News & Views for Southern Sailors - Southwinds Magazine

RACING
may say a feeling of accomplishment—or not.
A bring-what-you-sail trek 38 miles up (down)
the St. Johns River from Palatka to Jacksonville, it features
a reverse-handicap start. Slower boats start as
early as 7:30 a.m., while the big catamarans start
about three hours later. Whoever gets to the finish
first, wins.
This year, out of 117 starters, only 25 boats made
it to the finish line in Jacksonville before the 8:15 p.m.
deadline. From early morning until around 5:30
p.m.—depending on where you were on the river—it
was light air, upwind and against a half-knot current
(yes, the St. Johns River is tidal). The halfway point is
the Shands Bridge in Green Cove Springs. For safety
reasons it is all right to use an engine, paddle or push
on the bridge fenders to get through the bridge. At
about 5:30, seven boats were leading in a bunch: Joe
Waters on his Mirage non-spinnaker cruiser, two
cruising spinnaker boats, three catamarans and the
16-foot Raider Turbo monohull that I was sailing. We
drifted under the bridge several times and paddled
back out.
The wind had come in very light from behind for
a while. Suddenly a good 12- to 15-knot sea breeze
kicked in, and the catamarans took off, as did the
Raider, away from the cruisers. After struggling
upwind for over nine hours, it only took me an hour
and a half to do the second half of the race. It took less time
than that for the fastest of the multihulls.
The Raider Turbo, with jib and spinnaker on the extendable
bowsprit, finished at 7:26 and was the ONLY Spinnaker
Monohull class boat to finish within the time limit. The original
Raider, sailed by Paul Keller, finished at 8:03 and was
the ONLY Non-Spinnaker Monohull class boat to finish.
Sailmaker Joe Waters finished at 7:43 and was the ONLY finisher
in the Non–Spinnaker Cruising class. Tough race.
Tom Davis on his Cal 9.2MDK had a good battle with
Benedek Erdos on his Santana 23, finally. Using his longer
waterline in the breeze, Tom stretched out to a three-minute
lead in the Cruiser Spinnakers.
To no one’s surprise, the overall line honors and the
Mug Race winner was, again, the RC 30 of Eric Roberts and
crew. It took a while this year to rumble ahead of the fleet.
But at the finish, he again won. Brett Moss, on his sleek
Marstrom 20 cat, was a little over three minutes behind.
Very occasionally, the winds allow another boat to win the
Mug cup, such as 2009 when an E-Scow prevailed. But nearly
always the big cat saves its time on the fleet.
So, why bother to race, with the cards stacked against
most boats After all, the first 10 boats—and 18 out of the 25
finishers—were multihulls. Well, this is an event.
Everybody should sail the Mug Race at least once. Most of
us say, “Never again.” Until the next year. Matt Lynch, with
son Zachary skippering, raced their Formula 16 cat. He says
that he left so much time on the racecourse this time, that
even though this was going to be his last, he just has to do
it again. Sounds familiar.
An additional 19 boats made it to the Shands Bridge midpoint
and were recorded as finishing to that point. It was a
popular move by Rudder Club Commodore Donna Mohr to
award cups to those finishers. Stalwart Dick Alsop did his
Eric Roberts and crew, overall winners of the Mug Race. From left to right are
Bill Roberts, David Weir, and Eric Roberts (skipper). They are drinking from
“The Mug,” given to the club by Anheuser-Busch in the late 1950s to replace
the original mug. Legend has it that in the old days the winner got to keep
the mug for a year and had to return it the next year. But one year the winner
died during the year, and the widow refused to return the mug. So
Anheuser-Busch (which has a brewery in Jacksonville) donated an ornamental
stein to use as the trophy, and since then, the club has kept a firm grip
on it, only presenting it full of beer to the winner as they arrive on shore.
Winners receive a small German stein to take home as a keeper. Legend also
has it that it is called “the Mug Race” because the winner of the original race
got a mug of beer, and the loser got a paddle. Photo by Danielle Fondren.
usual fine job organizing this complicated event with the help
of members of the Rudder Club, the Palatka Yacht Club at the
start, and the Jacksonville Sail and Power Squadron that followed
the fleet, mostly at a very slow idle speed.
For full results, go to www.rudderclub.com/mug.html.
Florida Women’s Sunfish State
Championship, May 21-22
Sunfish Sailing Comes to
Lake Monroe
By Mindy Strauley
On May 21-22, 14 lady sailors enjoyed the hospitality of the
Lake Monroe Sailing Association (LMSA) and the town of
Sanford as they participated in the Florida Women’s Sunfish
State Championship Regatta. This is an annual event for
lady sailors with the location and date chosen by the winner
of the regatta each year.
This year’s event offered challenging races in very light
wind and extremely warm temperatures on the water.
LMSA’s Byron Hicks served as the PRO and organized five
races on Saturday and three on Sunday.
Saturday started with coffee and donuts for the ladies
to fatten up just in case the wind filled in. This was followed
by a skippers’ meeting which explained the racing plan and
the events for the regatta. Subsequently, five races were sailed,
which from a sailor’s point of view were managed in a seamless
fashion given the light, shifty conditions for the day.
Saturday evening included a well-planned pub crawl in
Sanford with a hayride, piloted by LMSA’s John North, as
the vehicle of transport. The Pub at Old South Motel served
as the initial gathering point for the pub crawl, which
48 July 2011 SOUTHWINDS www.southwindsmagazine.com