Controversy over the DSQ of Team Big Brothers/Big Sisters
Concerning the disqualification of Team Big Brothers/Big Sisters (Guy Selslmeyer/Chris Blake) many of the competitors
were not at all happy.
One sailors said, "It (the rule for DSQ, if a boat finishes 8 hours after the first place boat of the day)
is merely an arbitrary rule strictly for the convenience of the race organizers. They can stop scoring after 8
hours, but I think it runs against the spiritual grain and purpose of the race."
 Hans Meijer (left) and Ron Jones of Team Pomodoro (Team Tomato). Hans, who lost his boat to the sea last year and later recov ered it, said he felt that Selsmeyer/Blake should be allowed to sail |
In other words, they went through hell getting their boat righted, then jury rigged to sail to the nearest shore. Bravely not giving up, they then sorted out the mess of wires and sails, re-rigged the boat and made it to the finish line shortly after the allotted time. They showed great ingenuity and perseverance – only to be rewarded with disqualification.
The same disqualifying fate could have happened to Rick Bliss and Sandra Tartaglino of Rudee's, as they also dismasted upside down. The difference was that three other teams saw their problem and came to their aid. Rudee's did make it to the finish line in time. For Big Brothers/Sisters no one saw the incident.
The question arises: Should a team be penalized because they were not seen in trouble?
Some other thoughts by the sailors:
"It could have been anybody in that situation. Would Randy Smyth be DSQed if he arrived an hour after the time limit? I doubt it"
"The other day, Smyth and Sneed finished really far ahead of everyone. All because they got on the right side of a storm cell. Many of us just sat in no-air. Just imagine if most of the fleet were caught in no-air situation for quite a while – and that can happened pretty easily – would the entire fleet be disqualified?"
"Geez Man, these guys spent most of the year planning and working toward this event. It just isn't fair to throw them out over an hour!"
"I think that all of the competitors would agree to let them sail. It's just a management call, but we don't care if they want to sail."
Perhaps this is a rule that should be addressed and reassessed for the event next year.
On the Other Hand
Mike Worrell had this to say, "These races cannot be run by vote when people get emotional about them. The
rule is black and white. This rule is not up for interpretation at this time. The purpose of the rule is to give
some definition and limitation to how long a race should last. The sailors in question are wonderful people and
I hated it, but you know they never said a word or asked for redress. They accepted the rule at its face value.
So should the other sailors."
9AM Report on Thursday Morning – Jacksonville Beach, FL to Tybee Island, GA (121.3 miles)
It is gloomy, damp and rainy, with huge thunder cells moving from mid Florida toward the coast. The winds are forecasted
to be South to Southwest at 10-15mph and building to 20mph.
 Just before the start, a 49er sailed out to show off this new Olympic Class design. OOPS! |
Going into this leg, Smyth and Company have a slim 2 minutes and 48 second lead over Key Sailing II with Brian
Lambert and Mark Murray aboard.
Here are the places and the times behind Chick's Beach:
1 Chick's Beach 00
2 Key Sailing II 2:48
3 Australia I 31:26
4 Australia II 40:58
5 Key Sailing I 1:28:05
6 Int. Insurance 1:58:48
7 Worrell Bros Rest 2:02:31
8 New England 2:25:56
9 Florida Keys 2:36:59
10 Pomodoro 2:51:38
11 Nokia 2:53:30
12 Cathouse 3:08:18
13 2 Salty Dogs 3:45:56
14 Rudee's 4:03:03
15 Chesapeake Cats 4:10:21
16 Nuclear Sails 4:16:44
17 Austin 4:40:59
18 Tackle Shack 5:12:22
19 Challenge 98 5:55:46
20 Big Bros/Sisters DSQ
21 Datek DSQf
The Start of the 5th Day – Keys Sailing II Nails it and Jumps into the Lead
 Chick's Beach (left), Key Sailing II (middle) and Key Sailing i (right) battle it out through the surf. Key Sailing II got the best of the jostling and jumped into the lead. |
The finish and course stories will follow later.
The Finish of the Race
"...Uh Huh Huh, I'm All Shook Up"
..As Elvis once sang. The Aussies have done just that, capturing the lead of the race by finishing way ahead of
most of the fleet. This moved Australia I into the lead by 18 minutes.
When asked what they did, Brett Dryland of Australia I said, "We just sailed near the shore." A local
weather guru jumped in with a full rundown of how the storm system had moved across the lower South Carolina area
and sucked the wind right up the coast line.
The two Pig Teams (lovingly named because both have Pink Pigs painted on their mainsails) were nearly side by side,
when Aussie II capsized. They blew their spinnaker halyard at that time. But they re-rigged it and got the boat
underway again, finishing only 17 minutes behind their teammates and way ahead of the 3rd place boat.
 Randy Smyth and Company, pushing too hard, capsized in the surrf. |
If you consider that the frontal wind was forecasted to be out of the south and southwest and then when you consider
that the sky cleared and a seabreeze developed, it was no wonder the two Aussie teams kicked butt. The SSW winds,
fortified by a sea breeze created a strong SSE wind right by the shore. Consequently, those boats that followed
the shore line did well. Those that went out from shore got killed.
Strangely enough, this is exactly the opposite of last year. Last year Randy said he went out and caught the new
breeze early. This year he went out and got hammered.
 Chick's Beach (Randy Smyth/Jason Sneed) finish one way or the other. After capsizing in the surf, they didn't bother righting the boat, they just pulled the mast acroos the line |
At the finish for 4th place it looked like a near 4-way tie. Everyone was guessing who would get the victory. Randy Smyth was coming in fast trying to salvage what he could of his lost lead in the race. He pushed a little too hard and capsized the boat in the surf. Rather than try to right the boat, his ground crew helped as they simply grabbed the mast and hauled it across the finish line.
But, meanwhile Bob Onsgard/Jamie Livingston (Worrell Bros Rest.) Got the nod, with Peter Cogan/Steve Lohmayer (Fl. Keys) sneaking in ahead of him. And they were both upright! Except Peter and Company decided to do their capsizing on the beach.
 Key Sailing II almost lost it as did Chick's Beach |
The Order of Finishes at This Point:
1 Australia I
2 Australia II
3 Rudee's
4 Worrell Bros
5 Fl. Keys
6 Chick's Beach
7 Key Sailing I
8 Key Sailing II
9 Pomodoro
10 New England
11 Nokia
12 Chessy Bay
At this time there are still 7 more boats to finish
 Peter Cogan/Steve Lohmayer of Florida Keys crossed the line and then capsized. This is better than capsizing and then finishing like Chick's Beach. |
Here are the present standings and time behind the leader:
| Position | Team | Time Behind Leader |
| 1 | Australia I | 00 |
| 2 | Chick's Beach | 18:47 |
| 3 | Key Sailing II | 22.20 |
| 4 | Australia II | 26.30 |
| 5 | Key Sailing I | 1.51.30 |
| 6 | Worrell Bros | 2.18.27 |
| 7 | Int.Insurance | 2.44.21 |
| 8 | Florida Keys | 2.53.42 |
| 9 | New England | 3.04.38 |
| 10 | Pomodoro | 3.16.26 |
| 11 | Nokia | 3.40.01 |
| 12 | Cat House | 3.55.01 |
| 13 | Rudee's | 4.11.58 |
| 14 | 2 Salty Dogs | 4.52.02 |
| 15 | Chesapeake Bay | 4.58.08 |
| 16 | Austin | 6.38.30 |
| 17 | Nuclear | 6.40.46 |
| 18 | Tackle Shack | 7.32.51 |
| 19 | Challenge 98 | 7.43.33 |
The sailors are mostly in and relaxed. They have most of the day off tomorrow as they get ready for their first jaunt at night – the races start at 6PM tomorrow
Hall of Fame Sailor, and 1982 Worrell 1000 Winner Passed Away this Afternoon, Thursday, May 7
| James Carlton Tucker is dead at the age of 38. He was admitted to the hospital in Fort Walton Beach, Florida on
Monday, May 4 at about 5:00 p.m., and was in a coma for almost three days before he lost the battle on Thursday
afternoon, May 7, at approximately 2:45 p.m. A preliminary diagnosis when he entered the hospital was myocardial
infarction secondary to Lyme Disease, but Lyme Disease and heart attack were later ruled out. At this point the
death is being attributed to anaphylactic shock from unknown origin. He was in a coma for almost three days before
he lost the battle and died Thursday afternoon. Carlton was one of the world's most successful, talented and versatile multihull sailors. He won nine national championships on seven different boats -- the Hobie 14, the Hobie 18, the Nacra 5.2, the Prindle 19, the Hobie 21, the Hobie 20, and the Stiletto 23 -- and won the Alter Cup Championship three times. He was also proud of a third-place finish at the 1988 Tornado Nationals. At the world level, he finished 3rd in the 1988 Hobie 17 Worlds and 2nd in that event in 1990. He finished 5th in the Hobie 16 Worlds in 1986; and he was three times runnerup at the Hobie 18 Worlds. He also excelled at distance races, racing in the Worrell 1000 four times, with finishes of 5th, 2nd, 1st, and 3rd. He won the Raid Mer de Chine 500-mile Race on the China Sea in the Philippines, and he twice finished 3rd in the Hog's Breath 1000, and finished 2nd in the 1990 Tahiti Cat Challenge. Carlton was one of the first 10 sailors inducted into the Catamaran Sailing Hall of Fame, which was established in 1997. Carlton worked with his father in the family marine business and boat dealership, The Boat, in Fort Walton Beach, FL. He is survived by his wife Mary Alice and young children Kaye Marie, 3, and James Hampton Tucker I, all of Mary Esther, FL; parents Jim and Lorraine Tucker of Fort Walton Beach, FL; and sister Charlotte Hardy of Columbus, MS. Phone calls have been pouring into Fort Walton Beach from all over the world as the many friends of Carlton Tucker express their condolences. Funeral arrangements will be announced Friday and posted on this web site. Cards can be sent to the family in care of The Boat, 32 Miracle Strip Parkway, Ft. Walton Beach, FL 32548. * * * * * * * * * * Carlton Tucker dies A great sailor but an even greater human being By MARY WELLS I first saw Carlton Tucker at a Hobie 18 Nationals in Miami back in the early 1980s. He was half our age and already a sailing legend -- but one we had only heard about. We did not even know what he looked like. Rick and I, a couple of relatively new Hobie sailors, were in the hotel bar cooling off when in walked a bunch of guys talking and laughing. At their nucleus was a dark-haired guy with a red and black kamikaze band around his head. He radiated energy and cockiness, and I thought, "This guy looks scary." I whispered to Rick, "I bet that's Carlton Tucker." And, of course, I was right. At the time I remember thinking, "This guy really thinks he's hot stuff and too good to pay attention to us ordinary sailors." And, of course, I was wrong. In later years we got to know Carlton Tucker very, very well when he was guest expert for some of Rick White's Sailing Seminars. He was the most humble, kind, generous, down-to-earth person it has ever been my good fortune to know. He truly cared about other people and was extremely sensitive to their feelings. Although he was serious about his sailboat racing, he did not ever take it too seriously, if that makes any sense. He truly had fun with it. Good sportsmanship and doing the right thing on the water always took priority over the importance of winning. (But he usually won anyway.) He was one of those rare people by whom you did not mind being beaten, because he was as gracious in victory as he was in defeat. As a racer he was always someone we could identify with because he was a "seat-of-the-pants" sailor. He didn't know or care much about high-tech stuff, and he didn't have any special rigging tricks. If you asked him how to rake your mast, he would say, "What I do is look at what the other good sailors in the area are doing and just set mine up the same way." The "trick" was that if his boat was set up like everyone else's, he still usually had an edge because he could feel the boat as though he was part of it. But the most wonderful thing about Carlton was his incredible enthusiasm for the sport of sailing. This is something that really blossomed when he was coaching at our seminars. His excitement and energy came through over the bullhorn loud and clear, and every student that Carlton coached was infected with some of his zeal and his love for sailing. His only "flaw" as a coach was that he always tended to "adopt" one sailor in the group who was lagging behind the others skillwise. We sometimes pitied the sailor who had been taken under Carlton's wing, because Carlton was tenacious and determined to make that sailor better (sometimes more determined than the sailor was) -- and he usually succeeded. He put his energy where he thought it was most needed. I used to be on the coach boat with Carlton and on the first day of a seminar he would get very frustrated trying to learn who all the students were, because he wanted to be able to call everyone by name -- no easy task when there are 15 or 20 boats with two people on most of them. But by the second day he had all the names down pat, as though they were old friends. My only contact with Carlton for the past few years has been by telephone, but his warmth and sincerity always shone through the cables that brought his voice. He always found a way to say something to make you feel good about yourself. Ironically, Carlton has died at only one year older than one of his best friends and favorite competitors, the great Australian sailor Ian Bashford, who died of a heart attack in April of 1996 at the age of 37. Ian was like a brother to Carlton and like another son to Jim Tucker, having spent a great deal of time living with the Tucker family when he was in the United States. Carlton said that upon hearing about Ian's death, "I broke down and cried -- and I don't often do that. He was a really good guy. I'm really going to miss him." Those are now the same words that Carlton's many friends will be saying about Carlton: "He was a really good guy. I'm really going to miss him." |