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Block Island Race Week began in 1964, and has been a biennial regatta since 1965. Modeled after the British Cowes Week, it consists of four summer days of racing around-the-buoys and one day devoted to an ‘Around the Island Race’, which is 18.2 nautical miles in total. It is a big boat regatta, meaning that the minimum length of a boat must be 24 feet. There are usually 175 boats that participate in races in a given year, with boats belonging to one of four fleets, amongst whom they compete. The sailboat with the fastest time of all the fleets in the ‘Around the Island Race’ wins the ‘Island Club of Cowes Perpetual Trophy’ and a Rolex timepiece. This painting is of sailboats in the sea by the Block Island North Light, during the ‘Around the Island Race’.