Great North River Tugboat Race Part 4 - The Race (and gratuitous Duke)

As usual, click on any picture to see a larger version.

And off they go...

And here they come again! Chaaaaaarge!

This picture has focus issues but I'm putting it in anyways 'cause this was an interesting moment of drama in the proceedings. The race was well underway when all of us spectators on Pier 84 heard a police siren approaching from the south. At first I thought it was from the West Side Highway but then I started thinking "No, that sounds like it's coming up the river". A second later, this cigarette boat came screaming into view from behind the Circle Line pier. Now, I don't know if the people in the motorboat had actually thought that with a super studly speedboat like theirs, it would be fun to play Miami Vice, or if maybe they just couldn't hear the sirens or didn't realize the sirens were for them - whichever it was, when they finally spotted the wall of foam and steel that was charging down the river towards them they instantly rethought things...yikes! turn arooooound! Run away! Run awaaaay! 

Here's the Lincoln Sea crossing the finish line (marked by the Drifter, the bargelike boat with the crane & the large American flag (positioned in line with the slightly taller building with the 2 spires & the flag on the shore). Johnna and Vlad were on the Circle Line boat the stern of which  you can see just behind the tug - their pictures of the Lincoln Sea in the post I linked to earlier today are just spectacular.

Here comes the rest of the field

Meaghan Ann surprises everyone by passing the Weddell Sea to taking second place overall, and by a decicisive margin. This was a notable feat because several of the boats that she beat had a LOT more horsepower than she does - in fact the tugs are broken down into classes by size - Class A is the behemoths like the Lincoln Sea; Class B is the next one down, still VERY big boats but the expected results would be for the overall 1st, 2nd and 3rd to be taken by the Class A's.

In fact, the feat was so unusual that the race committee took the unusual measure of having the captain of the Meaghan Ann join the captain of the winner, Lincoln Sea, in holding up the first-place overall trophy during the awards ceremony.

Back to the finish line - here are the Weddell Sea, the Maurania III and the Quantico Creek battling it out for 3rd, 4th and 5th, respectively. These are all Division A boats.

Here comes the 2nd place winner in Division B, the Freddie K. Miller, followed by the Buchanan 12 (the last of the Division A boats - the push boats with their square bows may not be built for speed, but the design worked nicely for the line-tossing - that's the next post though!) and Little Toot, first of the C class tugs to cross the line.

Deborah Miller (white) and Gage Paul Thornton, Division B 3rd & 4th, respectively 

R to Left - Susan Miller, Buchanan 1, Thornton Bros., Vulcan & Pegasus

Susan Miller, Growler and Vulcan II at the finish

Hooray for the Pegasus!

Lt. Michael P. Murphy, Shawn Miller

And last but not least, at least in the amount of fun being had by the people on board, give it up for DA BRONX!!! Wooooo! 

And that was it for the 20th Annual Running of the Great North River Tugboat Race.

For full results (and links to a bunch of other websites with excellent pictures - I think we've all been cross-linking but there's a nice list there now) - Click here to visit WorkingHarbor.com .

And I'll be carrying on as a tugboat blog for a couple more days too -- yet to come: Bow to bow pushing, line tossing, spinach eating, tattoos and Duke. No, wait, I can't wait for Duke. He's too cute. Here you go. Gratuitous Duke.