Team Seacats

It was like waiting for the right wave on a crummy day of surfing today for the cats finishing at Ormond Beach. Upon reaching the finish coordinates, they all stuffed their chutes only to be hit with a (slight, but strong enough) beach headwind that resulted in the race officials allowing two members of the Ground Crew to help get them through the surf up to the finish line. Pirates of the Tybeean hit the beach first without much trouble, as did Team Coconut Grove and Team Tybee Island. Rounding out the top five were the guys from SailMax I and SailMax II within a few minutes of each other. It would not have been such a very few minutes had not SailMax I rested on a series of waves, waiting for just the right one, until Chris Zander and David Strickland went out to help bring them in. When Chris went back to do the honors for SailMax II, he ended up being dragged underneath the port hull for about twenty feet through the surf before regaining his footing. Then, the spinnaker came out of the bag and rolled into the water, filling up and dragging under the starboard hull. People were screaming instructions and tipping the port hull way up to try and release a stuck daggerboard. My heart was pounding. They finally got things under control and safely parked. All the boats were in by the time I came up to make this report and batch my photos, except for Team Velocity. At last report, they were in view of Team Key Sailing. Their Ground Crew is a little worried over the fact that Key Sailing is back on the beach and yet Trey and Tad are not in view and have not checked in since that time. Don’t make your Ground Crew worry, fellers, or else you won’t get the keys to the car this weekend!