 Around Long Island Race
Sea Cliff Yacht Club’s 190-mile Around Long Island Race starts off Rockaway Point at the base of New York Harbor, rounds Montauk Point and ends in Hempstead Harbor across the sound from Larchmont. The 2012 edition was scheduled to start at 1700 on Thursday July 26th, but evening storm forecasts calling for winds in excess of 60 knots resulted in the start being postponed until 1000 the following morning.
Friday morning, the winds were favorable from the southwest – making the spinnaker start an exciting change of pace – with the evening forecasting a shift to a northeast breeze. The initial forecast also called for stronger winds further offshore during the Atlantic portion of the race and the majority of the fleet ventured, as it turned out, too far offshore. Updates showed that being closer to the beach in the afternoon would offer equally steady breeze and better position the boat for the evening’s northeast shift. Not every boat saw that information. Hansen, however, navigated Sweet Lorraine effectively through the wind variants whereby the boat was off East Hampton in good breeze as the wind shifted. The Jumbo spinnaker was replaced by the No. 1 genoa for three hours of stiff beating to Montauk.
Once around Montauk light, the spinnaker was reset, Plum Island was passed with a 3+ knot favorable current and Sweet Lorraine enjoyed winds averaging over 13 knots all the way down the Sound. Sweet Lorraine finished at 1230 on Saturday, just before the wind faded for everyone left on the racecourse.
The result was a sweep for Sweet Lorraine: first monohull to finish (only a catamaran finished sooner), first in PHRF division and fleet, first in IRC division in fleet, and declared the overall winner of the regatta. Results.
Kerry Klingler, Mark Hansen, Com Crocker, Buttons Padin and
crewmate Tim Longo return to LYC with their trophy haul from
the 2012 Around Long Island Race
