Flying Bugster held off Providence by ten seconds to win the 36th annual Moffett race Saturday under beautiful blue skies on Nantucket Sound. After nearly four hours of racing against a fleet of 40 boats, skipper Bill Coogan guided the Cape Dory 25 to the win in 2:58:48. Stuart Halpert led the Ensign Providence to second in 2:58:58.
Winds were consistently 15 to 20 knots from the southwest, as the fleet followed Course No. 2 in reverse, an 18.5-mile track that took the competitors to Waquoit, Wreck Shoal, the east end of Hedge Fence and back.
With the race concluded, the Holmes Hole Sailing Association summer season officially came to an end.
The top five boats finished in the money. Nat Benjamin in his Gannon & Benjamin (G&B) schooner Charlotte captured third with a time of 2:59:39. Jim Dixon in At Last, an Alerion 28, was fourth (3:04:11) and Frank Sutula in the Hanse 355 Soma Holiday took fifth (3:05:37).
The rest of the top ten were Scott DiBiaso in the G&B schooner Juno, 3:06:32; Michael Loberg, Morris 36, Masquerade 3:06:43; Phil Hale, Shields, Wicked 3:07:23; John Stout, G&B Bella, Isabella, 3:07:37; Jim Lobdell, Malabar Schooner, Malabar II, 3:07:51.
