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Post by tbohan@strato.net on May 6, 2002 20:21:24 GMT -5
 OK, for all you guys who are wondering what happened...a little background info first. The Mug race is a one way distance race up the St. Johns river from Palatka, Fl. 38 miles to Jacksonville, Fl. There were 217 boats of all discription (monos, cats, tri's, etc.) and the race committee decided to use some formula to determine your starting time...to the second...based on your Portsmouth handicap number. So, the slowest boats started early in the morning (7 am?) and the faster boats started later in the morning. Randy/WF Oliver (Jav 2 USA 7) and Brian Karr/me (USA 5), started at 10:07:39. The wind was non existant. By 13:30, we had drifted about 4 miles. I could look back and still see the starting line! I was beginning to think we would never see Jacksonville by midnight. Arround 2:30 the very light east seabreze started to come. Randy and WF had already drifted ahead of us, around a bend and out of sight, so we had no idea how far ahead they were. Same with the two big boats, the RC 30 and 27. Also some Inter 20s had got way ahead of us. We were all sailing in our own little puffs here and there and the guys who could see them and get to them slowly worked away to the front. When the wind finally came in steady, we were able to set the spinnaker and run/reach for a couple of hours, passing hundreds of monohulls and all the non spinnaker cats, flying a hull while double trapped for half an hour at a time. The final 10 miles or so was a very tight reach...we could hold the chute up but were slowly heading to the west shore, so we took it down and tight reached back up to the east side, put it back up and did it again, and again and again. We came arond a corner and there were the 10 lead boats, all stopped in the middle of the river! The lead pack got a wind from the north and started moving away from us. We sat and waited for the wind we had just left to cath up with us...when it finally did, we got the spin. back up and started flying again. As long as we could fly the spinnaker we were as fast as any boat out there, but on the tighter reaches, without the spinnaker, the Nacra 6.0's with jibs would pull away slowly. Randy was the second boat to finish just a minute or two behind the big RC 30. I don't know exactly what boat I was, I know not in the top 10, which was some Inter 20's, Nacra 6.0's the two RC's (30+27) and a Prindle 19 with a hooter that was perfect for the long reach. I think we might have been around 11-15 th to finish. Some guys have used the P numbers to sort out new finish possitions based on the total time, etc. One had Randy First, Dave Ingram on his Inter 20 second and me third. That works for me! Anyway, I had a great time, I'm still trying to figure out the best way to trim the main and spinnaker to go fastest, where to stand on the boat, etc...and it was a good oportunity to learn, which I did. I had a great time and I think alot of people were impressed by the Jav 2's performance. Can't wait until next year and try it again! Tim
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Post by tbohan@strato.net on May 6, 2002 20:30:09 GMT -5
 OH...I forgot some of the numbers...I had a GPS on the whole race, it said we sailed a total of 56 miles to cover the 38!! Also, it showed a max speed of 20 mph, not too bad in 10 knots of wind! Tim
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OK, for all you guys who are wondering what happened...a little background info first. The Mug race is a one way distance race up the St. Johns river from Palatka, Fl. 38 miles to Jacksonville, Fl. There were 217 boats of all discription (monos, cats, tri's, etc.) and the race committee decided to use some formula to determine your starting time...to the second...based on your Portsmouth handicap number. So, the slowest boats started early in the morning (7 am?) and the faster boats started later in the morning. Randy/WF Oliver (Jav 2 USA 7) and Brian Karr/me (USA 5), started at 10:07:39. The wind was non existant. By 13:30, we had drifted about 4 miles. I could look back and still see the starting line! I was beginning to think we would never see Jacksonville by midnight. Arround 2:30 the very light east seabreze started to come. Randy and WF had already drifted ahead of us, around a bend and out of sight, so we had no idea how far ahead they were. Same with the two big boats, the RC 30 and 27. Also some Inter 20s had got way ahead of us. We were all sailing in our own little puffs here and there and the guys who could see them and get to them slowly worked away to the front. When the wind finally came in steady, we were able to set the spinnaker and run/reach for a couple of hours, passing hundreds of monohulls and all the non spinnaker cats, flying a hull while double trapped for half an hour at a time. The final 10 miles or so was a very tight reach...we could hold the chute up but were slowly heading to the west shore, so we took it down and tight reached back up to the east side, put it back up and did it again, and again and again. We came arond a corner and there were the 10 lead boats, all stopped in the middle of the river! The lead pack got a wind from the north and started moving away from us. We sat and waited for the wind we had just left to cath up with us...when it finally did, we got the spin. back up and started flying again. As long as we could fly the spinnaker we were as fast as any boat out there, but on the tighter reaches, without the spinnaker, the Nacra 6.0's with jibs would pull away slowly. Randy was the second boat to finish just a minute or two behind the big RC 30. I don't know exactly what boat I was, I know not in the top 10, which was some Inter 20's, Nacra 6.0's the two RC's (30+27) and a Prindle 19 with a hooter that was perfect for the long reach. I think we might have been around 11-15 th to finish. Some guys have used the P numbers to sort out new finish possitions based on the total time, etc. One had Randy First, Dave Ingram on his Inter 20 second and me third. That works for me! Anyway, I had a great time, I'm still trying to figure out the best way to trim the main and spinnaker to go fastest, where to stand on the boat, etc...and it was a good oportunity to learn, which I did. I had a great time and I think alot of people were impressed by the Jav 2's performance. Can't wait until next year and try it again! Tim
OH...I forgot some of the numbers...I had a GPS on the whole race, it said we sailed a total of 56 miles to cover the 38!! Also, it showed a max speed of 20 mph, not too bad in 10 knots of wind! Tim