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Two and a half hours into the race, the sun begins to set, its glancing rays turning the sea pink and orange. From now on, all sail changes and adjustments must be made in the dark. Blue Yankee has passed some of the smaller boats in the fleet and is heading for The Race, which constricts the Sound at its eastern end near New London, Conn. Here the current is strong, often more than four knots. Tactician Warden-Owen calls for a change of spinnakers. Three crewmen perform what's known as an instantaneous peel, running the new sail up inside the old one, so when the old sail comes down, the new one is already working. It's a maneuver that requires the precision of a drill team. One false move and the sail can end up in the water.

"Sail choice and sail trim are critical," Towse says. Choosing which sails to carry on board is an important part of the pre-race strategizing because there is a sail for every possible wind condition. Modern racing sails are lighter and stronger than their cotton predecessors, which bulged uncontrollably with every gust of wind. Blue Yankee's jibs and mainsails are made of individual carbon fibers laminated to a mylar film. Because there is so little stretch, the sails maintain their shape as the wind builds, using it to best advantage.

The wind is steady and from the southwest, and Blue Yankee is on a reach (with the wind at right angles to the keel of the boat-one of the fastest points of sail) all the way through the mouth of the Sound. "We went through The Race in all its fury," Towse says later. "We hit everything at the right time. The tide had turned and we rode the crest of that ebbing tide all the way down and through."

By the time they reach Block Island Sound, Blue Yankee, the 70-foot sloop Donneybrook and Carrera have passed all the other boats and are dueling for the lead. Blue Yankee rounds the Buzzards Bay light between Newport, R.I., and Martha's Vineyard and begins the voyage home at about 3 a.m. Twenty minutes later, she passes Carrera heading in the opposite direction and then overtakes Donneybrook to claim the lead. "This is the challenging part," Towse says. "Going out was pretty straightforward."

Going home, Blue Yankee must beat against the wind, sailing as close to the wind as the boat will point in one direction, then coming about and tacking in the other direction. The weather forecast calls for a cold front to pass through about the time the boat will re-enter The Race, shifting the wind from southwest to northwest. Benjamin keeps the boat on a long port tack, with the wind coming over the left side of the boat, passing south of Block Island at dawn.

Benjamin brings Blue Yankee into the Sound on the starboard tack, squeezing between the Stratford, Conn., Shoal and Stratford Point. So far it has been a textbook race. By both the electronic mapping system and Towse's dead reckoning, Blue Yankee has arrived at every milestone on or ahead of schedule. With 32 miles and four hours of sailing to go, talk of a record begins in the stern of the boat and makes its way forward to the bow.

An hour later, as Blue Yankee passes Bridgeport, Conn., Towse radios the Stamford Yacht Club to report the boat's position. Talk of a record spreads through the club, the race's sponsor, and boats set out to watch Blue Yankee's arrival. Carrera is visible only through binoculars, and Towse estimates she is more than 40 minutes behind-the critical time, since the International Measurement System of handicapping means Blue Yankee must be at least that much ahead of the smaller Carrera to finish first on corrected time. Twenty-three hours, three minutes and 57 seconds after Blue Yankee started the race, she crosses the finish line, setting a record, winning her class and the IMS racing division and locking up the Northern Ocean Racing Trophy.

The Vineyard Race was Blue Yankee's last offshore race of the 2001 season. Towse and his crew competed in a series of buoy races on Long Island Sound near Towse's home in Stamford before putting the boat away for the winter. But even before Blue Yankee came out of the water, Towse was already planning his 2002 campaign.

This season began with a second-place finish in the Key West to Baltimore Race in April, and Towse is looking forward to a second win in the Newport-Bermuda Race in June. But ask him the race he has his heart set on and he will tell you it is still the Vineyard Race. While Blue Yankee set a record last fall and won the IMS racing division, an older, smaller boat beat Blue Yankee on handicap. "A lot of my dreams have come true," Towse says, "but I've never been the overall fleet winner of the Vineyard Race." This Labor Day weekend, Towse and Blue Yankee will try once more to make that dream come true. ~

Editor's note: At press time, we learned of the death of Blue Yankee's professional captain, Jamie Boeckel, on May 27 in an accident on Long Island Sound. Blue Yankee was one of 86 boats participating in the Block Island Race when she was hit by a sudden squall. Boeckel was on the bow, helping with a sail change to a smaller spinnaker, when the spinnaker pole broke and knocked him into the water. Crew member Brock Callen dove in and, in spite of the waves and cold, was able to reach the unconscious Boeckel, but could not hold him. We extend our sympathy to Jamie Boeckel's family and to the members of the Blue Yankee crew, who have lost a close friend and comrade.

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