Action was hot, heavy, occasionally harrowing — and at times really foggy — for StFYC’s annual Frank Stone Invitational series held over the weekend. Breeze in the 20-knot range and a good dose of ebb chop both days really rinsed the winter spiderwebs out of the 47 boats in one IRC and four one design classes. The series featured two races per day with no throwouts.

When the spray had cleared, Chip Megeath’s R/P 45 Criminal Mischief had taken the 12-boat IRC class on a tiebreaker with John Siegel’s veteran Wylie 43 Scorpio. Tom Thayer’s Howl pummeled the Sydney 38 class with three firsts and a fourth, while Gary Fanger’s Sweet Sensation looked pretty sensational with a three-point victory over the second 1D35 in that five-boat class. In the J-classes, the usual suspects topped the leaderboard, with Steve Madeira and his Mr. Magoo crew winning the J/120s by a point, and partners Dave Wilson and Chris Perkins pulling off a 10-point win of the J/105s with Good Timin’ — without winning a single race!

There were some fender benders out there, with Sy Kleinman’s veteran Schumacher 54 Swiftsure apparently getting the worst of it, coming together with Criminal Mischief on Saturday, and then getting T-boned by a J/24 on Sunday. There was another collision off Alcatraz on Saturday involving a boat in the 30-ft range but, at ‘Lectronic Latitude presstime, we had yet to track down details of any of these incidents, nor whether any of them were related to the thick fog that rolled in after lunch on both days. Look for that information in the June Racing Sheet.

For complete results, log onto www.stfyc.com.

LoÏck Peyron’s Gitana 80 has been steadily chewing into race leader PRB‘s margin, halving a 24-mile lead in the past twelve hours in lighter wind. The weekend’s 36-hour blackout saw previous race leader Sébastien Josse aboard BT squirt ahead into a dominant position, then have to retire with a damaged mainsail track and batten cars. That followed last week’s retirement of previous leader Michel Desjoyeaux’s Foncia, which hit an unidentified object, mashing the starboard daggerboard and possibly damaging its casing. Now the lead pack is down to Vincent Riou’s PRB, Gitana 80, Armel le Cleach’s Brit Air and Yann Elies’ Generali. This pack is very close to passing the Ice Gate set by race organizers to minimize the boats’ exposure to an unusually heavy concentration of ice southeast of Newfoundland. In an abnormal year weather-wise, temperatures around the gate are no different. "It’s warm, it will be the warmest ice gate I’ve ever seen," Peyron said.

In the Class 40s, leader Giovanni Soldini continues to put on a clinic. Assiduously defending the rhumbline from the start, Soldini continues to lead, having sailed far less distance than the bulk of the fleet, some of which is as far as 150 miles south of the shortest route to the ice gate ahead. Strategically and tactically, Soldini seems to be sailing with the same set of principles he employed to great effect in winning November’s doublehanded Transat Jacques Vabre — he’s sailing the shortest possible distance while consolidating on the boats behind at every good opportunity. Stay abreast of all the latest updaets at www.theartemistransat.com.