The 2008 Tybee 500 Race Coverage

After Many Spills, Team Tybee Get Line Honors

Kenny Pierce and Jamie Livingston of Team Tybee capsized twice, righted quickly both time and won the first leg of the Tybee 500. Most sailors thought it would be Steve Lohmayer in the second spot, several minutes later. But, no! It was Jarred Sonnenklar and Collin Page, both teenagers, on Marleys Orange Boat taking second spot.

Trey Brown, who had lost his spinnaker before even getting to Card Sound Bridge, made repairs and came roaring back to capture the third spot on Team Velocity Sailing.

Lohmayer and Jay Sonnenklar came in close behind in 4th place over the line. Cat Fever was next and then Seacats edged out Cat in a Hat by half a boat length. Larry Ferber and Jackson Smith of Cat in a Hat have taken Rick White's Sailing Seminars for the past two years each April. And it is looking as if it is paying off. Last year they were the last place boat on every leg and usually by a long time. One of their competitors said, "... they were fast."

Accelerated Chaos was next, then Marleys White, with the the F18 coming in 10th.

Pictures below in the order of finish:

Kenny Pierce and Jamie Livingston take line honors on the first leg

Marley Orange with Jarred Sonnenklar and Collin Page take a surprise 2nd spot

Beautiful Tammy Klarr does an interview with the youngster for our video cameras. Be sure to watch the videos of the event, by clickin Video in the Links Boxes in the upper right of this page.

Velocity Sailing Made a Great Comeback to finish in 3rd place

OOPS! I thought my camera was turned off.., how did this get in there?

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Tybee Yellow slipped into the finish in 4th place

Old salt, Todd Hart took 5th place

Team Sea Cats (far side) edges out Cat in a Hat (pink hulls in foreground) by half a boat length.

Accelerated Chaos was in 8th place

Team Marleys White took 9th place

Moose-Burd took 10th place

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And They are Off to Hollywood Beach

After bobbing around for an hour, the race finally started promptly at 10 AM. WIth a stiff 15mph breeze from the southwest, this was a spinnaker blast at its best. Most of the fleet made it through the 65' high Card Sound Bridge on one tack, with no jibes involved.

An interesting team alignment for the first two boats. Once sailing together as Team Tybee, Steve Lohmayer and Kenny Pierce, have now turned into opponents for this race.

Going through Card Sound Bridge first was Lohmayer on Marley Yellow, but right on his heels was Pierce on Team Tybee. These two seemed to be pulling away from the crowd and really hauling.

Here are pictures in the order the went through the bridge:

Marleys Yellow with Steve Lohmayer and Jay Sonnenklar were first through

Team Tybee with Kenny Pierce and Jamies Livingston were right on the leader's tail

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Team Tybee

Tybee was flying

Marley Orange, we believe is Jarret Sonnenklar and Collin

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Chris Titcomb and Tripp Burd on Accelerated Chaos

And right in the mix this year is Cat in a Hat with Larry Ferber and Jackson Smith

Team Sea Cats and Cat Fever were right beside Cat in a Hat and Accelerated Chaos, followed by Moose-Burd sailing the F18, and then Team Velocity (who had a problem and had to drop their spinnaker. They stopped just past the bridge and it appeared they got it working again,

Our bus is leaving for Hollywood Beach Momentarily, so please keep tuned here and be sure to check the HotLine Link

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Teams Leaving the Beach

The teams left the Gilbert Resort Beach very early to ascertain being to the start on time. But, as luck would have it, the wind and current swept them through 1/2 of Jewfish Creek in record time, leaving them about an hour to drift around awaiting the 10AM start time.

Here the teams head through the Route 1 Bascule Bridge toward Barnes Sounds for the start

Kenny Pierce and Jamie Livingston of Team Tybee Island

Trey Brown of Team Velocity Sailing graduated from North Carolina State on Friday, and vowed he would wear his graduation mortarboard all the way to Hollywood

Team Moose-Burd, the only F18 in the fleet

Team Cat in a Hat have improved a lot over the past year and are expecting to do better than they did last year.

Team Seacats will have a blog you may want to refer to often. In the links on the upper right side of each page is our link to the page that has the Links for the Teams.

Veteran Chris Titcomb and Tripp Burd of Accelerated Chaos

This is the broadcasting GPS mounted on one of the Marleys boats, skippered by Jarred Sonnenklar

Another couple of veteran sailors, Steve Lohmayer and Jay Sonneklar on one of the Marley Teams

Tomorrow Morning Starts a Brand New Tybee 500, with lots of exciting, new stuff. The first leg of the race is totally different than any in the past. Copied from the Annual Key Largo Steeplechase, the fleet will start just north of Jewfish Creek in Key Largo at the southern end of Barnes Sound.
The past few years the first leg of this exciting race, was well.., boring. From Hollywood, the fleet sailed SOUTH, instead of north, went around a lighthouse south of Miami and came back to Hollywood. Meanwhile, the RC, ground crews, media, and spectators twiddled their thumbs.

This year the start is from Key Largo on the inside of the islands. The fleet has at least a dozen options to get to the ocean side of the course before getting to Miami. The winds also appear to be out of the Southwest and it should be a spinnaker run all the way to Hollywood Beach.

The options open for discussion are:

1. Angelfish Creek (the route of the Key Largo Steeplechase)
2. Broad Creek
3. Caesars Creek
4. And the cuts between the islands north of Elliot Key.

The first three would have a boat sail quite a bit longer course, but that again may depend on the wind. Another factor to study is the tide. Team Manager of Marleys said, ...it will be a last minute call. We will sift the facts of the wind, the tide and the currents."

Video of the Sailing Will be on THIS Site

Thanks to Brian Karr of AdventureOnline.tv you simply have to click HERE FOR VIDEO and voila.., it will be there daily for you.

Every day there will be almost live video (at least they will get it up there as fast as they possible can.., count on it.

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Team Tracking

A few years ago there were those willing to invest $30,000 so we could have broadcasting gps units mounted on all the boat in the Worrell 1000. In that way it would eliminate the guessing, the rumors of who was doing well, who tanked, who was over, etc. (hmmm, although come to think of it, that sort of made it pretty interesting as well.

That was the year it was canceled. Luckily before the money was spent

The cost of having this luxury has been reduced so much that this year there indeed will be tracking of the boats during the race. This year all three Team Marleys will have such broadcasting devices so we can at least track where they are. Once the boats start moving, you can track the three teams by clicking here!

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For Video of the start and the fleet going under the 65' Card Sound Bridge, click here!

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Stay tuned here for more tomorrow!