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Joy Ride takes Vic-Maui title

Firefly earns line honors as Division 1 boats cross finish line in Lahaina

The crew of the Joy Ride poses for photos Saturday in Lahaina after winning the Vic-Maui International Yacht Race. -- PATTI LINK photo

After dealing with uncharacteristic wind patterns and spending much of two weeks trying to find the perfect path to Lahaina, the 2018 Vic-Maui International Yacht Race saw its first two finishers as Firefly and Joy Ride completed the race Saturday morning.

Firefly took line honors, arriving just after 5 a.m. to complete the 2,308-nautical-mile race that started July 1 in Victoria, B.C. However, with a correction time of about 8 hours, Joy Ride became the Division 1 winner after arriving at 10:27 a.m.

It was a much anticipated finish for both boats after each navigator — Brad Baker of Firefly and Bron Miller of Joy Ride — battled it out to find an edge.

“All the traditional routes were thrown out almost immediately when the race started,” Miller said. “We just kept waiting to be freed and just when we thought we could get comfortable the wind would change on us — it was a head scratcher. We were downloading weather as fast as our Iridium could do it, just to try and constantly optimize our routes.”

Miller and his crew ended up keeping pace with Firefly after the last three days of racing saw a return of normal conditions, but he knew he was in for a fight going up against Baker, a six-time Vic-Maui winner as navigator who was competing in his 10th edition of the biennial race.

Crew members of the Firefly celebrate after taking line honors Saturday. -- PATTI LINK photo

“Every drag race has a winner,” Miller said. “We really have a tremendous respect for our competitors and what they bring. We’ve sailed against them for years and they did not let up one bit, it was foot on the gas pedal from day one.”

The rest of the crew of the Seattle-based Joy Ride were skipper John Murkowski, Ma­aike Pen, Erik Sjogren, Alex Fox, Byron Mesroll, Robin Slieker and Quill Goldman.

The Firefly crew comprised Baker, skipper Bob Strong, Joe Gaffney, Michael Bryan-Brown, Will Strong, John Tenneson, Tim Larson and Stuart Rolfe.

David Sutcliffe, a former competitor and member of the events chair committee, was impressed with what this year’s competitors were able to accomplish.

“It’s very respectable what these guys were able to do during the last part of the race,” Sutcliffe said. “For the conditions they dealt with, they finished with very respectable times after the slower start.”

Joy Ride makes its way to the finish line. -- AZ RICHARDS photo

In Division 2, as of 2 p.m. Saturday, Salient held onto a seven-mile lead over Kraken with 121 nautical miles remaining, followed by Turnagain (129), Anjo (274) and OxoMoxo (338).

Due to possible correction times for Division 2 boats, an overall winner for the race will not be decided until the boats arrive today.

In the cruising class, Serenite was 329 nautical miles out.

* Matthew Simon is at msimon@mauinews.com

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