Agreed with Jake and Maughan!

If they get loud after the race, the phrase "you did really well for a monohull" tends to get a discussion going instead of having chips knocked off shoulders.

Yes the Mug Race organizers do score everyone together but, only first to finish is trophied. I have always taken that scoring with a grain of salt. There is no way you can fairly score (stagger the start) mono's and multi's. I wouldn't even take the overall multihull Portsmouth calculations too seriously. I love the staggered start, I like my sleepy time. Now if we could just do something about that damn gun that goes off at o’dark thirty.

What the Mug Race organizers try to do is break up the fleets in such a way that like boats are grouped together. Heck in the multi’s alone there were 8 classes last year! EIGHT classes for 50 multihulls! And they give out a butt load (kind of like a truck load but more) of trophies… by the way I still have yours. After 50 years I think the Rudder Club has pretty much nailed it. If you don’t have a good time at the Mug Race then you are doing it wrong. Yes, I’m a Mug Race bigot so I’m a little bias.

Ding

Fair Mug Race Handicap System? I remember that Stewart Barcalow won the Mug Race a couple of years ago with a Hobie 16-- of course he had new sails and he knew what he was doing. Nobody could catch him, not even Bill and Eric Roberts vaunted RC-30 (that starts an hour or so late). Usually there is an unpredictable lull somewhere causing the monohulls to get left behind- but the Melges and big E-scows are the hardest to catch with a cat from way behind. Its really great fun, especially single handing with a chute! Do I hate this race? Uuuhhh- I have only done it 26 times, but next year will be my year.
That's if the Rudder Club gets its big dock back together...Hurri. Frances knocked off every brand new board.

I'm looking forward to it as well - we had a blast last year in a near perfect deep reach with a fully powered up I20 (we caught the E-scows after about an hour or so)...there was that lull, hitting a submerged object, and lightening and stuff but very cool.