Mug Race

Posted By: John, P-23 Andiamo, Geneva, Fl
Date: 5/5/09 11:23a.m.

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In Response To: Mug Race (Ben, P-18)

We had a great time at the Mug race and it was nice seeing Ben even though we didn't have lots of time to chat and catch up. He did raft up to me at the Rudder Club so we did at least get to say hello. I ended up having to pass Ben Twice. Apparently he did much better through the doldrums than we did because that's when he managed to get by me. Once the wind picked up enough to fill the sails we got Andiamo moving and passed several boats, one of which was Ben. My favorite part of the race was going under Shands bridge. We had been bobbing and baking for several hours and really were getting very frustrated; to the point I was thinking of retiring from the race. Just as the bridge came into sight the flow of air, (way too light to be called wind ), shifted around to the starboard bow so we dropped the whisker pole and trimmed for upwind. One I got the crew to stow their guitars, move over to leeward to induce heel, and be still, the boat finally started to move ever so slowly toward the bridge. And then the wind built enough to shift the crew over to the windward side And then as we continued our gradual turn to port headed for the bridge we eased sails and the wind continued to build And as we started closing in on the race course gate leading to the bridge, with all the other boats converging into the bottleneck, the wind continued to build. We ended up running through the bridge opening at about 5.5 knots with a Catalina 22 directly to our port side while a monster catamaran came barrelling past us on Starboard running at least 12 - 14 knots. We heard the guys on the cat screaming as they came running up behind us so we had enough warning to move over to port so they could get by, and thankfully there was enough room for us and the Catalina 22. I think the racing rules gave me the right of way and I didn't have to yield to the Catamaran, but I wasn't interested in having a collision and there was no way that catamaran could have avoided me if I hadn't moved. We ended up with 4th place in our class which I'm thrilled with as it was my first attempt at the Mug race. My genoa has the Sunbrella fabric on the leach and just hangs like laundry in light air so we would have done much better if there had been just a little bit more wind. I probably would have done better with my 110 because it doesn't have the sunbrella cover and I did consider a sail change but opted to hold out hope for wind instead. . Jack I was really hoping to see you there; sorry you missed it this year. Maybe next year.