The 2007 Tybee 500 Race Coverage

Oolala Once Again Dominates (report at 6pm)
From afar and while looking only at the boats port hull, it was yellow. At last, someone else ha finally won a leg other than Oolala. The the boat jibed and the other hull was white -- must have been some sort of sick joke to confuse the onlookers.

At first everyone thought it was Steve Lohmayer on the Tiki Yellow boat. Nope! It was once again Mischa Heemskerk and Eduard Zanen taking the line honors and pulling a bit more ahead of the competition. They have a pretty commanding lead of well over an hour, with only two legs left in the race. Unless something serious happens in the next two days, it will appear that the Dutch team will unthrone the Tybee Team.

At this point is seems like a sure thing -- Mischa and Eduard have been pretty awesome the entire time.

Mischa Heemskerk and Eduard Zanen of Team Oolala take line honors again

Second across the line was Rod Waterhouse and youngster Jared Sonnenklar on Tiki Watersports Orange. They were not far behind, but still lost a little ground timewise.

Above, Tiki Watersports Orange, with Rod Waterhouse and Jared Sonnenklar take 2nd for the leg and have a solid grip on that spot in the overall standings.

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 third it was a side by side battle between Tiki Watersports Yellow and Team Velocity. Tiki had his spinnaker up but heading too deep to use it on starboard tack. Meanwhile, Trey Brown of Velocity had positioned himself just on Tiki's hip so they could not jibe and scream into the beach with their spinnaker. Velocity then caught a wave and scooted into third place overall -- their best finish ever in these highly competitive distance races.

This was a great finish, with Velocity getting the last wave at the exact right time.

This was (Lunch) Trey Brown's (left)and Alan Stewart's (right)best finish ever

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.

Just as those two were involved in their close call, Chris Titcomb and Sandra Tartaglino decided to attract the cameras and flipped the boat in the surf. Soon the sea shoved the boat closer and closer to the finish line, and they finally finished on their side.

Accelerated Chaos after capsizing washed into shore and finisher on her side

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.

Next came defending champs, Tybee Island.., not that far back in time, but not their usually great performance.

In a nearly three way tie, the two Chums boat had Seacats sandwiched between them. Chumb II took 7th place, Seacats slid into 8th place and Chums I was next.

Seacats had an ugly start, but a very pretty finish

10th place went to TCDYC and Cat in a Hat came in 11th. All boats are accounted for.

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.

And They are Off to Daytona Beach (report at 10:30 am)
What looked like a piece of cake for surf turned out to be a lot more difficult than most thought. Most of the fleet struggled to get through the first two or three set of waves, but eight teams broke into the smoother water and took off for the trip around Cape Canaveral.

Some did not fare so well. Team Seacats TCDYC struggled, unable to break through the very first set of the surf. They kept trying and trying, moving farther and farther down the beach. but with no success.

Team Tiki Watersports Yellow, who made yesterday's attack on the surf look like child's play, had immense troubles today. They finally broke through the worst of it and were also on their way.

The Pirates of the Chesapeake had the worst luck. A wave caught them, threw the boat in the air and the port hull landed atop the bow of Chum II who was just then pushing out into the surf. The hull was totally damaged. So, another team out of the race due to damage

Below is the sequence of pictures where the collision between the Pirates

and Chum II happened:

This appears to be when the collision happened.

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.

There were many boats in the fleet that were very close to each other.

It is probably fortunate that there were not more collisions.

Accelerated Chaos (below) was very quick getting through the breakers

As was Team Tybee Island below:

Cat in a Hat also did a great job and hardly any trouble, below:

Seacats was having a devil of a time getting through the first two sets of waves.

As I left the beach, they were still trying to break through,

but were very close to the beach

Stay tuned for the finish at Daytona Beach.

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.

Better Conditions for Trip to Daytona
The high pressure area over the Atlantic Coast north of here has pushed more to the east, which will allow the strong easterly winds to subside a bit.

Winds are forecasted to be out of the ESE at around 10 mph and building slightly and going more easterly as the day goes on.That should give the sailors a very nice ride to Daytona Beach.

Three of the teams that did not make an attempt at the course yesterday are officially out of the race, but will be allowwed to sail anyway. There scores will not count, however.

The other five teams that could not make it through the surf were penalized 8 hours and are still in the mix.

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!

Back to Catsailor Welcome Page

Stay tuned here for more