Damian Emery’s J/105 ECLIPSE in the windy around the island distance race during Block Island Race Week
Shown above is Damian Emery’s J/105 ECLIPSE in the windy Around the Island distance race during Block Island Race Week. Emery and ECLIPSE went on to win their 17-boat one-design fleet by a single point. Racing was tight, with the lead changing among four boats throughout the week-long, 11-race event. “We were one of the fastest if not the fastest boat in the fleet” said Emery. “We had some issues early in the week like being over early three times, doing some 720s and just before the start of the Around the Island race, the jib halyard broke. We sailed that race with one forward halyard and had to do bald-headed changes. In fact one of our competitors told us we were so fast we must be sailing a J/106 instead of J/105.” During the middle of the week, ECLIPSE was in fourth position, but thanks to two firsts and two seconds in the last four races the team pulled off a one-point victory. ECLIPSE sailed with a two-year old UK class main and spinnaker and a Titanium® Technora jib.
Of note is Emery’s final comment: “When we had someone flip in front of us while sailing upwind, we were able to trim our UK Titanium jib a bit tighter and pinch up and get a clear lane.”
