The 2007 Tybee 500 Race Coverage

The Dutch Team Amazingly Does it Again (report5:45 pm) (story up now, pictures coming in a few minutes)
We stayed at the starting beach for an exceptionally long time to get up all the pictures and stories, so were late getting to Cocoa Beach.

After parking our equipment, we went immediately to the beach and sure enough.., one boat had finished. Rod Waterhouse and Jarrett Sonnenklar had such a huge lead at the start, I was sure it was them

To my astonishment, it was Oolala sailed by Mischa Heemskerk and Eduard Zanen from the Netherlands. How in the world did they do it.

Waterhouse's team came in behind them in second spot. He said Oolala passed them about a third of the way to Cocoa Beach and never looked back.

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Here are pictures of Tiki Watersports Orange landing in Cocoa Beach:

Young Jared Sonnenklar (left) and Rod Waterhouse (right) after a tough day

The other teams finished in the order they started, which was Tybee Island in 3rd, Accelerated Chaos in 4th and Tiki Watersports Yellow in 5th.

Pictures of Tybee Island coming in. They did a bit of showboating -- the only one that came in with their spinnaker flying:

The next shots are of Accelerated Chaos:

And finally Tiki Watersports Yellow:

It would seem that Oolala has obtained a commanding lead for the win overall and Tiki Watersports Orange appears to have taken over second spot. Check www.tybee500.com for official results

For a great story of the gory morning, there is a blow by blow accound written by Bonnie Kohl of Team Seacats. Check it out at www.teamseacats.com

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Jensen-Like Surf was the Order (report 12 noon)
The surf was the demon, and it indeed demonized. Most of the fleet held back at the start to see when would be the best time and place to start.

The leaders, however, had to give it a try. Tybee Island was first and were shortly bashed back onto the beach. Next was Oolala -- also blasted backwards by the huge surf.

Velocity and TCDYC also made valiant efforts that were easily thwarted, with some damage. TCDYC had to replace their rudders in order to make another attempt (see below on the rudder change)

Below is the first attempt at the incredible surf by Team Tybee Island:

Then Oolala gave it the old college try:

Meanwhile, Team Velocity had been knocked over the starboard and collision was about to happen.

Finally the old veteran of the Worrell 1000 and Tybee 500, Australian Rod Waterhouse of Tiki Watersports Orange, plowed into the huge waves and kept getting washed down the beach without much forward progress. Finally, about a 1/2 mile down the beach they punched through the first of the close in surf and soon were in deep enough water to use their boards and rudders more efficiently.

During all this chaos Race Organizer, Chuck Bargeron, was blowing whistles as if to call off the start. However, Race Officials are the only ones that can call the race and as far as they were concerned the race was on the clock, even with only one boat through the surf.

The next attempt was by Tiki Watersports White, with another old pro, Jamie Livingston, on the boat. It looked great as they had punched through the first two rollers, but the rudders flipped back and the skipper was looking backward trying to retrieve the tiller when the next one hit -- it flipped the boat end over end backward and broke the mast in half.

Damage to Tiki Watersports White

Oolala made their second attempt and this time broke through and became the second boat on the way to Cocoa Beach. This really put the pressure on Tybee Island who made their 3rd attempt. This time it met with success.., "third time is a charm," as the saying goes.

There were now three boats in the race.

Chris Titcomb and Trip Burd of Accelerated Chaos were the next ones to have a go of it. They also made it with some difficulty. After closely watching the wave patterns, Steve Lohmayer and Jay Sonnenklar on Tiki Watersports Yellow blasted through easily, making it a five boat race.

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Tiki Watersports Yellow made it easily

Seacats set out and made into deep enough water to use their boards and rudders more, but were not able to get them down enough to help. They were soon pushed backwards into the shallower water. The floundered there for about a mile down the beach. They pulled out, regathered themselves and set out on starboard tack. This time they punched through the bad initial stuff and looked like they were on the way. Suddenly a rogue wave caught them and flipped them backward

Cat in a Hat made an appempt, but Jackson Smith was washed from the boat on the very first wave.

As of this writing there were officially eight starters and five boats on the way.

Both Chums boats and the Priates of the Chesapeake opted to trailer to Cocoa Beach

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One of the problems with the Inter 20 going through surf is their rudder blades are so slim -- very efficient when down and moving, but not very effective when partway up. After breaking their original rudders Texas City Dike YC replaced their modern rudders with older fashioned ones and made another attempt. Unfortunately, that try failed as well and ended with a torn mainsail.

You can see the difference in the rudders. New ones first, older versions below:

Stay tuned for the finish in Cocoa.

Huge Surf this Morning! Could this be Another Jensen Beach? More Coming on this 3rd leg from Jupiter to Cocoa Beach. (report at 8:30 AM)
Winds are a blustery 16-25 mph from the east this morning with great big breakers going far out. The coast line is badly eroded exposing crops of large rocks. If any of the boats gets in trouble, they could easily end up on those rocks.

Most of us can remember during the Worrell 1000 when similar surf and winds took out most of the fleet. Only a few boats were able to make it out into the ocean. Major damage was suffered by most the attempted the horrendously difficult breakers.

At the Skippers Meeting at 9 AM most of the sailors were very apprehensive and some have flat said they will not attempt the surf today. However, I order to pull out of the race and get your boat on a trailer, it is nearly a mile and half drag down the beach on wheels in order to get the boat to the highway. And they would officially be out of the race.

All boats are required to start on Port Tack. There are huge rocks on the beach to the north of the starting area and starting on Starboard could put your boat right in front of the rocks. Should something go amiss, the boat would probably be demolished on those rocks.

By starting on port the boats getting in trouble would be washed back to a sand beach. We will be shooting pictures of the start scheduled for 10 AM, so standby.., this could be pretty ugly.

Stay tuned!

And for good gossip by Bonnie Kohl from Team Seacats, go to www.teamseacats.com

Please Patronize our sponsors for the coverage of this event. It is costly to make this jouney and to give you the coverage we do.

For Video of the raceg and interviews at the finish, click here!

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