Mug Race 2009- Palatka to Jacksonville

Who has info on results of yesterday's 37 mile pursuit race? I could not catch the leader, an E scow, but neither could Eric Roberts' RC-30 (2nd) who started an hour later. Meanwhile I was sitting in nothing in front of the same dock for an hour. This was just 6 miles from the finish and several previously invisible cats appeared on a fresh breeze from behind. As the breeze came up, my old woodie's spin pole collapsed, so a F18 Viper blew by, then later the first M20. Who else then? A host of spin cats and A-cats.
The Jacksonville paper does not cover this race anymore. 8^(

Roberts finished 4th

1 - The Scow - didn't get their name
2 - P19 solo w/spin - Didn't get his name
3 - F18 - Ingram
4 - RC 30 - Roberts
5 - M20 - Moss

I don't know the rest.

As posted at the awards ceremony:

1. Robbie Wilkins, E-Scow (Columbia, SC)
2. Skip Canfield, Prindle 19/spin
3. Dave Ingram, F-18
4. Eric Roberts, RC30
5. Brett Moss, Marstrom 20
6. Dave Carlson, Catnip A-Cat/spin
7. Michael Phillips, Marstrom 20
8. Jack Woehrle, Hobie 20/spin
9. Rich Brew, RC27
10. Chris Cordes, A-2 A-Cat

Congratulations to Robbie Wilkins and crew. They were the first halfboat to win overall in 30 years.

After being blown over 2 miles from the finish while setting my spin on my 5.2, I finished 13 over all. Good day could have used more steady wind.

Carl

Well done, Dave Ingram - that's the best an F18 has ever finished. Way to go!

John, It was super soft (until the last 4 miles) and we got HUGE lucky. Yes, I would rather be lucky than good every time!

What's really impressive is the Scow team. They absolutely SMOKED the fleet! We didn't see the scow until they were on the other side of the bridge heading into the Rudder club. Serious props to those guys.

Robbie knows his stuff. My Dad is very pleased.

Robbie's no slouch, he's been racing scows for a LONG time. I almost had him and His son buying an F18 2 yrs ago, but he bought a Melges 32 instead. He hated that boat and sold it about a season later.
The E scow is a fast boat, and the A scow is even faster.

Ingram may move up one place.

It doesn't matter how light the wind was - that's got to feel like a good time after that kind of result!

The Witch of Palatka was at her best (worst) all day. She gave us tempting little slants that would lure us into a tiny hole while everyone else moved on. She gave others light but steady breezes, and then left them like a fickle girl friend.

We had a breezy period that lasted about a half hour right in the middle of the race where we hit 19.9 and covered 10 miles.

Then more drifting until the seabreeze hit about 4:30. When it did hit, there were a number of flips and broken gear. Shortly after we finished at 6pm, she died again, dashing the hopes of many who didn't make the 8 pm deadline.

The Mug Race is always fun and agonizing at the same time. Sorta like crack cocaine.

That's one strange river! We never saw anything significant until the seabreeze filled and we didn't get that until around 5PM.

The results and pictures are up on the Rudder Club web-site. It was good to see a monohull win (if you can call a scow a monohull) A lot of folks who are not usually at the front, got a chance to lead the Mug Race for a long time. It was good to see such a good turn out of cats....