The 2002 Worrell 1000
(Note: The latest leg is displayed on this page, starting with the the most recent information on top. Click a hot link directing you to other past pages or pages of interest)

Awesome Finishes in Jacksonville Beach
Crashes Galore -- Stand by for great videos

Athletes in Action had a nice lead again heading for the finish line. But they had trouble dropping the chute.., and during that time of spinnaker peril neglected to raise the starboard daggerboard.They ran hard aground and were stuck there for quite a while.

Chris Sawyer hangs on for dear life while Jim Zellmer tries to to get the leeward board up that was stuck in the sand (Click on the image to see the video)

Meanwhile Castrol took full advantage of Athlete's problems and slid nicely onto the beach with their second victory of the race. Athlete finally got across the line in second place and moved ahead of Alexanders in the standings for second place overall.

Tybee Island came in 3rd and still maintains their lead overall

Stay Tuned for the Video -- we have a lot of it, but it takes a little time to edit and encode it -- don't go away. We are working hard on it.

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And Here Are The Videos

There were some mighty close finishes. Click on the following image to see the close finish between San Antonio, Tommy Bahama and Alexanders

Here is how you are supposed to come into the beach. Click on following image to see the video or Rudees sliding into the finish

And here are some problems, Click on the following images to see the video

Baywind II almost lost it, but did a great job of hiking to save the day. Click on the following image to see the video

They Are Off and Running from Daytona to Jacksonville
Great Start with Spinnakers Flying

It was an exciting and beautiful start as most of the boats flew spinnakers right off the beach.

Most of the boats had their spinnakers in readiness for the Start Horn (Click on image for video of the start)

Here is some footage from Robert Feldman taken from a power boat on the water yesterday. To view the footage, Click Here!

Many folks have been asking about sun protection, how they eat and drink, and other protection and safety devices. So, we interviewed Mark Stopforth of Team Howard's Pub. (Click on image below for video of the interview)

We are packing up and heading for Jacksonville, so meanwhile be sure to keep checking our Beach Hot Line

And here is some video footage submitted to us by Baywind and Tommy Bahama.

Click here for video of Baywind

Click here for video of Tommy Bahama

Winds Are Up for Daytona to Jacksonville Leg

Winds are forcasted to be out of the southeast at 15-18 mph today which should make for a really fast sleigh ride to Jacksonville Beach.

This race is shaping up to be a four-way horse race after yesterday's finishes -- pitting Tybee Island, Alexanders, Athletes in Action and Castrol against one another. Since the great showing of Athletes and Castrol yesterday, the four teams are only a couple of minutes apart overall.

But, perhaps Athletes will lose their edge now that Matt Struble is no longer sailing -- Struble had previous business commitments that would not allow him to finish the race. Jim Zellmer will replace Struble for the remainder of the race.

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Records Fall

Yesterday all the boats broke the existing speed record for the leg from Cocoa Beach to Daytona Beach. But what exactly was the prior record?

• In 1997 Team Chick's Beach, with Randy Smyth and Jason Sneed on a Nacra 6.0 set a record of 6:39:45 for that leg, with the leg distance being given as 73.7 statute miles.
• In 2001 Team Alexander's, with Brian Lambert and Jamie Livingston on an Inter 20 set a record of 6:26:27, but for a leg distance given as 68.9 statute miles.

Some mathematically inclined person can figure out which would have been the real record based upon distance of the leg.

However, regardless of what the prior record was, it was substantially broken yesterday by all of the boats. The leader, Athletes in Action, with Chris Sawyer and Matt Struble, finished 68.9 statute miles in 5:01:43, and the last boat finished in 5:27:11.

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Video Tip

A Worrell fan who was having trouble viewing the video because of some older software offered the solution below that worked for him. I hope you all manage to see our videos. What I love most about them is the audio -- being able to hear waves crashing, people yelling and sails flailing in the wind are what make me feel almost like I am there. As Rick has already told you on our main Worrell page, Netscape does not work well for viewing the videos, and you really need Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or later. In the situation below, the version of Internet Explorer was very current, but his MediaPlayer, for some reason, was not.

I have IE 5.5 but MediaPlayer is too old.
1) Go to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/en/download/default.asp
2) Download/install version 7.1

There is a 'bug' in the install. I was still not able to view directly from web site. So, to view:
1) Right mouse click on image
2) Select 'save as' - to store on local disk
3) Double-click from Windows Explorer to launch MediaPlayer

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According to a report on the Tommy Bahama web site, the turtle sighted by Lexis Nexis was "the size of a VW. The team was forced to ditch the boat or run aground on the small island." Their spinnaker pole did not survive the capsize, bending nearly double.

There is a question here as to whether humans on sailboats are more dangerous to turtles or whether the turtles are more dangerous to humans. Turtles are always major obstacles to the racers during the Worrell 1000. Randy Smyth told of approaching a turtle, just lying there on top of the water, that was wider than the distance between his hulls. He somehow managed to avoid being stuck on top of the turtle's back. Rick White, back in the 1980's, during his one venture into the Worrell 1000, had his boat damaged irreparably after hitting a turtle early in the race. Numerous daggerboards have been broken on the "armored behemoths," as John Williams describes them.

I diligently searched the Internet this morning to find some kind of scientific information regarding sea turtles, but it was very difficult. Most of the turtle sites are politically motivated sites devoted to saving the turtles, getting you to adopt a turtle, getting you to buy turtle-related merchandise for turtle charities, etc. But I finally found a site that has some scientific information about these critters.

Now, I realize that the sailors in the Worrell 1000, traveling at 20 mph and concentrating on the race, are not taking notes on exactly what the turtles look like that they encounter in the waters off the coasts of Florida and Georgia and the Carolinas. But here are descriptions of the species they are most likely to see:

The Loggerhead Turtle: Of all the sea turtles that nest in the United States, the loggerhead, which gets its name from the exceptionally large head, is the one seen most often. While all the other species found near the U.S. coastline are listed as endangered, the loggerhead is classified as threatened, which means they are numerous than the other species but are still in danger of extinction. Adult loggerheads weigh up to 350 pounds and have a reddish-brown upper shell that can be as long as 41 inches. Nesting season runs from May through September in the United States. Each turtle lays from 4-7 nests per season, approximately14 days apart. Loggerhead nesting is concentrated in two main areas of the world - at Masirah Island, Oman in the Middle East and on the coast of the southeastern United States. Up to 25,000 Loggerheads nest in the southeast U.S. each year, with the majority of the nesting taking place on Florida's Atlantic coast between the inlet at Cape Canaveral and the Sebastian Inlet.

The Green Turtle: This is an endangered species, but they still nest in significant numbers on the east coast of Florida. Female green turtles that nest in Florida average more than three feet in carapace length and average about 300 pounds. The largest green turtle ever found was 5 feet in length and weighed 871 lbs. It has a very dark-colored shell. The females lay an average of three to five egg clutches about 12 days between each nesting. Nesting season runs from June through October in the United States.

The Leatherback Turtle: These are also endangered, and a few nest on the east coast of Florida from March through July. This is the largest of the sea turtles. Mature leatherbacks typically reach about 4-8 feet in length and weigh from 650 to 1,300 lbs. The largest leatherback ever recorded was almost 10 feet from the tip of its beak to the tip of its tail and weighed in at 2,019 lbs.

Since this is the beginning of turtle nesting season, I would guess that most of those turtles lounging around offshore and getting in the way of the Worrell 1000 boats are females. Obviously, the only thing more politically incorrect than hitting a turtle is hitting a pregnant female turtle.

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