In the corrected standings, John Casey and Ken Pierce scored first place overall and with this win, extended John Casey’s hold on the first place finish to 4 wins, in the past 5 years.. But it’s not necessary to sail a ‘big cat’ to win this race. Matt and Gina McDonald, sailing a Blade, finished 2nd after an intense focus on sailing during the two day event. In its 9th year, Hirams Haul is an established east coast beach cat regatta. It has established itself in a unique niche characterized by great sailing during the day with most enjoyable after sail social events both

Zombie Tell Tales:  They really work during Halloween regattas unless strong winds shake the skeletal fragments apart.

Frisky winds often make boats frisky too.  A couple of teams in the first start had to keep their catamarans from a ritual mating as the westerly winds came up, just during the start sequence it seemed.

 

Under typical circumstances, you'd need a conditional use permit from the state to take as much water as Tom and Christophe did between Pineda and Sebastian on Saturday.   More amazing than taking on that much water without citation is that their Hobie 18 did not go over when the transom detatched and one hull filled completely with water.  With just a couple of hundred yards from the finish line and the beach at Hirams,   they elected to sail to an island first to regroup and dehydrate.  Then they sailed under the jib to the end of the dock at Hiram's.  The final few hundred feet went quickly after one of the other teams threw them a paddle.

Place	Team
1st	John Casey & Ken Pierce The babe between the boys is John's mother!  All those stories going around about John being hatched from a metallic icosahedral egg deposited by an alien  space ship into the volcanically warmed sands of a desert island before global warming began:  There's just nothing to those rumors. (The John Casey those rumors are about is a political candidate elsewhere in central Florida?  Then never mind.  The truth is John has a gracious mother.)
2nd	Matt & Gina McDonald  "Gina's favorite color is red."
3rd	Dave & Cathy Ingram, "Those Ingrams" (Sorry about the fuzzy image; the flash was recharging)
4th	Scott Hubel "I'll shake my own hand" & Kent Cooper
5th	Mark Herrendeen & Jay Roth "I swore off sailing during pregnancy."
6th	Brian Karr & Aaron Hayson
7th	Karl Langfeld & Andrea Jamarone
8th	Craig van Eaton & Eric "Hit me with your best shot"  Arbogast
9th	Randy Goodman
10th	Jim JcEwan
11th	Chuck Harndon & Paul Allum  "I thought you brought the spare jib . . ."
12th	Tom Edders & Christophe Deltrant "Why would we need a Paddle."