| We made the turn in third place if you were timing the boats...there were two small boats ahead of us at the turn that started seven minutes before the big boats. We held off boat #55 at the finish and we came in third overall in men's open...we were pumped because our skier
[Troy Hooker] had never placed in the race and we were hoping for a top 10 finish. Entering the breakwater, Martie was running side by side with Todd when both skiers and boats came across a passenger ship monster wake....Todd's boat almost flipped but Todd managed to hold on and not
fall...Martie did fall and Todd went on to shatter the old record.
We came up to Martie as he was getting back up and our observer decided to play it safe in the breakwater...we finished five seconds or so behind Martie and took third. Leroy
Schneider [pulling Karl Brooks] was on our tail the whole way back from your boat in Avalon and they finished five seconds behind
RWD.
It was some exciting stuff...even though we were fairly close at the turn, Martie and Todd ran away from everyone in some bumpy water and they ended up three miles ahead of us when they entered the
breakwater...pretty amazing stuff. So, another year but a good year...by far the best Catalina experience I have ever had....third place with a up and comer that nobody gave a chance. My skier
[Troy Hooker] was doing cartwheels the entire weekend...he had the biggest grin on his face...that made it
awesome!
Captain Ron
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