Team Seacats

Team Chums 1 remained parked on the beach during team preparations this morning, thanks to a collision with a UFO (unidentified floating object) on the trip to Fernandina. Lee Wicklund told me that it caused them to take on a lot of water in their port hull and felt that the damage was too bad to attempt another long leg. I’m glad that the Chums teams were able to make the race this year but it’s a shame that neither of them will be able to finish.

I also spoke to Bill Photinos (who has volunteered during the Tybee 500 for many years) about Team Tybee’s twenty minute penalty. These bouys are not mark roundings but are considered “entering a boundary of an exclusionary zone.” JC and Kenny’s willingness to report their error and the fact that they already took time to make the 1.5 mile trip back to correct it probably played into the relative lightness of a twenty minute penalty, as they ran the risk of potentially being DSQ, according to the Sailing Instructions.

Wind speed had picked up to about 18 knots by the start. It’s looking like it will be on the nose all day, so there will be lots of zigging and zagging. Due to the narrow stretch of beach and the water being so high up this morning (high tide mark was set to peak at 10:48 this morning), race officials chose to stagger the fleet into two starts. The first half, in order, were Tybee, Oolaalaa, Tiki 1, Velocity, and Secats. The second group was made up of Tiki 2, Accelerated Chaos, TDCYC, and Cat in the Hat. All of the teams had a clean shot through the waves, but Cat in the Hat flipped just a few minutes out and headed back to the beach. TDCYC stopped to check on them so they lost a little time for which thay can request a correction upon finishing the leg. Turns out that Cat in the Hat broke their port rudder but were fine otherwise. Larry Ferber’s wife, Pam, ran out a spare to them and they were planning to set out again by the time I left the beach.

The rest of the fleet seemed seemed to be really traveling, with the rear of the fleet just about out of eyesight by 10:20. It looked like a couple of boats were going further offshore than the rest of the pack. Sailing the rhumb line is not something that has paid off well in the past. Sailors would do well to remember Rick White’s three rules of distance racing: 1. Stay near the shore. 2. Stay near the shore. 3. Stay near the shore. It’s a Hail Mary that some (including Jake) have attempted in the past and one time out of twenty five, it’s going to pay off big. Perhaps the boats I saw were just spotted better air or were doing some covering of a close competitor until the next tack. As they rolled out of sight, Oolaalaa was ahead of Tybee with what appeared to be Tiki 1 rounding up the gold, silver, and bronze medalists.

This is a long leg of just over a hundred miles where nothing much is visible from the coast and one where it’s a difficult situation to have a problem as many teams have learned in the past. Due to this lack of visibility, we won’t have the benefit of position updates that we’ve enjoyed in past days due to barrier islands and a relative lack of navigable access. That is, unless some of the sailors have the time to phone in any information.

I’ll post some photos from the start as soon as can get them uploaded. We’re driving through a dead zone right now.

Winds are supposed to be a steady 15 knots from the NE all the way up, but there is a gale warning that should crank things up to twenty should any  or all of the teams choose to go out that far. At last check, the wind is also out of the NE so we may see some tacking during the last bit of the leg today.

At the skipper’s meeting today it was announced that Team Tybee would be taking a twenty minute hit for failing to round that buoy at Cape Canaveral. It’s a tough break for them but Oolaalaa may have already been in an unstoppable first place with a hour’s lead over them before the penalty.

Then again, this longest leg of the Tybee 500 has historically been the one where anything can change. The sailors are pumped to go today but I think some of them are also about ready for this race to be over. I hope it’s a great day of sailing for everyone.

Go Seacats!

As of 11pm, the only other boat on the beach is Jay and Steve on Tiki 2, which leaves Chums 2, Accelerated Chaos, Cat in the Hat, and TDCYC. We’re going to bed at a decent hour and saving the party until after the race is over. Tomorrow is the longest leg of the week and I’m sure it will prove to be a good one. Good luck to all.

As of 9:30, nobody else has hit the beach.