2001 Worrell 1000
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The wind actually died this morning and what wind there was came from the north (parallel to the shore) which meant that the boats needed onlly to reach out through the waves. This is much better that trying to sail close-hauled through the surf when the wind is straight on shore.
However, the surf did not subside as much as the wind, so one could expect to have a bit of trouble navigating the waves on the way out to more placid waters.
Only a handful of teams had trouble.., and again there were a number of broken rudder castings. Otherwise, all went well at last. At final count there were only 17 boats that started today's leg. We will get back to you on who dropped out.
It was still not a walk in the park getting through the surf that had not died as much as the wind.
 This boat was cleared for take off, but forgot to file a fllight plan. |
This report was filed by our on-the-beach correspondent, Dave Carlson: (by the way, the head of a college english department said he was doing a great job of writing and now none of us can live with him)
| Thursday Morning Start at Daytona Beach.... by Dave Carlson There was a brief meeting this morning at the Treasure Island, Daytona Beach. There was a little breeze from the north at about 3 knots, barely enough to get the boats out through the remnants of yesterday's surf. This morning's local paper said that 70 college students, all of legal age of course, had been drinking then swimming, and had been rescued from the rips, called runouts locally. Dangerous surf conditions were still posted this morning on TV weather. So there was legitimate concern, especially for those still brain-damaged from Jensen Beach's start. Mike Worrell said that there would be a delay if necessary until the breeze filled in near the expected East at 10, then a split start with 2 minutes delay between the fleets, more if traffic was too bad. To the beach, to find Brian Lambert, happy and enthusiastically holding first place with a 1 hr 28 minute lead over the next boat. Alezanders-by-the-Bay team manager, Beetle Bailey told me that after the past 4 histories of losing the boat, breaking, not finishing, doing almost there but close enough, it feels good right now. Just then, Nigel Pitt on Tommy Bahama was given a ZipLok bag of peanut brittle energy food by an old family friend passing by. Then the friend said "I gave some to Kenny Pierce on Tybee Island, too." Nigel pops off, " I hope you put Ex-Lax in his!" I reckon Nigel is feeling pretty good today! Pushing down to the water, Cat Fever skipper encouraged his crew, thusly "Come on Wuss Boy, Lets go!" Then the start, as now-experienced skippers were pushed off by trusty pushers into medium surf on port tack, with a light 7 knot Northeast breeze. This was plenty enough power for the experienced surf sailors, but caused problems for others who pinched up too much, stalled, then were pushed over onto starboard. Being on starboard and pointing parallel to the beach in the Half-Kill Zone was still not good, even today with less surf. Because is was approaching low tide, the sandbars were a bit shallow, and rudders began taking punishment. Several boats tacked, broke, then came in trailing various rudder parts: crews running up to the trailers and grabbing from rapidly diminishing stocks of rudders and lower castings, now a nearly bare cupboard. So here is "The Secret Way"- successful boats were kept moving, jibs snug and drawing, travellers out a foot and main not too tightly sheeted, with a foot of daggerboard down through the broken water. Then bang a rudder down, reach off, head up for each serious wave, then foot off a bit and be gone, hopping over many breakers to the safety of deep water. Yet the ground teams were still hopping on one foot and then the other, shouting unheeded advice in Stentaurian voices over the surf's roar. Sail for Sight tried twice, even paddling by hand the second time, but still they stalled and drifted over onto starboard, zooming back to the beach for 180 degree rotation, rudder repair and another try. On their third and thankfully last time they footed off and disappeared over the last wave, to the relief of all watchers. Team Castrol continued to keep the Team Painful record -- "Most Rudders and Castings Consumed", doing circles in the surf, breaking two rudders and one casting just this morning. Fortunately, there were splashes but no crashes today, and ground crews left the beach much relieved. Speaking of rudders, Pisailing reported on their website that they broke three rudders castings getting of the beach in three different attempts. Then after only traveling 10 miles from the start line they managed to break two more casting and also the actual rudder. Let's see! That is 6 rudder disasters in 10 miles. Wonder what the record is? |
Stay tuned for a whole lot more!
Thursday 4 PM by Dave Carlson
We began the chase to Jacksonville Beach up beachside highway A1A, driving in perfect weather for a daysail,
warm and sunny, warm blue water, wind northeast at 10 on a close reach for speed. At Ormond Beach we passed the
boats, then waited at a beachside joint at Flagler Beach for tasty, fat, snook sandwiches. Soon, Alexanders black
boat appeared, followed closely (300 yards) by Key Sailing's Kirk Kirkpatrick, then Tommy Bahama with Alex Shafer
and Nigel Pitt. But by the time they arrived on our beam, it appeared that Rod Waterhouse and Katie on Guidant
had passed them both before tacking out into deep water. Just as our tasty sandwiches arrived, Team Pi got an urgent
call that they were broken and on the beach. A frantic departure was followed by their reappearance 20 minute later
and a frantic search among the lunch bunch for- you guessed it, another rudder casting. We left for more adventures
up A1A, while looking for a Radio Shack with proper audio/video/computer card cables for the long-promised streaming
video (no luck), and are searching the southern horizon for boats now.
Tybee Island broke a rudder casting going out through the surf this morning. Since it was on the windward hull they swapped rudders while on the water and tried to continue with just the leeward rudder working. However the course they had to sail was nearly parallel to the shoreline, but not quite. Most boats were forced into tacking back out to see every once in a while. But Steve Lohmayer and Kenny Pierce decided to pinch up closer to the wind so they would not have to tack.
This idea was not going well as they kept dropping positions rapidly. They made contact with Chuck Bergeron, their team manager, and rendezvoused with him near Flagler Beach. Bergeron said, "You should have seen it. They zipped in and we had the new rudders on in 90 seconds and they were on the way back out again. Looked like NASCAR."
They Have Arrived Here in Jacksonville Beach
 Brian Lambert of Team Alexanders on the Bay is interviewed by local Channel 4 Television Station |
In yesterday's leg they still won even though they sailed the entire distance with a broken rudder. Lambert said, "We just asked ourselves, 'what would Randy (Smyth) have done?' and we answered back, 'why, he would have kept on sailing!' so we did just that."
And this team of Lambert and Jamie Livingston are sure showing a similar stardom to the famous Randy Smyth (Smyth has won more Worrell 1000 races than anyone in its history).
 Jamie Livingston of Alexanders was happy that nothing broke |
Still another rockstar sailor from Australia, Rod Waterhouse found his Team Guidant in 6th place by the time they got to Flagler Beach, but steadily just nipping away at the competition and ended up sliding into 2nd place. Katie Pettibone is seemingly loving the fact that she is sailing with one of the best.
 Katie Pettibone of Guidant also was interviewed by the TV station. |
Alex Shafer and Nigel Pitt of
Team Tommy Bahama has been struggling until the last two days. They have managed to put two 3rd place finishes
together, back to back. Shafer said, "We were right up with Alexanders but we just couldn't point as high
as they did." He added, "We moved our mast forward for the light air to power up, but then we couldn't
point like them (Alexanders). Guess we have to rake it back."
We have this report from our on-the-beach reporter, Cristy Schimmoller:
| I am in Jacksonville Beach for the 5th Leg of the Worrell 1000 so this must be Thursday. But I have lost track
of what day of the week it is. Nothing matters but what leg it is and who came in to the finish line at this stop,
who passed who and who's in the lead. It is so exciting to be able to be a part of the race, even if it is merely
as an observer. I thought we were actually going to get one leg started in this race without any property damages, but alas that was not to be. Three teams came back into shore at least once this morning because of broken rudders or rudder castings: Sail for Sight, Castrol and Pi Sailing. One of the nice things about this leg of the race for those of us that are traveling with the race is that we can stop along the way for lunch and watch all the boats sail by in their glory. Which means this is one of the few times we can see the standings prior to the end of the race. Well, as most of us were quietly enjoying our lunches and watching the lead boats sail past, the Pi Sailing Team had to call their road crew back AGAIN to replace damaged rudders. (Maybe I should be in the rudder/castings business!) Today was also the first day that the wind shifted a bit to the south ("clocked") and allowed the sailors to fly their spinnakers. This could mean a faster sailing day tomorrow, if the wind stays where it is. And all the boats are going to need it, as tomorrow is the longest leg of the race: 121 miles from here in Jacksonville Beach to Tybee Island, Georgia. (Finally, we will be out of the state of Florida. 5 of the 12 checkpoints are in Florida.) And the race will just keep getting tougher with two night legs following after Tybee Island. As an inexperienced day sailor, it boggles my mind to think about sailing over 80 miles on the open ocean.., in a catamaran.., at night. I can only aspire to be that good a sailor that I crave a challenge like that! We did have one surprise in the finish tonight. Team Castrol, with Captain Jay Sonnenklar and teammate John Casey, was the 6th boat to come on shore. Not bad for starting number 18th off the beach this morning in Daytona! Jay's wife Laurel was so excited to see them come up on the beach she started running into the water with her shoes and socks still on. I don't think she had expected them so early and wasn't quite prepared for their arrival! This is Jay's second time to race the Worrell, placing 12th overall last year out of 19 boats. He was very pleased with his finish today, but a little disappointed on the team's current standing. There is still plenty of time to move up through the ranks, with 9 more days of sailing ahead of them. |
| Thursday Finish at Jacksonville Beach by Dave Carlson As might be expected this week, Brian Lambert and Jamie Livingston carried on today, leading the whole way, and finishing ahead of Rod Waterhouse and Katie Pettibone on Guidant, despite the latter's chute being deployed at the end as the wind clocked to the southeast. Brian was all smiles, "This is a great wrap-up, to win Florida, every leg, too. I feel like we have the Key to Florida!" Their boat tuning was obviously correct, as he held off Guidant the entire way. We had seen a duel in progress earlier today with 4 boats, but these two had left the twin yellow boats way back. Brian said "My muscles at least are about back to normal- and it's a good feeling." He also thought he and Rod worked the waves well, curving to help boatspeed like the pelicans do, riding the ground effect down each swell face for as long as possible, before flapping over its back to glide along with the next swell. If the other guys went straighter, they were slower and disadvantaged. Jamie showed us one of their ad signs that had been flapping for miles, but other than that there had been no damage at all, which felt great. Rod's crew Katie described him as an awesome sailor, and once they had gotten through the surf this morning they felt good all day- like now. I then talked to the next finisher, Alex on Tommy Bahama, who wasn't happy with their boat setup today. He said that they had set up the rig too far forward, and couldn't point as well and began to lose speed when the wind got light. Kirk Newkirk of Key Sailing crossed the line next, telling me, "There are a few teeth left in the old lion yet."(Earlier his crew had stated that Kirk was a "little long in tooth.") "Lots of whiskers, too", I added, as his new moustache sprouts are getting longer. Les Bauman and Craig Callahan on Fully Involved were happy to finish next, a heavy team, but holding onto their time advantage. The next finisher was the mind blower today. It was Castrol's Jay Sonnenklar and John Casey who, if you recall, were still busy breaking pieces off for 25 minutes this morning after all others were far away. They were the last to leave the beach, and then from way downwind of the original start. (Remember- 3 rudders and one casting trashed just today). They broke another coming in, but made up an incredible amount of time, obviously with perfect boat tuning for the conditions. As their boat was zooming up to the dune on wheels, one of the girls ground crew exclaimed, "You know that team name, Fully Involved.....Well, we are Fully-In-Debt!" Team Canada, P-yacht, Dave White and Chris Sawyer on Earn Your Potential and Cat Fever came in in a bundle, close together, making a lovely picture of bright chutes in the setting sun. Among the late finishers was Tybee Island who broke a rudder in the surf, sailed with it for miles but had relatively poor speed, swapping the good one to the lee side, but then having tacking problems. They finally decided to go in and fix it at St. Augustine, did so, then were happy with their speed for the rest of the day. But they have had a rough week. At St. Augustine Inlet, Carl Roberts on Save Our Sight became reacquainted with Inlets To Come Further North. They came in close and went through a set of surf, then got to the other side into huge set of waves. They nearly capsized twice in the big stuff before escaping, and continuing but slowly because of their heavy weight as the air went light. I wish them well, as with all of these tough people. |
The order of finishes were
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