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The Mug Race (longest River race in the world) was Mug Race 2009

again a long drawnout regatta with wind speeds from
0 to near 18 mph and variable at different parts of the
42 mile course. Paul Keller again was the first
monohull singlehanded sailor to finish and also the winner
in the Monohull Non Spinnaker class. Of the 133 starters,
83 completed the race under the time limit.

Melbourne Spring Small Boat Regatta
April 18/19 2009

Of the five Raiders that signed up, only three actually showed up to play..... but play they did.
Harry Stapor from Melbourne, Fl., John Drawe from Sebastian, Fl. and Paul Keller from Vassar, Michigan all hit the starting line within 1 or 2 seconds of the gun on the first race on Saturday. Saturdays races started nicely with winds in the 10 mph range and slowly increased during the day. The first race looked to be in the bag for Keller but Stapor passed him on the final winward leg for first. The next race also went to Stapor and the last two races went to Drawe with the lead changing at least twice during each race.
Sundays winds increased a few more MPH and was more out of the south causing a bigger chop. Drawe took the three races on Sunday but there was more lead changes with Stapor than could be counted. As usual, the Melbourne Yacht Club put on an exceptional regatta with a fine dinner on Saturday night and plenty of refreshments after each day of racing.

Final Standings
Skipper R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 Total
Drawe    3    2    1     1     1    1    1      10
Stapor    1      1     2    2     2    2    2      12
Keller      2      3     3     3    3    3     3     20

This Cup is a perpetual trophy for the top small boat sailor in the six-month series of races run by the San Luis Yacht Club and open to all sailors. The San Luis Yacht Club was established in 1937, and is in Avila Beach, San Luis Obispo County, halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. This past year’s small boat series included boats with faster ratings than the Raider 16, four Tazers and three Lasers, and two boats with a slower handicap, a couple of Capri 14.2’s. In head to head racing, Roger Briggs’ Raider 16, Motu was able to finish ahead of several Tazers and Lasers even without the benefit of handicap. Briggs’ son, Eric crewed with him for some of the years’ races. In the largest turnout day of the year, Motu earned a second place in one race, beating, all boats including the four Tazers (including one skippered by a local sailmaker), except for one Laser.

Here are Roger and Eric Briggs, probably carrying a bit too much weight and sail (note the mast bend):

The last race of the year had a small turnout, with only the three high point boats for the year showing up on a day that had a foreboding weather forecast (which likely kept the other boats from sailing).

From the November 08 Foghorn, the San Luis Yacht Club newsletter
Ocean Races

The last ocean races of the year took place on the 5th of this month and they were sure exciting! The Small Boat Centerboard Class had an extremely exciting day as well! Our three racers were Steve Hendricks (Morro Bay YC), Chris Barrett, and Roger Briggs. Chris and Steve were sailing their International Lasers and Roger was sailing his Raider 16’ (a very cool boat, indeed). As usual, these fierce competitors had very close races…because each was able to show off their unique strengths on different parts of the courses. The first course was a short one because the winds were fickle and we wanted to keep the racers nearby with such spotty winds. Roger smoked the course in a mere 14:03, two minutes faster than Steve, who was followed closely by Chris. The second race was much longer, but EXTREMELY close. Roger and Steve were coming in neck and neck coming into the finish line but they had two different strategies for finishing. Roger had the wind at his back, sail completely filled, just coasting into the middle of the finish line. Steve was jibing violently toward the far pin of the finish line, trying to create any momentum possible to gain any advantage over Roger. We were surprised to see Steve pass the far pin of the finish line and even said to ourselves, “We hope that he knows that he didn’t cross the line because he was on the outside…”. Just at that moment, Steve tacked back around towards us and slid around the pin and across the finish line—well done, Sir! The final race of the day was pretty unforgettable as well. When we started the race, we had some fairly strong winds and we decided to put the racers on a moderately long course to finish out the day. Well, half way through the race, the wind started howling and one big gust knocked down all three boats at once!”Winds topped 32 knots and with the resulting wind chop added to the 10-foot swell, conditions were a bit much. Water temperature was 59 F. The race committee terminated the last race as everyone headed for shore. In the final completed races of the year, described above, Raider Motu finished the first race ahead of the two Lasers by two and four minutes, respectively, in a short race. In the second race, Steve Hendricks’ Laser nipped Briggs at the line by 11 seconds (uncorrected time) or four seconds on corrected time in a forty-minute race, but finished over a minute and a half ahead (uncorrected) of Chris Barrett in his Laser. For the year, Briggs and Hendricks were tied on points and only one point ahead of Barrett – very tight. The tie was broken based on Briggs having more first place finishes in his Raider 16, number 60, Motu, so the Briggses and Motu will be on the perpetual trophy, the Port San Luis Small Boat Cup, in the San Luis Yacht Club.

2008 Fall Regatta at the Melbourne Yacht Club
October 20 & 21

Just three raiders provided plenty of excitement at the 2008 Fall Regatta at the Melbourne Yacht Club on Oct 20 & 21. Two new skippers showed up with Raider #16 & #41. On Saturday there were five races with winds in the 8/10-kt range. Harry Stapor in Raider #41 took line honors in the first three events with John Drawe in #23 taking the last two by a very narrow margin. Sunday started out blowing about 14 and stayed pretty consistent throughout the day. Three races were run with Stapor winning all three but the last one was a squeakier with about one foot separating Stapor and Drawe.

Drawe in 23 approached the finish line on port and tacked slightly ahead of Stapor (starboard boat) but couldn’t accelerate fast enough to hold the lead at the finish line. Congratulations to new Raider owner Harry Stapor.

Harry

Other classes included Sunfish, Lasers, Open Portsmouth Monohull, Open Portsmouth Multi hull and Catalina 22 with each class getting their own start. Saturday racing included a great barbecue dinner and a keg with Sunday finishing off with trophy presentation, hotdogs and finishing the keg.

Raiders
Rating System: One Design
Sail # Skipper       Race 1 R 2   R 3 R 4 R 5 R 6 R 7 Race 8 Total    Place
41     Stapor, Harry      1         1      1     2     2      1      1      1           10        1
23     Drawe, John       2         2       2     1      1     2      2      2           14        2
15     Matson, Eddie   3         3       3     3      3      3      3      3           24        3

eddie

john

John Drawe of Sebastian, Fl. was the overall winner of the RAIDER Sailboat One Design National Regatta. The Melbourne (Florida) Yacht Club was the host site for the sixth RAIDER National Regatta. The event was sailed out of Ballard Park in the Indian River just south of the Eau Galle bridge.

Drawe led Saturdays racing in 8 to 12 mph shifty winds. He was followed by Paul Keller of Vassar Michigan and John MacNeill of Indialantic Beach was third. MacNeill was the winner of the event last year.

Sunday racing in lighter and more variable wind was more challenging for the six skippers in the 16-ft. single-handed RAIDERs. Drawe held onto his overall lead while MacNeill was able to move ahead of Keller by one point to take second overall in the regatta.

Final Results:
Position      Sail #       Skipper                                                            Points
1                   13           John Drawe               Sebastian, FL               5
2                   50           John D. MacNeill      Indialantic Beach, FL    13
3                   18           Paul Keller                 Vassar, MI                    14
4                   26           Bruce Sobut               St Petersburg, FL       15
5                   91           Stephen Rose             Columbia, SC               25
6                   78           Juergen Bennighof      Vero Beach, FL           32

Ashley Saylor, again with crew Killian Dorsch were the team in the limelight for the Rudder Clubs 53th annual Mug Race. Of the 102 entries, the teen girls were the first female team, the first youth team, the first Raider and the second monohull out of the 65 mono’s entered to cross the finish line of the 40+-mile course. This is the third time the girls have won in these categories. Paul Keller in his Raider was the first solo skipper in a monohull over the finish line, three minutes behind Ashley and crew. Ashley’s dad, Carl sailing in his Holder 20 was the first keel boat to finish crossing the line 5 ½ minutes after his daughter. The girls averaged 6 kts in winds from 5 to 15 in mostly close reaching and beating conditions. Congrats to the girls and the proud dad.

MYC Spring Regatta April 22&23, 2006
Saturday started out with a gentle 6/10kt SE breeze as we sailed out the channel at Ballard Park into the Indian River. By time the Raider Class started it was blowing 15 from the south and big chop was building. Rain squalls visited the course for a while and by the time the second race was completed we were seeing 20+ with HUGE chop on the river. The race committee wisely called an end to it after the second race and we retired to the park pavilions to dry out and enjoy MYC hospitality. A more than ample dinner was served at the MYC clubhouse Sat. night.
Sunday started out with zero wind and it diminished from there! The race committee made the decision to cancel at 1:00 PM but by 1:20 it was blowing a steady 10 from the SE. Go figure! All in all it was a fun time. Several new Raider owners showed up to watch and hopefully they will join us at the MYC Fall Regatta.

RAIDER One Design National Regatta Nov. 19 & 20, 2005
John D. MacNeill of Indialantic, Fl. was the overall winner of the RAIDER Sailboat One Design National Regatta.
The Melbourne (Florida) Yacht Club was the host site for the fourth RAIDER National Regatta. The event, originally planned one month earlier had been temporarily postponed due to hurricane Wilma making an appearance over the scheduled weekend.
The winds were gusting to 25 mph on Sat. and rain squalls dumped as much as 2” of rain in the local area on Sunday. Not tropical storm conditions but none the less challenging for the seven skippers in the 16-ft. single-handed RAIDERs. The three races on Saturday finished with MacNeill one point behind leader Yevgeniy Burmnatov of Columbia, S.C. MacNeill sailed a conservative Sunday finishing with two second place finishes behind Carl Saylor of Macon, Ga.
On Sunday’s first race, Burmnatov flew his asymmetrical spinnaker on a broad-reach and came through the fleet like a freight train from fourth position, and then he was plagued by a spinnaker wrap at the gybe mark and was forced to retire.
MacNeill is a native of Melbourne and used his local knowledge of the waters and wind-conditions on the Indian River in his victory. He has enjoyed a long dinghy sailing career in 505s, 470s, Force 5s, and other One-design dinghies.
He is currently the youth sailing instructor at the Melbourne Yacht Club and offers the use of a Raider 16 in his sailing classes. The RAIDER Sailboats are built in Vero Beach, FL. by Johannsen Boat Works

Final Results:
Position      Sail #       Skipper                                                   Points
1                40     John D. MacNeill       Indiatlantic Beach, FL    11
2                22    Carl Saylor                   Gray, GA                        14
3                41    Yevgeniy Burmatnov     Lexington, SC               18
4               23     John Drawe                 Sebastian, FL               26
5                18     Paul Keller                   Vassar, MI                      29
6                70    Joe Waters                   Lexington, SC              33
7                91    Stephen Rose               Columbia, SC              40

Melbourne Yacht Club Fall Regatta

On October 16-17, Melbourne Yacht Club hosted its annual Small Boats Fall Regatta. Classes that showed up in numbers were Sunfish, Lasers, and Raiders, with a handful of Portsmouth monohulls and multihulls. The regatta was a little more low-key than past MYC regattas. A surprising turnout of six Raiders showed up for the regatta. There was a very close race for first and second between John Drawe, the "father" of the Raider design, and John MacNeill, a local sailor who has literally sailed everything under 20 feet, but who prefers the Raider these days. These two sailors were in dead heats nearly the whole regatta, and first place was not decided until the last race. John Drawe triumphed in the end, with MacNeill a close second, and young Ashley Saylor comfortably in third place.

Joe Waters Takes 1st Place in Hensley Cup
Catawba Yacht Club Lake Wylie, Charlotte, NC. Event Raises $3569.50 for the Sara Hensley Trust Fund! Joe was sailing a RAIDER Sport W/ spinnaker. The fleet consisted of J 22's, Vangard 15's, Lasers, Lightnings, Ensigns, Wayfarers etc. All boats were given handicaps based on the portsmouth ratings and a reverse start was used. Congradulations Joe.

Raider Nationals 2004
The 3rd Annual Raider One Nationals were held at Lake Lanier Sailing Club June 17th - 19th in

conjunction with the annual Reggae Regatta. Nine sailors slugged it out for 4 races with Joe Waters of Waters Sail Loft finishing with a dominating 6 points to take top honors. Three others tied for Second place with 17 point with 1996 silver medalist, Yevgieney Burmatnov finish second, local sailor Justin Chambers of WeatherMark Sailing finishing third, and Bill Wiggins finishing fourth in the tiebreaker. Saturdays racing consisted of three windward/leeward races with a shifty 10 - 12 kt breeze which made for tactical weather legs and exciting spinnaker gybing downwind legs and leeward mark roundings. Sunday the breeze diminished in the final race with the leaders pulling away from the fleet. The regatta was a huge success and a great beginning for the one design class.

Ashley and Crew Cleans Up
Ashley Saylor (16) and her crew Killian Dortch (14) dominated the 51st Annual Mug Race presented by the Rudder Club of Jacksonville, Fl. They won the Fred Austin Memorial Trophy for the first boat with skipper and crew under the age of 19 to finish. They also won the Bobby Lee Johnson Trophy for the first all female crewed boat to finish. Finally, defeating seven older, more experienced sailors, they won overall honors in the Raider Class with a time of 8h 02m for the 39 nautical mile race.

Joe Waters, who makes the Raider sails finished 2nd and John Drawe, designer of the Raider, finished 3rd. Official results will be posted as soon as they are available. The day started out with perfect conditions, broad reaching in 15-20 knots of wind. Several of the larger boat captains expressed their amazement at how quickly the Raider fleet passed them by. Several stopped by after the race to get more information on the Raiders. After passing the Shand's Bridge at Green Cove Springs conditions became more difficult, with constantly changing wind strength and direction caused by a cluster of thunderstorms. At times all the boats were drifting, while later on, some boats were knocked down by winds of 40+ kno

ts that hit around 5:30. Fortunately all of the Raiders were safely ashore by then, enjoying the hospitality provided by the Rudder Club personnel.

If you haven't had the opportunity to participate in the Mug Race, you are missing one of the best, most well run regattas in Florida. Special thanks goes out to Mark Johannsen (manufacturer of the Raider) and Carl Saylor, who provided their time to run support throughout the race.

Stats from the Rudder Club's mug race in Jacksonville, Fl
Total starters; Monohulls: 120 Multihulls: 79
Raider was fifth monohull to finish ( incl. A scows, E scow, etc)
First single hander to finish (Joe Waters)
RAIDER Class, 8 boats
SAYLOR, ASHLEY/ KILLIAN DORTCH	Raider Sport 16 0.918 Y Raider 220.8 8:11:11 DC 16:13:53 8:02:42 1st
WATERS, JOE	Raider Sport 16 0.918 Y Raider 220.8 8:11:11 GB 16:21:32 8:10:2 2nd
DRAWE, JOHN	Raider Sport 16 0.918 Y Raider 220.8 8:11:11 DP 16:22:32 8:11:21 3rd
KELLAR, PAUL	Raider Sport 16 0.918 Y Raider 220.8 8:11:11 DS 16:31:00 8:19:49 4th
CALAME', PETE	Raider Sport 16 0.918 Y Raider 220.8 8:11:11 JG 16:36:15 8:25:04 5th
SOBUT, BRUCE	Raider Sport 16 0.918 Y Raider 220.8 8:11:11 DR 16:44:56 8:33:45 6th
CRAWFORD, CHIP	Raider Sport 16 0.918 Y Raider 220.8 8:11:11 JL 16:56:34 8:45:23 7th
BOND, ROBERT	Raider Sport 16 0.918 Y Raider 220.8 8:11:11 GN DNF

Melbourne Yacht Club Spring Regatta
The first organized fleet race since the RAIDER One fleet was formed was held in Melbourne, Fl. at the Melbourne Yacht Club on April 17&18, 2004. MYC offered a great venue, excellent sailing conditions and good food and sustenance afterward.

Saturday's Racing began in sunshine with winds in the high teens with gusts hitting 20 on occasion. Seven Raiders crossed the starting line of a triangle course with W/L finish and with no mishaps. The first race saw Drawe in an early lead getting passed by Carl Saylor shortly before the windward mark. Saylor opened up his lead with John MacNeill finishing second a good distance behind. Paul Keller from Vasser MI. took third. The second race on the same course saw Saylor lead at the start and was never challenged. He was followed over again by MacNeill and third went to Saylors' daughter Ashley. The third race MacNeill port tacked the fleet at the start and was never challenged, a slam-dunk for MacNeill. Daughter Ashley was second with dad taking third this time. Saturday ended with a Mexican style food feast that was enjoyed by all and a lot of "what if" stories.
Sunday's racing was started off in a little less wind, still in the teens and

progressed higher as the day wore on. The course on Sunday was W/L two trips. The fourth race saw Carl Saylor with another first when MacNeill tried the port start again but got trapped on the wrong side of the starting pin when the gun sounded. Ashley was close behind and Drawe third. Race 5 was almost a repeat of four and the sixth race saw Ashley Saylor lead almost wire to wire with MacNeill a close second. All the Raiders were single handed except for Ashley (16) who sailed with Killian Dortch (14) as crew. The young girls did a remarkable job in the shifty wind and gusts.
Getting six races in the two days allowed one throwout. The fleet returned to the clubhouse for more food, fun and refreshments all vowing to come back for the MYC fall Regatta and to be at The Rudder Club of Jacksonville's' 51st Annual Mug Race on May 1st. See final results below!

Melbourne Spring Small Boat Regatta April 18/19 2009

Melbourne Spring Small Boat Regatta
April 18/19 2009