March 23, 2024 • 11 mins
Jibe Talking visits the Friends of the Mills Party 2024 and talks with Chairman Ron Soka!
Listen to this short interview and learn about the coming Mills Trophy Race 2024.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hi, tonight we are here at TYC and we are with Ron Soka and you are what? The chairman?
(00:06):
The general chairman of the Mills Trophy race.
Okay and you said your wife helps out and she kind of stands in the background but I've met her
and I know darn well she does a lot of work.
She does.
Okay so we were just talking about the 100th and you said you opened early.
Why don't you go ahead? I'm sorry to do that over.
Yeah that's right so this year is the 100th running of the Mills and so we opened the
(00:32):
registration early in January and we've got about 85 votes registered already.
How many did you have all last year?
About 115.
You already got almost that many now.
Yeah.
Okay.
Are you anticipating?
Great question.
Yeah I'm thinking that we're going to be in the 130 range, 150 maybe but something like that.
(01:00):
Is there a possibility you may have to limit?
We don't anticipate having to do that. We have to make arrangements with Put-in-Bay
for the extra dockage.
Okay.
But we have a good relationship with them and so we can put on B-Dock which is the center dock
(01:22):
in the public dock system we can put about 100 sailboats and so we can get up to 130,
150 boats in the balance of the other two docks.
And then if somebody wanted to race they could always hook on the ball right?
Oh yeah.
You could just say I got 150 docks but if you want to come in you got to go on a ball.
(01:45):
And we have people, particularly people that sail catamarams.
Yeah.
So they got you know they're 20 feet long and 20 feet wide so they don't go on a dock very easy.
So those guys like to go out on a ball.
I didn't know how many catamarams do you estimate you have?
Well we have about five registered right now so.
(02:08):
Who knows it could be you know it could be that class might be 10-ish.
So let's say somebody sails and wanted to be in the mills.
So mills trophy race I'm sorry.
Do they have to like have their sails measured their boat how does that work?
Because somebody listening may say you know I'd like to do it at the 100th
(02:29):
but I don't know what to do.
Well the mills race is historically a performance handicap rated system.
So PERF it's called.
And so it requires a measurement certificate and a rating from PERF.
And we because we're on Lake Erie it's PERF Lake Erie is the organization that
(02:55):
handles all of the ratings for the boats on the mills race.
So you would just call them up and they would come out and measure everything?
Well there are local measures.
Okay.
So there's measures at North Cape there's measures at Monroe.
Oh okay.
So you can get your boat measured and submit that information to PERF Lake Erie
(03:17):
and they'll assign a rating.
Okay so it's kind of like I guess they certify so many measures and I don't know
if that's the right word.
Yeah but they they've got I don't know maybe around the Great Lake
they've got about probably 15 measures.
Hi I'm Tanya from the Bardix.
(03:38):
Yeah.
Brad's in Florida so I'm taking over for him for a little bit.
Oh good.
All right so we're having a little interlude right now.
We're good.
I will have a check.
We can edit all this out no problem.
So now I have heard that well I know for a fact you're quite an accomplished sailor yourself.
(04:03):
How many mills races did you race in?
You just talked to the photographer and he said he used to be on your crew.
He did.
He did.
So how many have you completed?
I think we sailed.
Kay and I sailed 25.
I sailed a couple more.
Okay.
So maybe 30 at the most but probably in that range.
(04:26):
So who do you say here tonight has completed the most?
Who would you say?
John Greiner.
That's what I would have guessed.
Has completed 54.
54.
You're kidding.
Mills races.
54?
You know we have an or we have a fraternity of racers that have sailed 25 or more.
(04:47):
We call them the Mills Masters.
That's pretty cool stuff.
So anybody that's sailed 25 or more is qualified to be a Mills Master.
John is a grand master.
So he has his own class.
So he has 50 and we had probably now deceased but Jack Bernard and a guy from Sandusky,
(05:09):
Jim Johns, those guys all had over 50.
That's amazing.
But yeah it's a unique class.
What's your highest finish?
Highest finish?
We won our class in I don't know 2000 or I don't know when that would have been.
7 or 8.
Somewhere around there.
So that's as good as we could hope for.
(05:33):
That's an amazing feat.
Now there's different link courses right?
Correct.
Tell me a little bit about that.
The Mills course, the main title course is 70 nautical miles.
Okay that's quite a race.
So it's overnight.
Okay.
(05:53):
And then there's an intermediate course called the Governor's Course.
And that's about 55 nautical miles.
And then there's the shortest course is the President's Course and it's about 38 nautical
miles.
So each of those courses are filled with boats that their rating fits that course.
(06:21):
So that hypothetically no matter when they started we'd all finish together.
Okay.
Okay.
So what determines I noticed when I was looking online because I'm really thinking about for
the first year ever I've assembled a crew I'm going to give it a go.
(06:42):
What determines whether you're a cruiser class or like I see GM1 and 2.
I see PHRF which we call perf.
Tell me how that breaks down.
Yeah well the cruising class is designed for first time slash entry level people that just
(07:06):
want to basically want to see what it's like to be in an overnight race.
That would be like my friend Phil Fry right?
No I'm just kidding.
I had to throw his name in there.
You wanted to get that in.
I'm not editing it out.
Phil does okay on his own.
Phil did last year Phil won his class and I think he won some special award for largest margin.
(07:29):
I'm not sure what it is.
Yep exactly I don't I can't remember all of it but he won two or three trophies for the
mills race so he did fine.
He did very good.
He's kind of scary though he's got like about a hundred pairs of gloves and hang down below
and I told him I said I think that's the people he's killed and thrown in the water.
But anyways so tell me you got you got cruiser class designed for kind of newer people.
(07:54):
Newer people and boats that aren't racing designed so you'd see a lot of those boats
probably maybe they've got a Dodger maybe they've got a Bimini maybe they've got the
So comfort sailing.
Yeah yeah I like that.
Yeah so maybe they've got the barbecue grill hanging off the back maybe they've got the dingy.
(08:18):
Is the barbecue grill frowned upon?
Can you cook steaks during the race?
You can do whatever you want.
All right all right go ahead.
So that's your that's your cruising that's your cruising yeah yeah cruising.
What about what about now we got GM1 and 2 like what distinguishes those?
By the way Kay is looking on right now and this is Ron's wife
(08:40):
and she's actually the brains of the outfit.
Yeah.
She gave me a smile.
So so what so then you got GM1 and 2 how does that break down?
So the jam classes are all based on boats if they have a rating of 150 or higher.
(09:03):
So the way perf works is you know the higher the number the slower the boat.
Okay.
So if you're 150 or higher rated you can sail on the perf governor's course.
Okay.
Or no matter what your rating is you can sail jam on the the president's.
(09:30):
So what's the delineation between one and two like I see GM1 and 2?
Only a division if there are that many boats.
I gotcha.
Like if you got 20 boats registered we'll probably split them into two 10 boat starts.
So is the difference between jam and perf the fact that they can fly a spinnaker is that
(09:52):
or is there something else?
No no jam is strictly no spinnaker it's just jib and mane.
Jib and mane.
Okay.
So that's that's it.
Okay.
So it's fairly simple and when you when you register with perf lake eerie
they give you a rating for both.
So they give you a rating if you're going to fly a spinnaker and they give you a rating if you're not.
(10:17):
So you can register either way depending on how you know how comfortable you are.
Now what class did you usually sail in when you raced?
We sailed our our rating was 180 so we sailed in the president's course perf.
(10:39):
In the jam were you jam or not jam?
Perf.
So you flew a spinnaker.
You know I've never done that I'd like to go with somebody who does.
I've seen videos online and I'm kind of a newbie and it just terrifies me seeing these boats
tip over and all this crazy stuff.
The boats are pretty resilient.
They can they can handle more often than the people that are on them.
(11:03):
Yeah yeah yeah yeah.
Do you have any questions Christina?
No not at this time.
What is this like a like a cross-examination?
No not at this time.
Not at this time.
Thank you very much.
I know this is a busy night for you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Hi, tonight we are here at TYC and we are with Ron Soka and you are what? The chairman?
(00:06):
The general chairman of the Mills Trophy race.
Okay and you said your wife helps out and she kind of stands in the background but I've met her
and I know darn well she does a lot of work.
She does.
Okay so we were just talking about the 100th and you said you opened early.
Why don't you go ahead? I'm sorry to do that over.
Yeah that's right so this year is the 100th running of the Mills and so we opened the
(00:32):
registration early in January and we've got about 85 votes registered already.
How many did you have all last year?
About 115.
You already got almost that many now.
Yeah.
Okay.
Are you anticipating?
Great question.
Yeah I'm thinking that we're going to be in the 130 range, 150 maybe but something like that.
(01:00):
Is there a possibility you may have to limit?
We don't anticipate having to do that. We have to make arrangements with Put-in-Bay
for the extra dockage.
Okay.
But we have a good relationship with them and so we can put on B-Dock which is the center dock
(01:22):
in the public dock system we can put about 100 sailboats and so we can get up to 130,
150 boats in the balance of the other two docks.
And then if somebody wanted to race they could always hook on the ball right?
Oh yeah.
You could just say I got 150 docks but if you want to come in you got to go on a ball.
(01:45):
And we have people, particularly people that sail catamarams.
Yeah.
So they got you know they're 20 feet long and 20 feet wide so they don't go on a dock very easy.
So those guys like to go out on a ball.
I didn't know how many catamarams do you estimate you have?
Well we have about five registered right now so.
(02:08):
Who knows it could be you know it could be that class might be 10-ish.
So let's say somebody sails and wanted to be in the mills.
So mills trophy race I'm sorry.
Do they have to like have their sails measured their boat how does that work?
Because somebody listening may say you know I'd like to do it at the 100th
(02:29):
but I don't know what to do.
Well the mills race is historically a performance handicap rated system.
So PERF it's called.
And so it requires a measurement certificate and a rating from PERF.
And we because we're on Lake Erie it's PERF Lake Erie is the organization that
(02:55):
handles all of the ratings for the boats on the mills race.
So you would just call them up and they would come out and measure everything?
Well there are local measures.
Okay.
So there's measures at North Cape there's measures at Monroe.
Oh okay.
So you can get your boat measured and submit that information to PERF Lake Erie
(03:17):
and they'll assign a rating.
Okay so it's kind of like I guess they certify so many measures and I don't know
if that's the right word.
Yeah but they they've got I don't know maybe around the Great Lake
they've got about probably 15 measures.
Hi I'm Tanya from the Bardix.
(03:38):
Yeah.
Brad's in Florida so I'm taking over for him for a little bit.
Oh good.
All right so we're having a little interlude right now.
We're good.
I will have a check.
We can edit all this out no problem.
So now I have heard that well I know for a fact you're quite an accomplished sailor yourself.
(04:03):
How many mills races did you race in?
You just talked to the photographer and he said he used to be on your crew.
He did.
He did.
So how many have you completed?
I think we sailed.
Kay and I sailed 25.
I sailed a couple more.
Okay.
So maybe 30 at the most but probably in that range.
(04:26):
So who do you say here tonight has completed the most?
Who would you say?
John Greiner.
That's what I would have guessed.
Has completed 54.
54.
You're kidding.
Mills races.
54?
You know we have an or we have a fraternity of racers that have sailed 25 or more.
(04:47):
We call them the Mills Masters.
That's pretty cool stuff.
So anybody that's sailed 25 or more is qualified to be a Mills Master.
John is a grand master.
So he has his own class.
So he has 50 and we had probably now deceased but Jack Bernard and a guy from Sandusky,
(05:09):
Jim Johns, those guys all had over 50.
That's amazing.
But yeah it's a unique class.
What's your highest finish?
Highest finish?
We won our class in I don't know 2000 or I don't know when that would have been.
7 or 8.
Somewhere around there.
So that's as good as we could hope for.
(05:33):
That's an amazing feat.
Now there's different link courses right?
Correct.
Tell me a little bit about that.
The Mills course, the main title course is 70 nautical miles.
Okay that's quite a race.
So it's overnight.
Okay.
(05:53):
And then there's an intermediate course called the Governor's Course.
And that's about 55 nautical miles.
And then there's the shortest course is the President's Course and it's about 38 nautical
miles.
So each of those courses are filled with boats that their rating fits that course.
(06:21):
So that hypothetically no matter when they started we'd all finish together.
Okay.
Okay.
So what determines I noticed when I was looking online because I'm really thinking about for
the first year ever I've assembled a crew I'm going to give it a go.
(06:42):
What determines whether you're a cruiser class or like I see GM1 and 2.
I see PHRF which we call perf.
Tell me how that breaks down.
Yeah well the cruising class is designed for first time slash entry level people that just
(07:06):
want to basically want to see what it's like to be in an overnight race.
That would be like my friend Phil Fry right?
No I'm just kidding.
I had to throw his name in there.
You wanted to get that in.
I'm not editing it out.
Phil does okay on his own.
Phil did last year Phil won his class and I think he won some special award for largest margin.
(07:29):
I'm not sure what it is.
Yep exactly I don't I can't remember all of it but he won two or three trophies for the
mills race so he did fine.
He did very good.
He's kind of scary though he's got like about a hundred pairs of gloves and hang down below
and I told him I said I think that's the people he's killed and thrown in the water.
But anyways so tell me you got you got cruiser class designed for kind of newer people.
(07:54):
Newer people and boats that aren't racing designed so you'd see a lot of those boats
probably maybe they've got a Dodger maybe they've got a Bimini maybe they've got the
So comfort sailing.
Yeah yeah I like that.
Yeah so maybe they've got the barbecue grill hanging off the back maybe they've got the dingy.
(08:18):
Is the barbecue grill frowned upon?
Can you cook steaks during the race?
You can do whatever you want.
All right all right go ahead.
So that's your that's your cruising that's your cruising yeah yeah cruising.
What about what about now we got GM1 and 2 like what distinguishes those?
By the way Kay is looking on right now and this is Ron's wife
(08:40):
and she's actually the brains of the outfit.
Yeah.
She gave me a smile.
So so what so then you got GM1 and 2 how does that break down?
So the jam classes are all based on boats if they have a rating of 150 or higher.
(09:03):
So the way perf works is you know the higher the number the slower the boat.
Okay.
So if you're 150 or higher rated you can sail on the perf governor's course.
Okay.
Or no matter what your rating is you can sail jam on the the president's.
(09:30):
So what's the delineation between one and two like I see GM1 and 2?
Only a division if there are that many boats.
I gotcha.
Like if you got 20 boats registered we'll probably split them into two 10 boat starts.
So is the difference between jam and perf the fact that they can fly a spinnaker is that
(09:52):
or is there something else?
No no jam is strictly no spinnaker it's just jib and mane.
Jib and mane.
Okay.
So that's that's it.
Okay.
So it's fairly simple and when you when you register with perf lake eerie
they give you a rating for both.
So they give you a rating if you're going to fly a spinnaker and they give you a rating if you're not.
(10:17):
So you can register either way depending on how you know how comfortable you are.
Now what class did you usually sail in when you raced?
We sailed our our rating was 180 so we sailed in the president's course perf.
(10:39):
In the jam were you jam or not jam?
Perf.
So you flew a spinnaker.
You know I've never done that I'd like to go with somebody who does.
I've seen videos online and I'm kind of a newbie and it just terrifies me seeing these boats
tip over and all this crazy stuff.
The boats are pretty resilient.
They can they can handle more often than the people that are on them.
(11:03):
Yeah yeah yeah yeah.
Do you have any questions Christina?
No not at this time.
What is this like a like a cross-examination?
No not at this time.
Not at this time.
Thank you very much.
I know this is a busy night for you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
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