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by Adam Loory, UK Sailmakers
The strategy of winning sailboat races involves knowing how to control your competition— when to cover your competition and when to sail your own race. I was reminded of both during the 2022 Ida Lewis Distance Race off Newport, Rhode Island. I sailed on the Reichel Pugh 69 WIZARD chartered by David Greenstein.
Four-time Volvo Ocean Race winner Stu Bannatyne was our skipper, and WIZARD was scratch boat in ORC. The only boat that was close to us in speed was the Judel Vrolijk 66 DENALI, to which we owed about 20 minutes on the 150-mile course. There was also a TP52 in our class, but since we owed her about two hours, there was no reason to be close to her.
At the starting line we did our best to get away from DENALI. Stu Bannatyne did a masterful job of winning the start and closed out DENALI at the signal boat, forcing her to go around and start again. Watch below:
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