Any news from todays Mug Race?

??

In a nutshell

Dream On, Eric Roberts
Clive Mayo, A w/spin
Daddio, RC 27
The Cap, John Williams

If I remember correctly...

Very, very, very...Did I say very? Light wind for many hours followed by 15-20 from the east. Again, great race and great host in the Jax Rudder Club.

What time did they go under the Shands bridge and what time did they get to the Rudder Club?

I am very disappointed I had to miss it. How did you end up Eric?

Timbo,
I don't have any finish or other times.

I can tell you that I didn't get a chance to look at my watch once the wind piped up.

I was wondering if the race committee has changed the requirement to be under the Shand's Bridge by 6pm. The last time I did the race (two years ago?) there was very, very light air until 6pm and only 3 boats had made it under the bridge by the cutoff time. And 10 minutes later it started blowing.

They moved the deadline back a bit.

According to section 11 Time Limit of Sailing Instructions, "Racing, for both courses, ends at 8:15pm. Boats finishing after that time will be scored DNF. Yachts south of the Shands Brings (Green Cove Springs) after 7:00pm are required to retire from the race and will be scord as DNF."

Seems pretty fair as it's like 16 miles from Shands to Buckman?

Brian

The wind did not fill in until about 3:00 pm. We spent 4.5 hours to go the first 1/3 of the race and 1.75 hours to do the other 2/3.

I am roughly estimating the times, but Eric Roberts finished about 4:30. We finished about 15 minutes later. Clive Mayo and John Williams were probably 5 to 10 minutes behind us. Rich Brew and Mike Tierney were another 5 - 10 minutes back.

When the beam reach air filled in at 3:45 PM, it was great fun running the Wild Thing past 5 rail-meat friends on a new(?) Hobie 25 sportboat with its spinnaker up. I was doing about 18 knots using my little bitty 150 sq foot sail on A-class #196. It took 6 hours of drifting, jibing, tacking etc. in little or no air (mixed, from behind) to get close to them tho.

I finished at 5:13 and placed 13 over all and third in non spin open class sailing my NACRA 5.2 single up. Also took first in NACRA 5.2 class (had three boats in the class) Only pitched poled once. Had a great time blasting along side Daddio and a couple of A-cats on the long reach after threading the needle through the bridge while out on the wire. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> To much fun.

Carl
Saylor Specialties
www.saylorspecialties.com

Tina and I had the distinct pleasure of leading first the multihull fleet (after passing Carl's 5.2 in the drifter - thanks for the encouragement, Dude <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />) and then the last of the spinnaker monohulls somewhere between Watson Island and Colee Cove. As we took the lead, with no other cats in sight, a couple of escorting committee boats started shouting and waving, urging us on. It was like someone flipped a switch and the breeze started picking up - we had a very nice single-trap spin run all the way to the Shands Bridge - as we went through the bridge I caught sight of Clive's spin-rigged A-Class rounding Wateroak Point. At that point, we were tight reaching and the spray was flying - we were just making Popo Point when our lead ran out and Tina made the save of the day.

As we approached Popo Point, I saw the Roberts' big ARC come through the bridge - I can only imagine what a reach is like on one of those really big cats. Unless something dramatic happened, I knew it was only a matter of time before all that extra beam, sail and waterline passed us. As I was thinking this and savoring the last few minutes of not a single boat in front of us, Tina spoke up.

"Uhhhh, John. We have a problem. Don't look, don't tack." With that, she was off the wire and scrambling leeward where I saw our shroud freely swinging in the breeze! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> I sheeted in hard and pinched up into the lee of the Point as Tina worked to re-atttach the StayMaster fitting that I'd forgotten to tape before we launched (dumbass!). Love those StayMasters, though - she was easily able to put it back together and even set it back at the correct tension. A quick wrap of tape on both sides, and we were ready to get back in the game. Eric Roberts had passed us leeward about 75 yards farther out in the river - we'd sailed up too close to the point and the wind was flukey as we passed within a couple feet of the ends of several docks. Tina hooked up and pushed out and I handed her the mainsheet - I'd just hooked up when we got a big puff that rounded us up. Tina lost her footing and was unable to sheet out the main - a PVC pole clipped her, shoving her backward as we passed, and the carbon tiller extension was neatly snapped against the back beam where I'd braced it to hike out. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> Now we were close hauled, headed for the finish in second place in very good breeze and we couldn't double-trap! I was stuck on the back beam making a rooster-tail holding the tiller crossbar a la Hobie Wave.

Clive Mayo said later that as he was gaining on us, solidly trapped, he couldn't figure out why we weren't double-trapped in the fresh breeze. He caught us as we worked our way back out into the River and passed Old Bull Bay. That's also when Rob Lyman showed up on Daddio, another of the big ARC boats. He steamed right past us and then right by Clive, too.

As we made Mandarin Point, we fell off a bit and the jib started paying in the reach - we were steadily catching up with Clive again. As we made the turning mark at the Buckman Bridge, he was only a couple of boatlengths ahead, but since the finish line was directly upwind, we were not able to continue closing the gap. In addition, Rich Brew and crew had shown up on another ARC 27, and would have certainly passed us if there'd been another mile or race course left. We crossed the line about 30 seconds behind Clive and only a minute or so ahead of the big orange ARC.

Great day of racing and by far the longest distance I have ever gone - Tina was once again phenomenal as crew and coach. We made all our gains in the light air during the morning hours, gybing in the big knocks and focusing on boatspeed. We were incredibly lucky that the shroud held on through all that gybing, and just as lucky that Tina noticed it before we had to do any other maneuvering. It was great fun working our way through the fleet - we'd paddled to the start line a full two minutes late, but we never looked back after the kite was up.

Thanks, Palatka YC and Rudder Club - logistics are a pain without ground crew, but there were lots of people (Sweetness!) willing to help out. I hope I get to do it again next year.

Mug Race Results

Thanks John for the play by play...at least we know what kind of boats the top finishers were sailing thanks to your description...Is it my imagination or in the past were not all of the boats identified as to make and model? The first thing I want to know after "who" won is "what did they win it on"...I know this subject has been beaten to death on other strings, but it sure makes it frustrating for those interested in “what” boats placed “where” when looking at race results.

Regards,
Bob

Okay frustrated here goes:

1 - RC30
2 - RC27
3 - A cat w/spin
4 - F18 Cap (small sail plan)
5 - RC27 (?)
6 - A cat
7 - N20
8 - A cat w/spin
9 - P19 (over sized jib, square top main not larger than stock)
10 - A cat
11 - Gcat 5.0 w/spin
12 - P19 (stock) ?
13 - N5.2 (stock 1up)
14 - N6.0 w/spin
15 - P19
16 - ARC 21 w/spin
17 - H21 w/spin

Don't know beyond 17.

I think that the type of boat that wins will be a function of the weather you get in a race like this. You can bet an ARC 30 is going to mow down the competition if there is good breeze, making use of sail area and beam. If it had stayed light, I would have bet on the A-cats to carry it off. The cold front slowed down a bit on Friday, which allowed for some seabreeze later on Saturday. The front finally got to us on Sunday and was stronger than expected with gusts in the 30s in the afternoon and on into Monday. I am grateful that we weren't beating in 25-30! Weather worked out just about as good as it could have.

Thanks Dingram...thats all I wanted to know...I appreciate the time you took to post it...

Regards,
Bob

Dumped the GPS unit today. Top speed of 19 knots, average speed of 6.8 knots for the day, average VMG of 6.4 knots for the day.



Yay, 400-pound boats! Here's a pic that Rob Lyman's dad took just after the finish.

I wonder if you could get any of the monohull guys to share their readouts with us?

Or, would you be willing to post this on SA? I understand there is an interesting discussion underway.

John,

Just as a frame of reference, we hit a top speed of 22 kts just after the Shands bridge. We may have gone faster, but with only two onboard we didn't get a chance to look at the GPS too much once the wind picked up. I think we averaged about 14 kts from the time the wind finally filled in. It was Tony's GPS, so I'll have to ask him for more precise numbers. I know he forgot to reset it before we went out, so the top speed on the unit was from our trip down 17 in the morning (50 kts).

My Dad most definitely has digital versions of the photos. Did you scan that from a print that he gave you or were you able to talk him into emailing it? If the latter, I'll see if I can get soft versions.

Robert

Hi Rob -

That shot is a scan of a print he handed me today when I was getting the GPS unit off the boat. I'd love to get whatever pics he might have - or any of the other shots that were taken over the weekend. I know there was a laptop running a slide show during the awards, but I had a handful of three-year-old and didn't get to really check out what was captured.

That 19 knot reading was very brief - after Shands, I was running around 13 to 16, but could have been doing more if I'd been able to double-trap. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

I'll see what I can get from my Dad. He still likes to print pictures and bring them to me across the street. If I want soft copies I have to go over to his house and email them to myself or use my memory stick. He loves to take pictures but still isn't up to speed on this "interweb" thing.

I checked my GPS for max speed and got a reading of 21.10.
Prior to Shands bridge our max was 18.5, I think when we headed towards the turning mark we hit 20.0 or just before we headed down. great winds in there.

I thought it was cool that 4 of the top 10 were A-cats (only 4 A-class boats came out and sailed).
All of the others in the top 10 were big ol' boats with lots more sail area, & some were WAY bigger.

Is Clive Mayo sailing an M18 or an A-cat retrofitted with a spinnaker ?

In the listing he is quoted as sailing an M18.

If he is sailing an M18 then he has some massive amount of sailarea as well, 30 sq. mtr. = 323 sq.ft.

Wouter

Perhaps it was the 5 hours of ultra light and spotty winds that enabled those really light boats and those boats with major sail area to capitalize on the conditions?

Not to sound sour, but half of those boats (2 of the 4) would not measure in as A Class catamarans. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

The guys I feel bad for are the 200+ monohulls. They have to get up at 0600, start at 0700, drift all day and then don't even finish in time to be scored. But at least they have tunes and lots of beer on board! Maybe they should start the day before?? <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

None of them looked uncomfortable or unhappy when we went by them.

Can't say ALL of the other boats were big. There was a Prindle 19, a Nacra 6.0 and an F18 in there.

Bottom line is there were some good sailors in the top 10. What is it that Charlie Johnson always says? "I'd rather be lucky than good." In this race it was probaby a little of both.

All I know is next year this big ol' boat isn't giving away 20% sail area to the other two. We WILL be mast head with a longer pole and a gennaker.

Conversation overheard (VHF strapped to lifevest) during Dauphin Island Race (conditions were double trap on N5.8, nice short steep chop, close reach after the Middle Bay Light):

Slug1: "hey, hey... can anyone out there guess what this sound is: {loud grating noise}"

Slug2: "sounds like a busted winch..."

Slug1: "Nope, 2nd round of margaritas"

Only time I ever wondered why I sailed multihulls....

All I know is next year this big ol' boat isn't giving away 20% sail area to the other two. We WILL be mast head with a longer pole and a gennaker. [/quote]

Rob, do you have to run the Mug with a shorter mast, for the bridges? Someone told me so a few years back. What is the mast height and bridge clearance?

Bill Roberts has a tall and a short rig. He uses the short one in the Mug Race and the tall one on other races. We only have one rig, the short rig. It is 41.5'. Add to that the freeboard and we end up just at or under the 44' limit imposed by the race committee for the south course. The Shands bridge clearance is 44' at high tide. Everytime I have gone through it has been at least 46', plus an extra 2' in the center(or so the sign says).

We do not have a masthead spinnaker on our rig, nor a gennaker, like the other two RCs. Also our spinnaker pole is 3' shorter. That is the 20% sail area we give up. It is mostly downwind sail area, but that gennaker is a very versatile and powerful sail in light wind.