Twenty years strong: Iconic Ida Lewis Distance Race served up a high-seas showdown
by Barby MacGowan 18 Aug 08:27 BST
August 14-15, 2025
The 20th anniversary of the Ida Lewis Distance Race delivered an unforgettable offshore challenge for 35 teams that took to the starting line Friday morning (August 15) in blustery east northeasterly winds. With a demanding downwind start in 12-15 knots, crews had to precisely time their spinnaker hoists - a thrilling sight just outside of Newport Harbor - as they launched into the 24-hour endurance race.
"Hosted by the Ida Lewis Yacht Club, this year's edition stayed true to its reputation, serving up the full spectrum of offshore sailing: strong breezes, tidal currents, and sometimes frustrating stretches of light to no wind at all," said Event Chair Anselm Richards. "The racecourse tested both seamanship and strategy, keeping crews and tacticians on their game from start to finish."
The fleet featured two ORC, one Doublehanded, and three PHRF (Aloha, Bagheera, Coronet) classes. From seasoned veterans to ambitious newcomers, all teams faced the demanding conditions that have made this race a classic on the northeast sailing calendar.
First to finish at 10:13:46 on Saturday morning was one of the larger boats in the fleet, Beau Van Metre's (Middleburg, Virginia) S&S 60 Running Tide. It won its PHRF Coronet class, finishing the race in just under 22 half hours after completing a 114 nautical mile course. (It also won the Lime Rock Trophy for PHRF best corrected time overall.) Based on wind predictions, the Race Committee had decided on different courses for the various classes that ranged from 104 nautical miles (the shortest, for PHRF Bagheera class) and 150 nm (the longest, for ORC 1 and PHRF Aloha classes).
One of the smallest boats in the fleet, the Hobie 33 Mod Captain Sluggo, crossed the finish line off Ida Lewis Yacht Club next on Saturday morning, having sailed its Bagheera class course in just over 23 hours and 20 minutes to claim class victory. All was not easy, however, on the track to victory that sent the fleet from Narragansett Bay to Rhode Island Sound and as far as Block Island Sound. Stretches of little to no wind pushed wits and determination to the edge, extending the 24-hour race to between 25 and 27 hours for some and giving 10 boats reason to retire before finishing.
Captain Sluggo's skipper Tommy Henshaw (Newport, R.I.) said that nailing the start at the pin end helped his team put some money in the bank. "It was the same start as we did when I crewed to win on the J/99 Agent 99 last year. On the Hobie 33, we can head deeper with the same boat speed, so we had the fleet where we needed them."
The team got to their turning mark that was "farthest west" in a nice breeze, but then the wind completely shut down east of Fishers Island. "We were nervous, because it consolidated the fleet, and at one point we were going backwards and even did a full 360 degrees with no steerage. Luckily, we have crew with great navigational skills who decided that we would stay and wait for wind rather than go home under power."
As fate had it, Captain Sluggo was pushed closer to shore than the others and took advantage of a light northerly filling in there. "We had a six-knot ride back to Point Judith on a tight reach. With our boat being only 33 feet long, eight feet wide and 4200 pounds, she really moves in those conditions."
At Point Judith, the wind died again. "It was 7 pm, and we didn't finish until 11:30 the next morning: the slowest trip I've ever made from Point Judith to Newport. We would've liked a little more wind at the end, but it was a great racecourse for us, and we had fantastic wind on two downwind legs that we were able to extend on. Hats off to the Race Committee for choosing a perfect course!"
Another who coped well with the expanses of light air was Elliott Merrill's (Stonington, Conn.) LM 46 Arcadia, which won ORC 1. Merrill described the exhilarating run out of Narragansett Bay to the first buoy and the reach to Buzzard's Bay Tower before his team hit a huge wind shadow off Martha's Vinyard near the windmill farm that forms an exclusion zone for all sailors in the race. There was compression of the fleet there, but next Arcadia was going 10-12 knots downwind as the sun set. From three to six a.m. at the buoy off Montauk, there was very little wind, and Merrill said the team eeked out small movements to go forward.
Said Merrill, who has completed 14 Newport to Bermuda races (some with his current crew) and counts this as his first time sailing the Ida Lewis Distance Race: "There were lots of sail changes and tactical decisions to be made about which sails and where to be for the wind. Seven of our eight crew, including me, were either current or past members of Harvard Sailing (one was from Tufts), so it was fun from that aspect. It helped that we've sailed a lot of miles together, so that at 3 a.m. in the morning, everyone is curious and alert and says 'let's tweak this for more speed' or 'let's do something different to be faster.' I have a couple of rules for offshore distance racing, in this order: be safe, have fun, eat well, do well!"
Other class winners were Charles de Coquet's (Savannah, Ga.) Class 40 Concise 8 in PHRF Aloha; Will McKeige's (Mamaroneck, N.Y.) Figaro 2 Groupe 5 in ORC 2 (it also won the ILYC Commodore's Trophy for best corrected time overall); and Chris Benzak's (Newport, R.I.) Sunfast 3300 Low Profile in Double Handed.
It was like three races in one," said Benzak, who doublehanded with Ben Chafee (Saunderstown, R.I.). "From a breezy start to a full stop at the MOA mark, then a fresh start after the boat did a full pirouette in zero breeze. We had three hours of dead calm again in the pre-dawn to dawn hours, and I went for a lovely swim. After that we cooked pasta on a flat boat with a full kite, in 14 knots of breeze at our hip. Doublehanded is an exciting way to sail, and we like that this is like sailing's 24 Hours of LeMans."
The Lois J. Muessel Memorial Trophy for PHRF best elapsed time overall went to Richard Moody's (Jamestown, R.I.) R/P 66 Boudicca, which finished third in PHRF Aloha, and the Russell L. Hoyt Memorial Trophy for ORC best elapsed time overall went to Bruce Chafee's (Boston, Mass.) R/P 42 Rikki, which finished second in ORC 1.
An Impressive Youth/Collegiate Turnout
Of the 35 teams competing, five were dual scored for the Youth Challenge and six were dual scored for the Collegiate Challenge, each having the required allotment of 40% youth or collegiate sailors, respectively, as crew. Furthermore, a total of 11 boats (roughly 31% of the fleet) included at least one or more high school sailors (22 total) in their crews, and nine boats (25% of the fleet) had collegiate sailors (20 total) aboard.
Bill Kneller's (Newport, R.I.) J/109 Vento Solare, third in its PHRF Coronet class, won the Arent H. Kits van Heyningen Trophy for the Youth Challenge, while William Denker's (Hull, Mass.) J/99 Falcon, second in Coronet class, won the Tuthill Collegiate Trophy for the Collegiate Challenge.
"It was an outstanding showing of the next generation of sailors," said one of the race's Youth/Collegiate coordinators Adam Witham.
Ida Lewis Distance Race Gold Sponsors were Hogan Associates/Christie’s International Real Estate, Palm Beach Motor Yachts, and Van Liew Trust Company. Silver Sponsor is Contender Sailcloth, and Bronze Sponsors are the Brenton Hotel and Hilb Group. Contributing Sponsors are Gosling’s Black Seal Rum, Safe Harbor Newport Shipyard, Stella Artois, Toni Mills Graphic Design, and Mac Designs.
For more information, go to www.ilyc.org/distancerace or contact Race Chair Anselm Richards, distanceracechair@ilyc.org.
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