Southwinds Sailing June 2004 - Southwinds Magazine

EAST FLORIDA SAILINGand family to the Bahamas. At some point in June, prevailingstrong easterly winds and the 4-6 foot seas they generate willgive way to southwest winds of much lower magnitude. Theseare the easy cruising winds for a trip from Florida to the Bahamas.The traditional path was to sail the Intracoastal to theLake Worth Inlet and go overnight to West End. These days,with electronic navigation and more reliable weather forecasts,sailors leave from the nearest inlet and head across thewater to the Bahamas and other points south. Many cruisersheaded for race week in the Abacos think leaving from PortCanaveral or Fort Pierce and going directly to the eastern Bahamasis the easiest course this time of year. On an activeyear, sailboats are spread like bread crumbs across the wholeocean from Florida to the Bahamas in June.No matter what type of sailing appeals to you, you’ll findthe best time for it in June and perhaps the best opportunityto enjoy it with others on Florida’s east coast.51ST MUG RACE, MAY 1, JACKSONVILLE, FLBy Roy LaughlinThe Jacksonville Rudder Club bills its annual Mug Race asthe longest river regatta in the world. At 38 miles, the MugRace will likely keep that distinction for a while. The alwaystantalizing behavior of the wind and its display of multiplepersonalities is more notable than distance. This year was nodifferent, just a variation on a theme.At dawn, a crisp southwest wind was blowing in advanceof an approaching cold front. This was a notable improvementfrom the typical calm dawn conditions. Monohulls,which start as much as two hours ahead of the last multihullclass, got off to a good start and had several good hours afterthat. The wind continued for all the starts through 10:30 anduntil well after noon. It was a good morning for all the classes.The first four boats to reach Shands Bridge at Green CoveSprings, the halfway point, were monohulls this year. The firstwas a sailing canoe, skippered by Enge Noble. The other threewere Raiders, and they were well ahead of the first catamaranto reach the bridge, a Hobie 21 crewed by Lloyd Berryand Pete Haley.Then the winds went away in the middle of the afternoon,leaving nearly all the Mug racers somewhere north ofShands Bridge, but well south of the finish line. The lull gavesome racers a chance to watch storm clouds gather in the westand wonder, “What will we experience first, the storm or thefinish line?” Other crews watched as ephemeral zephyrsplucked a single sailboat from within their midst (and it didwith Tom and Eric Worthman) and propelled the craft half amile ahead, leaving crews on stationary boats hardly a hundredyards away to ponder the unfairness of fate and the wind.The sailors on multihulls, some of the Raider crews andsome sailors on the largest monohulls finished the course asthe first squalls moved from west to the east across the St.Johns River. Then a strengthening storm east of the river blewgale force winds back to the west about an hour later. Thiswas the evil twin of the westerly winds that taunted but eventuallyfavored the first teams to cross the finish. It overwhelmeda few boats, and slowed down nearly all those whohad the last leg from the mug to the finish line.When it was over, fickle winds and storms made winnersfrom those who had not led the race earlier. Eric and BillRoberts crossed the line first on Silver Bullet, a RC30 Catamaran,and won the Mug Cup. David Moring and crew onScreamin’, an E Scow, won the Sullivan E Howard Award forthe first dinghy to finish. Jason Hastings and crew in a Morgan27, Cracker Jack, was the first PHRF sailboat to finish. Theytook home the Ed Burroughs Trophy for that. Harry Antleyskippered a Mirage 5.5, Lee Roy, to a first place finish in hisclass and received the Archie Markland Trophy for the accomplishment.The Mug Race is one of most “doable” of Florida’s longestdistance races. It, nevertheless, always challenges sailorsin a familiar environment. This year was no different.There were 21 racing classes in the Mug Race. Completeresults by class, and additional special trophies are availableon the Internet: www.rudderclub.com/51MugRaceResults.xlsOUR FIRST MUG RACEby Meg and HutchHutch at the helm, clearly puzzled at how many boats could still be behindus. That won’t last for long.That the Jacksonville Rudder Club chose May Day for its 51stMug Race might have given pause to the 198 other participatingboats, but we were gung-ho. Our first Mug Race, and stillin our first year of sailing, we were almost too excited to sleepas we dropped anchor into the St. Johns River late Friday night.Before dawn, Hutch awoke and rigged a spinnaker thatwe’d just received a few days earlier from an eBay auction.“A spinnaker can overpower then overturn your boat — don’ttie a stopper knot onto the sheets, so you can let go quickly,”an experienced sailor had warned Meg the night before atdinner. She, too, had a difficult time remaining in Morpheus’arms before dawn, but clearly for different reasons. “Sailingwith a spinnaker requires a lot of practice” came back like asong that wouldn’t leave her head.With a start time of 7:47:19 in recognition of Aurora Blue’sPHRF rating of 258, we were in a large group of small cruisers— over there was the Davidsons’ boat, and not too farbehind us was Dave Edwards in Alcyone. Sam Trickey’sspeedy San Juan was nearby…briefly.The start of the race, in reverse order of calculated boatspeed, appeared as a stately procession of hat-wearing ladiesstrolling through a garden on a quiet sunlit morning.With ten knots of wind from directly astern, and many boats40June 2004 SOUTHWINDS www.southwindssailing.com