The Toughest Mug Race
by Sam Trickey
The oldest Mug Race tee shirt I have is the 29th race, 1982, and I did two or three before then but unfortunately didn't keep a log. Of all those, the toughest was the 45th, in 1999. That was a real gear buster.
As I recall 63 boats finished out of something like 190 that started and about 210 that were registered. On Friday evening it was clear that it was going to be upwind all the way and several of us in the slowest PHRF class (smallest boats) switched registration from spinnaker to non-spinnaker.
At the Skippers' meeting it was announced that motoring through the Shands bridge would be permitted for reasons of safety. The weather was chilly, in the mid 50s I think, with threatening rain and wind 18-22 kts as I recall out of the NNE. This was before the reverse handicap start now used, so the whole monohull fleet went to the line together, 10 minutes after the catamarans.
We started under the least sail I've ever used in that race: reefed and 100% jib. "We" were Dick Elnicki and me. Dick is slight, so we didn't have a lot of rail meat either. Further, this was before El Gato was modified to have a traveler, so heavy air upwind was lots of vang, lots of backstay, and hang on for dear life.
It was general chaos at the line but we got away cleanly, the faster boats pulled away and we were sailing without too much traffic. However, as we worked northward to the power line and the corner just north of Crystal Cove, we saw massive round-ups, boats on their ear, etc. in front. Then a trickle of boats coming back south.
When we got to the corner and started east the situation became clear. The high sail-area to displacement sport boats were getting beaten up. Soon there was a steady parade of boats going back. We saw at least one dismasting but our boat felt solid so we kept on.
It was tough sailing: not only upwind but also against the tidal current. Each time we tacked, we would start falling down from our mark on shore. By the Shands Bridge and Green Cove, the river was mostly empty. I managed to get the engine lowered and started, but we were able to sail through without incident. Just past the bridge there were one or two dismasted boats. I don't recall clearly - too busy sailing!
The starboard lifeline shackle on El Gato sheared at that point but both of us stayed on board and we jury rigged the line back in place. Stock San Juan 21s don't have life lines. Added them years ago to comply with First Coast PHRF rules. Glad I did. At that point we also shook out the reef but stayed with the 100. At some point late in the race we must have hit something with the keel pinned down. Later it was very hard to winch the keel up and I had to replace the keel winch.
So we finished and, all beaten up, managed to get the sails down. in our class. We got to the Rudder Club in Orange Park and the transient boat basin was empty. I was dismayed. My thought was that all the boats had finished so early that they'd already pulled out and left.
Then a guy came running down the dock yelling "you made it, you made it!" at which point we learned the story. We'd been hanging on for dear life with no time to estimate position relative to the fleet. Only four in our class of 16 finished. We were second to a Lindenberg 22. A quick look at the score sheet shows that GAYC boats did fairly well: Tom and Sue Jackson finished behind us, Skip Adams (with Dave Edwards aboard) took 3rd in his class (only 3 finished out of 11) and Roy Johnson took 3rd in his class (4 out of 14 finished).
