It’s not everyday you see a kayak towing a sailboat…or 7 grown men biking furiously down Oriental’s First Street toward the Ragan Road Beach… or a sailboat race ending in a photo-finish between a guy on a bike and a sailboat hustling toward the Town Dock. Come to think of it, it’s not every day that you see sailboats leaving the Town Dock only under power of sail… But on Saturday, all of that was served up in Oriental’s First Ever Coffee Cup Race, arguably the most rule-free race around.

Bicycling captains then took to these kayaks to get to their awaiting anchored sailboats.

Neuse Sailing Association’s Mac Allen had first seen the idea of a Coffee Cup Race at Martha’s Vineyard, and for months he had been promoting it as a race that had few if any rules. The race was to begin at a Skippers’meeting, with the skippers putting down their coffee cups and then bolting to waiting dinghies to take them to their sailboats at anchor, which would then sail to a destination. First one back to The Bean won. It was a race that really emphasized strategy. What happened once they left The Bean was up to them, so long as engines were not used. It was all very loose and subject to change.

Skipper's meeting on the porch

Saturday morning’s weather was gorgeous by almost any standard - except a sailboat racer’s. With very little wind blowing, Mac Allen was recommending that the course be shortened so that racers would round FLGreen #7 marker at Garbacon Shoals. But several skippers, perhaps more attuned to the America’s Cup rather than the Coffee Cup mindset, pressed for the longer route of crossing the Neuse to South River. Mac relented and in a moment they were off… about a dozen skippers running either to the Town Dock and waiting sailboats or running and bicycling to the Oriental waterfront, where waiting kayaks and dinghies would take them to the sailboats offshore.

Once out there in no wind, Mac Allen says he got a call on the VHF from one of the sailors who had lobbied to make South River the goal. This sailor, Mac says, "got on the radio and said that ‘maybe Garbacon wasn’t such a bad idea’". A number of other voices chimed in and the course was changed. Some still headed to South River, but most making their way to Garbacon. The going was slow, prompting some to get back in their kayaks and dinghies and row, towing their sailboats behind.

Where Did It Say The Sailboat Had To Go Around The Mark?

Mac says he decided to just drop the anchor on his sailboat "Kuheli", and continue rowing in his vintage Martha’s Vineyard dinghy around the Garbacon marker. It seemed quite a deviation from the standard rules of sail racing, but these are, after all the rule-less Coffee Cup Races. Besides, Mac says that even if there were protests, "I figured there were plenty of prizes to go around," for the different categories and subcategories that were developing.

As Mac dinghied toward Garbacon he passed John Park on his Beneteau, "Park Avenue", and prompted him to also take the small boat approach. Thanks to Park’s swift kayaking around the marker, he went on to win the Garbacon contest. At least one observer said Park was propelled to victory by the two bottles of beer spied in his kayak. Park finished in 1:42. Mac Allen came in second, at 1:50 with his crew -- his son Kiron -- completing the last leg of the race on land.

Coming in third was Dave Canavan of "Windward" who did much of the race rowing that most rower-unfriendly of vessels, the inflatable dinghy. He pulled up to shore near South Avenue and was found moments later, sauntering toward The Bean, several gallons of Gatorade in tow. He completed the race in 2:15

Dave Canavan nears the finish line with a value sized Gatorade. At first we thought Dave had prepared a sample for NSA's new mandatory post-race drug testing.

Coming in two minutes later (with a time of 2:17) for fourth place in the Oriental-Garbacon-Oriental run was a sailor who actually DID sail the entire way (with a bit of help from a paddle.) Tim Balfour of Florence was sailing "Outhouse" a Graham Byrnes-designed/Jennifer Smart-built Spindrift sailing dinghy. A last minute entry in to the race, Balfour, as it turned out, also had the distinction of beginning the race twice; he had actually sailed away from the Harbor when the race began, only to return to retrieve a forgotten PFD.

Tim Balfour sails "Outhouse" toward the Town Dock. He sailed (with a little paddling) the entire distance to and from Garbacon.

The South River Race - Bike Versus Boat At The Finish Line

As mentioned, some of the Coffee Cup competitors did press on for the South River. That competition led to a showdown between a man on a bike and a sailboat bearing down on the Town Dock.

TownDock caught up with the man on the boat just after he arrived at The Bean, talking fast and clearly energized by the odd moment he’d just had of racing a man on a bicycle to the finish line.

Ken Lury of "Critical Mass" had actually quit the race midway through because there was no wind. Lury says he was heading back to Oriental when, "the wind picked up and we were sailing along on a great sail and I thought, ‘Wait a minute! Let’s get back in this race!" He sailed the course to South River, and then, since he’d started right on the sail boat at the Town Dock, he was approaching it for the finish around 2:20 Saturday afternoon. That’s when he saw, as he puts it, "this other guy on a bicycle!" Lury couldn’t do anything but watch as the other contestant, Steve Exum of Haw River, got to the Bean about 2 minutes before he could dock "Critical Mass"and make it up the steps himself at 2:22,for a total time of 4:22. Lury also had the distinction of sailing the entire course.

Exum, meanwhile, had his own tale to tell. On board his Ericson 29, Nimbus Novem (Latin for Cloud Nine) Exum and his 2 friends took turns kayaking and towing the 7500 pound boat "20-30 minutes each" before deciding as the Garbacon competitors had, that the rules didn’t say that the actual sailboat had to round the marker. They dropped anchor, had Exum kayak around South River marker, which he says "was kind of exciting. But there was more excitement to come."

The crew was sailing toward the Oriental beach where they’d left Exum’s bike. About 400 yards off, he says, he was getting in his kayak when a wave came by and sent him and the kayak in two different directions in the water. Exum’s friends got him back on board "within 30-60seconds". The kayak though, took longer as it was drifting away from boat. Exum freely confesses to ‘motoring to get the kayak’ and then, from a spot further out, kayaking to shore. We asked Exum about the asterisk this would likely put next to his win. He says he thinks it was the kayaking around the marker that gave him the edge in the race. It may be that the officials cut some slack on the engine question as it set the crew back away from the shore… and provided a MOB exercise. (Some NSA members had talked that very morning about the need for such practices every time the group met.)

Ultimately, it may be that in a race with such a range of techniques, everyone gets an asterisk.

Coffee Cup Race: Refill Coming Sooner Than Planned?

Enthusiasm for the race was high not only among the dozen or so crews that ‘competed’ but also among spectators on land. Because the race, in effect, began ON land, with mad dashes through the streets of Oriental, spectators had a closer sense of what was happening compared to traditional races that begin a mile off shore. NSA had planned another Coffee Cup race in October, but already Sunday morning, there was talk of holding another between now and then.

Coffee Cup Race Rusults
ORIENTAL-SOUTH RIVER-ORIENTAL
1: Nimbus Novem – Steve Exum 4:20
2: Critical Mass – Ken Lury 4:22
3: Pelican – Paul Bogardus 4:58
ORIENTAL-GARBACON-ORIENTAL
1: Park Avenue - John Park 1:42
2: Kuheli -- Mac & Kiron Allen 1:50
3: Windward – Dave Canavan 2:15
4: Outhouse – Tim Balfour 2:17
5: Fast Toy -- 3:06
Also finished: Hope To – Chuck Gordon