Mug Race sea wall question

There is a boat ramp in Palatka, you don't HAVE to launch over the wall nearby, but you can if you want. With the ramp right there, I don't know why anyone would, but I saw people doing it.

You do it if you don't have ground crew or you can't sweet talk someone into taking your traxs to the Rudder Club after you launch.

There is no sand beach or any beach at all for that matter.

And remember to bring lots of carpet scraps to put on the sea wall and the rocks.

Funny you bring that up... nobody goes over the rocks at the hotel anymore. They either go over the seawall or ramp launch. I really don't miss going over the rocks, like John said ramp launching is the way to go but even that can present its own challenges if there is a bit of breeze... I know, breeze at the Mug Race? It happens and usually shuts off right after we start 🙂

thanks for the info guys!

Once I just pushed my H17 over a sea wall in Beaufort NC into the canal. Jumped in - righted the boat and sailed off. Don't recommend it on a modern cat though.

there was usually a lot of help to carry boats over the rocks at the hotel, but I only floated up the St. John's twice, so I'm sure the protocol is different.

And I used the term

floated

correctly. I had to sit there for two hours while JC smoked cancer sticks to see where the wind was. At one point we parked under a cloud and watched the breeze go straight upwards.... good times.

I still like that race, though... Just a bit of a logistical challenge

I remember you guys in that race - sailing with that Urinator spinnaker. We had great wind all day sailing with the kite and chasing just behind you guys while blowing the doors off all the monos as we picked our way through the fleet. The wind only died in the last 5 miles or so when the thunderstorms rolled in and made things very exciting for those that finished 10 minutes + after the N20's finished.

I heard and named my favorite quote of all time that afternoon. While sipping back beers and listening to the VHF of all the calamity taking place as the storm bared down on the fleet, they towed in an elderly canoe sailor. Someone in some sort of official capacity was attending to the guy as he sat on one of the retaining walls. I didn't hear the offer exactly, but from what I could tell, they were offering to call EMS. His response?

Christ!, I'm 80 years old - I'm SUPPOSED to shake. Just show me to the beer tent

. I thought to myself, I want to be that dude and I brought him a beer.

Technically the beer tent was in the club's VHF antenna as it had been lifted from over our heads to the roof by a strong gust only a few minutes earlier. Thankfully, the bartender never missed a beat.

you guys make this race sound so fun! hahah

I hear this comment surprisingly often, but as point to point distance races go this one has to be the easiest from a logistical standpoint particularly since the club does provide transportation to and from the Rudder Club on Friday and early Saturday morning. Heck it's the only point to point distance I do anymore with the exception of the Steeplechase but I always have ground crew for that one. Logistics... the Rudder Club has that one handled, sure it's an excuse not to go it's just not a very good one.

The nice thing about this race it’s anyone’s race to win or lose, with the prevailing light and variable spring breezes the odds are unusually even. Besides the fact that it’s a great way to showcase the speed and grace of a multihull when the sea breeze finally comes up at the end of the day and you walk away from all the monohulls and then you proceed to ravage the keg. So sack up you bunch of babies! Even the little girls are doing this one and doing it well!

I love this race and have not ever had to throw my boat off of a cliff. There are plenty of people and cattrax around to use the ramp. I have seen the guys setting up the carpet on the rocks and the sea wall and figured it was a primal sect ritual or something. I was not going to ask.....

I agree with you Ding, as far as the race logistics, it's pretty well taken care of. The race dates usually caused more problems for me due to work logistics, forcing me to make a long trip late Friday, set up and get organized, race, and then bust a move getting back for an early Monday audit.

What I like best about the race itself is the display of pretty much every sailing design out there, and when the wind is there, you get to sail by all of them.

I hadn't seen an A-scow in decades, but there were three that year.

I'd encourage anyone to put that race on the calendar

All of the above. Logisticts are a somewhat of a myth. Wind can be anything but we always get to the beer before the masses.

Just out of curiosity (because we were lucky to finish those races), what happens when they call the race on time? Did everyone continue on, or pull out somewhere? Did you have ground crew to pick you up if you pulled out?

Some pulled out some sailed on. Pulling out was a bad idea and those that decided to push on had a nice sail to the finish. The seabreeze finally filled in and it remained long enough to get everyone home. I'll never pull out again, If I can finish the RTI at 4 in the morning why should the Mug Race be any different 🙂

Hey! That's how the MEN do it! Only the Ladies use the ramp!

But you must chant:

Ougah chuga, ouga ouga...

If the RC would just change the cutoff time at that one bridge, so many more would finish!

Causeway closes at 11! (just kidding)

They pushed back the time after the year so many didn't make the cut, but I think the finish cutoff time is the same. I never pay attention the cut times anymore anyway, I'm doing the full stretch no matter what.

Maybe they should start it a little later and finish it a lot later? I know it would really suck to be one of the slower mono's, start at 7am, drift for 4 hours, finally start sailing, and miss then miss the cutoff...only to 'finish' late but not be scored.

Well here's the thing, the FL spring breezes are notoriously unpredictable especially in the middle of the state so chasing the breeze would be futile. Besides for the last 2 years in a row there was solid breeze early and it would begin shutting off right around 10 AM, so those early start times are where you wanted to be.

The Mug Race is what you make it, either you're into it or you're not and it's been around a long time so I'm sure it's had it's share of folks fiddling with it. IMO, it's reached a pretty stable state. It's not a World Championship it's the Mug Race. It's a sail down a river with a bunch of your friends to a butt ton of food and cold beer.

Besides Timmy nobody's done it on an F16 uni and with the breezes the Mug Race gets I'm really surprised one of you uni guys haven't tried to capture the mug. If there is a race made for the F16 uni this one is it! You could be the hero! Are you waiting for one of the A-cat's w/ spin to take it before you pull the trigger?

When I saw the big RC 30 go by, I knew what boat I wanted to be on! I might put it on the callendar for next May. I told Matt the first year he had his Blade out, (I think that's the same year I crewed for you) he should have done it Uni as it was soooo light.

I've enjoyed all 3 of the ones I've done, but the wind is always a crap shoot. Has it ever blown 10-15 the whole day? What is the course record and on what type boat? I'm guessing it had to be a big cat that started late in a building sea breeze and flew it all the way to the Mug before it died out.

If it blew 10-15 all day, you'd never beat the ARC boats. The year that Tina and I did so well, we went down the river on the Cap with the kite up, up-wind in light air, for 90% of the race. We pulled that off with the small set of sails and a super loose rig - the big spin wouldn't have sailed that high. We passed the last monohull and led the race for over an hour, nobody in sight behind us... alone... until I did something stupid that resulted in a broken tiller extension just before the breeze filled in. We could only single-trap; the 30 passed us with two miles to go, the 27 was next, and we fought an A-cat all the way to the finish. If the breeze had been on for the whole trip (i.e., for the ARCs), we'd have been much farther back, I expect.

Like Ding says; you never know what you're going to get, and sometimes fortune favors odd combinations.

The breeze usually comes in late, and sometimes with a vengance. Mosttimes I have ghosted over the start and flew over the finish. I always enjoy the reach to that turning mark down in the corner at the finish.

The last year I did the race (2004)? It blew almost all day and it was a single trap spin run until the last 6 or 7 miles. Thunderstorms swooped in and sucked up the breeze temporarily. The breeze came back and I think 9 I20's finished within 10 minutes of each other and in sight of the big ARC boats. We were in pretty early.

This race is one of the most open opportunity races out there for different boats to have a chance at winning. Like A cats with spinnakers etc. The race is also about the first boat to finish. Because of that, the format was changed to give all a chance to be first across the finish line by using the reverse start. That said, the most disadvantaged group is the monohull cruisers. They have real issues making the math work. Meaning hull speed over the distance needed to finish in, given the time factored by available wind. Next is the monohull, then followed by a generic catamaran, to

fast

cat, those being newer design with power to weight ratios very high, like the M20's. Finally to the big RC boats.
I sail a big RC boat, and for that reason. Got very tired of getting smoked by them on my Prindle 19 with spinnaker. Now that I am on the darkside, it is not as easy as one might think to win.

That said the wind is so unpredictable in this race, that it really does equalize the fleet (at least as much as you can expect). As an example 2 years ago it was won by a Monohull, one of the big scows. During that race, we being an RC 27, with-in 1 mile of the start and we were jibing back and forth across the river with the RC 30. We were even with them and we went to one side of the river, they went to the other. We hit a hole in the light air they didn't. We sat in that no wind hole until 2:30 in the afternoon, still within sight of the start line.
It is this fluky wind that gives all boats the best chance. As John mentioned earlier, if there is real wind all day, the big cat will likely win. However that

real wind all day

only comes around once every 10 or 15 years. So it is definately a catamaran's perfect race and wide open.
Also the Club does its best to make this as easy as possible for the racer.

You're right, Ding. In it or not, that is the question. It's a very beautiful sail (lots of pretty river scenery, boats, people, etc.).

I liked the earlier start because you can often get through the course before nasty T-storms show up. I found out that her princessness has a friend that lives near Jax, so I may actually get a pass for this race sometime in the future...

The thunderstorm thing at that time of year is like getting solid breeze the whole day... it happens once every 10-15 years. Getting the piss scared out of you every once in a while is good for the soul.

And brother you keep hope alive!

I've got to hand it to him - he does keep hope alive and well! Hopefully the Mug race won't conflict for me like it has for the last 5 years this year...I really enjoy that race.

maybe someone scared her with the whole 2012 end of days thing, because I've actually gotten 2 kitchen passes for out of town stuff this season (maybe 3), and a few provisional passes for local stuff.

holy crap, that might actually mean I sail