2001 Worrell 1000
Instant Shore Reports
These reports will keep you updated more frequently and also include miscellaneous interesting items as soon as we hear them.
(Mary is writing and posting these reports from home, so if anybody has anything of interest for her to post, call her at 305-451-3287 or e-mail her at: rick@catsailor.com. And, by the way, to see the most recent postings, you have to keep "refreshing" this page.)
(Posted 5:57 p.m.)
Okay, just one more -- PIsailing site reports Australia is in. So that should be it.
(Posted Saturday, May 19, 5:55 p.m.)
BY THE WAY, Rick is on his way back to Key Largo, so I don't know whether we will have the final story and photos posted this evening or tomorrow morning. But keep checking our main catsailor.com worrell site for the final wrapup. Thanks for staying tuned. It's been fun.
(Posted Saturday, May 19, 5:45 p.m.)
Doggone it. I was right in the first place, Guidant WAS the 2nd boat in. This is very confusing trying to get the results from another website. I'm getting dizzy going back and forth. So all my finish numbers are one too low. 15 boats have finished. Only boat still out is Australia. Oh, well, at least we can all be sure that Alexander's on the Bay is the winner of this year's Worrell 1000. I'm going to sign off now. All the results should be on the worrell1000.com web site soon.
(Posted Saturday, May 19, 5:35 p.m.)
Cat Fever, 13th; PIsailing, 14th.
(Posted Saturday, May 19, 5:30 p.m.)
Fully Involved, 10th; Pyacht, 11th; Spitfire, 12th.
(Posted Saturday, May 19, 5:28 p.m.)
LexisNexis is 8th and Outer Banks is 9th.
(Posted Saturday, May 19, 5:25 p.m.)
Earn Your Potential is 6th and Dinghy Shop is 7th. I'm getting these finishes from the PIsailing site.
(Posted Saturday, May 19, 5:23 p.m.)
SORRY, I SCREWED UP. Second place boat wasn't Guidant, it was Tommy Bahama. Apparently, Guidant isn't here yet. So Sail for Sight is 3rd, Castrol is 4th and Tybee is 5th. My source apparently thought Tommy Bahama was Guidant when it was still out a ways.
Right now I no longer have any contact with the beach. Rick and Christy had to leave to take Rick to the airport, so I'm flying blind here. The finishes and results are being posted on the official Worrell1000.com site almost as fast as the boats are coming in, so you can find them there.
(Posted Saturday, May 19, 5:20 p.m.)
TYBEE ISLAND is sixth.
(Posted Saturday, May 19, 5:15 p.m.)
TWO MORE. Sail for Sight is fourth and Castrol is fifth.
(Posted Saturday, May 19, 5:10 p.m.)
TOMMY BAHAMA is third to the beach.
(Posted Saturday, May 19, 5:03 p.m.)
ALEXANDER'S ON THE BAY is finishing now, as I type this. Guidant is about a quarter mile back. We'll have some finish times in a little while. There's no surf, so should be no problems for boats finishing.
(Posted Saturday, May 19, 4:35 p.m.)
TWO BOATS JUST SIGHTED by Rick from the 8th floor of the Holiday Inn. They are about two miles south of Rudee's Inlet, which is about four miles from the finish line. The wind has shifted a little more to the east, so they are coming pretty much straight up the coastline.
(Posted Saturday, May 19, 4:02 p.m.)
RICK IS ON THE EIGHTH FLOOR of the Holiday Inn Oceanside at the finish area, and even from that vantage point there is not a boat in sight.
(Posted Saturday, May 19, 4:00 p.m.)
REPORT FROM THE FINISH LINE is that no boats are in sight yet. So much for the RC's revised ETA of 3 p.m. Wind is 10-12. Still a beat.
(Posted Saturday, May 19, 2:35 p.m.)
THE SILENCE from Virginia Beach is deafening. The helicopter pilot knows all and probably tells Mike Worrell, but nobody seems to want to let the public know where the boats are. Is it for suspense, surprise? We don't care so much who is in what position -- just where are the lead boats and what kind of wind are they in and when are they expected to arrive. Sorry, I just checked the Worrell 1000 site and Mike is saying the new ETA is 3:00 p.m.
(Posted Saturday, May 19, 1:05 p.m.)
NEW WEATHER RUMOR: Rick is at the finish line at Virginia Beach. Wind there about is about 10 out of the north, blowing straight down the beach, which means a beat to the finish. Current ETA is about 4:00 p.m.
(Posted Saturday, May 19, 12:25 p.m.)
IN CASE YOU DIDN'T SEE IT on the official Worrell 1000 site, Race Director Mike Worrell was delayed in his progress driving to the Virginia Beach finish line because Officer C. S. Wagner, of the Southern Shores Police Department, issued him a $25 parking ticket for pulling to the side of the road briefly, to watch the sail boats go by.
WEATHER RUMOR: Rick just entered the southern boundaries of Virginia Beach, still about a half hour drive from the finish point, and he says he doesn't know what it's like on the water, but where he is on the road, the wind is blowing about 15 out of the west, which would make it a reach and a timely arrival for the boats. Let's hope.
(Posted Saturday, May 19, 10:10 a.m.)
CLEAN START for everybody. No mishaps in surf. Alexander's on the Bay had a great start. Wind is out of the northwest at about 10. Three of the boats put up spinnakers right after getting out through the surf and almost capsized. One was up on its ear at about 90 degrees but recovered. Don't know who it was. Everybody is off and running on a close reach right now toward Virginia Beach.
(Posted Saturday, May 19, 9:37 a.m.)
WEATHER REPORT: Right now at Kill Devil Hills the wind is from the north, fairly light, about 10. Supposed to switch later to southwest or southeast or whatever at 10-15. Team Sail for Sight, whose room Rick uses for phone line transmission to our web site, are saying, "We don't care what the weather report is, they haven't been right yet, and we have stopped listening."
THE 13TH LEG. I'm not superstitious, but didn't they used to skip the 13th floor in highrise buildings? Usually there are 12 legs in this race, but adding the additional first leg from Miami to Fort Lauderdale made it come out to 13 this year. This is one of the short legs, 60 miles from here to the FINAL final finish line at Virginia Beach. But it could be another long leg timewise if the wind doesn't pick up.
(Posted Saturday, May 19, 9:15 a.m.)
RICK OVERSLEPT this morning -- probably some of the sailors did, too -- but the sailors deserved to sleep in. Anyway, he is getting online about now, I hope, and should be posting some stories at our main catsailor.com Worrell site soon and giving me a pre-start report to post here in the "Hotline" reports.
(Posted Saturday, May 19, 6:35 a.m.)
Here is an inspirational message I was asked to pass along to all the sailors from September North, sister of Reigh North (Team Dinghy Shop). I thought this morning would be an appropriate time for it after the past two long, agonizingly slow and frustrating days.
"There is the place inside each of you that only you know....
it is the place that sometimes you doubt; that you relish in ; that you lie to and alter to your needs;
where you dream incredible things and believe they can happen; where you cry and it's okay; where you crawl
to when you have nothing left; and the place where you feel you can do anything, believe in anything, be anything.....
It is the place no one else can touch....even if you wanted them to....
It is the place where our desires and real life come together and are believable and attainable...
To find something I know is there....
To clarify it to myself....
Then use it to it's full potential...
never faltering or swaying from the idea that...
whatever I need is somewhere deep inside me...
I just have to look."
September North (Vancouver, BC) 2001
(Posted Friday, May 18, 12:20 p.m.)
HERE ARE THE TIMES on the last five boats: #12 is Earn Your Potential, in at 11:52:16; #13, Outer Banks, 11:56:35; #14, Cat Fever, 12:00:14; #15, Australia, 12:04:23; and #16, Pyacht Men, 12:08:12.
Remember, there are only 16 boats in the race now, because Key Sailing and Redhook Ale dropped out today.
(Posted Friday, May 18, 11:12 p.m.)
THE SAILORS aren't interested in answering questions right now. They are all exhausted after two very long, very frustrating days of light, shifty air -- and sometimes no air. Nothing is crankier than a sailor with no wind.
MORE BOATS: #9 is LexisNexis, in at 23:03:01; #10 is Castrol, 23:06:07; and #11 is Tommy Bahama, 23:06:23.
SO FAR EVERYBODY is doing a good job of handling the surf -- they are getting squared up with it well out and coming straight in with no problems.
(Posted Friday, May 18, 10:50 p.m.)
MORE BOATS: 3rd place is Alexander's on the Bay, 22:45:21; 4th is Dinghy Shop, 22:46:36; 5th is PIsailing, 22:48:10; 6th is Spitfire, 22:50:39; 7th is Sail for Sight, 22:51:43; and 8th is Tybee Island, 22:52:21. Stay tuned.
(Posted Friday, May 18, 10:40 p.m.)
THEY'RE EARLY! First two boats are in, Guidant at 22:38:04 and Fully Involved at 22:39:16. Huge surf and no wind. So how did they get to the finish line? Occasional puffs here and there and just a matter of who gets them? Rick is talking to the leaders now. Back soon.
(Posted Friday, May 18, 10:20 p.m.)
TOO BAD THE SAILORS COULDN'T go to the dinner put on tonight by Team Outer Banks. Rick just got back from the dinner and reports that somebody came running into the restaurant like Paul Revere, shouting, "The boats are double-trapped and coming fast!"
Rick says, "We looked out the window at a flag outside and it was hanging straight down. But, just in case, we kind of moseyed on out and headed back to the beach. Turned out that there was a brief puff of air that got some of the crews double-trapping, so the alarm was put out -- but now it has died again."
The report or rumor or whatever it was that sparked the alarm said that Spitfire was 4 miles from the finish and PIsailing was 6 miles from the finish. This, again, is all RUMOR at this point.
(Posted Friday, May 18, 9:10 p.m.)
WHILE YOU ARE WAITING, here are a couple of ground crew tips from a sailor who lives on the Outer Banks. Roger Huffman lives in Nag's Head and he lived for a while in Hatteras Village. He says that when you are driving from Morehead City (which is right by Atlantic Beach) to Hatteras, the time to drive all the way around by road to Hatteras Village is exactly the same as taking the ferries, 3 1/2 hours -- and sometimes it takes about a half hour longer taking the ferries if there are a lot of tourists clogging the narrow, two-lane road, lined up, going 20 mph. Rick confirmed that the locals drive around and have tried for years to convince the other sailors to do the same, but he thinks people prefer to do the ferry ride because it is somehow more "romantic" and interesting. Roger also pointed out that the Cedar Island ferry that most of the Worrell ground crews take is not the only ferry to Ocracoke Island. There is another ferry that leaves from the mainland at Swanquarter. It looks to be about half as far as driving all the way around, but it is a longer ferry ride than the one from Cedar Island.
So I would like to propose that next year the ground crews and media have a race to Hatteras after the Atlantic Beach start, with a third of them using the Cedar Island Ferry, a third of them using the Swanquarter ferry, and a third of them driving all the way around. The ground crews deserve to have a little competition and excitement, too.
(Posted Friday, May 18, 7:45 p.m.)
THE LEAD BOATS are just now getting to Oregon Inlet (see 7:30 posting), but the last place boat(s) are back at Rodanthe, which is another 15 miles south. Barring a miracle from the wind gods, we are predicting first finishes no earlier than 11:00 p.m.
(Posted Friday, May 18, 7:30 p.m.)
WIND AT THE FINISH LINE is 5-7 and southish, which would at least allow use of spinnakers. But south of Oregon Inlet, about 18 miles south according to my atlas, there is no wind at all.
(Posted Friday, May 18, 7:23 p.m.)
KEY SAILING has definitely pulled out of the race, despite pleas from numerous friends to hold on to the end. Kirk Newkirk told friend Steve Hast a few minutes ago that he has been on the water 80 hours total for the race so far and 30 of those hours have been in the last two days. He didn't get to bed until almost 3:00 a.m. last night and got up at 7:00, and he said, jokingly, "This isn't in my contract.". If you didn't read my earlier postings farther down the page, Key Sailing dropped out hours ago at Avon, which looks on my road atlas to be about 10 miles north of Cape Hatteras. Kirk says the boat was damaged coming in through the surf at Avon and would not have been usable to continue the race. The team does have a backup boat on the trailer, but Kirk pleads no interest in trying to continue.
REDHOOK ALE has also withdrawn from the race. Reportedly, they pulled in at the same place as Key Sailing and also suffered serious damage coming in through the surf. One rumor (and I stress rumor) said the boat was demolished.
EARN YOUR POTENTIAL, according to Steve Hast, who relayed this to me from Kirk Newkirk, is sitting out there near their location on the beach at Avon and not moving much.
(Posted Friday, May 18, 6:20 p.m.)
GROUP OF SEVEN BOATS REPORTED off Salvo Island, which is about 28 miles south of the Kill Devil Hills checkpoint. They are averaging about 6 knots an hour speed and are beating. They are sailing parallel to the shore on long starboard tacks and taking occasional, short, port-tack hitches away from shore. ETA at Kill Devil Hills is about 11 p.m.
(Posted Friday, May 18, 4:50 p.m.)
SAIL FOR SIGHT (Carl Roberts/Dave Lennard) were in first place as of 2:00 p.m., per a report recently received from the helicopter. That is it as far as the information that was given.
(Posted Friday, May 18, 4:10 p.m.)
STAND BY to see some awesome photos of the Cape Hatteras rounding. Rick says they are absolutely breathtaking. He said he will have them on the main catsailor.com Worrell site by 5:00 p.m. Rick took about 60 pictures of the rounding, and he is having a hard time picking the best ones.)
(Posted Friday, May 18, 3:50 p.m.)
YES, OUTER BANKS got back in the race and went around the Cape. Still haven't heard what their problem was back at the start, but they obviously got it fixed quickly.
REDHOOK ALE was the last boat to round the Cape, about an hour and a half behind the other boats.
KEY SAILING pulled out at Avon, which looks like a pretty short distance north of the Cape. Mark Smith and Rick Bliss are going to try to talk Kirk Newkirk into continuing the race, since there is only one more short leg to go after this one. (See 3:35 p.m. posting for initial information about this.)
(Posted Friday, May 18, 3:35 p.m.)
KEY SAILING has withdrawn from the race. Team manager Mark Smith left a few minutes ago to go back and pick them up -- he didn't say where they pulled out. Skipper Kirk Newkirk told his manager, "To heck with it. I'm not going to sit out here and drift again till the wee hours of the morning." The wind has been light all day, and apparently it had died completely where they were when they decided to hit the beach.
(Posted Friday, May 18, 12:50 p.m.)
NEAR AS WE CAN COME to rounding order at the Cape was, as I said, Tommy Bahama, who was passed immediately by Guidant. Then came Sail for Sight and Spitfire Racing. Next was Tybee Island, and they were the first to put up their spinnaker BEFORE getting to the pissups, and they blew right by Spitfire. Seeing this, Fully Dissolved also put up their chute early, as did Castrol. Most of the boats after that were putting up their spinnakers early. Australia put up their spinnaker but did not have any boards down, and the boat slid sideways right onto the beach at the tip of the Cape. They dropped their spinnaker and shoved off again. NexisLexis passed within 4 feet of the beach. Apparently, the water is about a foot deep right at the shoreline, but it drops off very deep immediately, which is why it is possible to sail so close to the beach.
(Posted Friday, May 18, 12:30 p.m.)
FOR THE BENEFIT of those who are new to this race, I should explain that Cape Hatteras is the only place along the entire thousand-mile course where spectators can actually see the boats passing by, up close and personal. Right offshore from the tip of the cape are the treacherous Diamond shoals, but there is a narrow gap between the inner side of the shoals and the shoreline. The Worrell boats traditionally choose to go through this narrow gap, and they pass only a few boat lengths from the beach. The only way to get out to the tip of the Cape is via dune buggies or Jeeps or other four-wheel-drive vehicles.
(Posted Friday, May 18, 12:15 p.m.)
THEY HAVE ROUNDED CAPE HATTERAS, about 10 minutes ago. Tommy Bahama was still in the lead, but Guidant reached off below Tommy Bahama, grabbed the lead, and popped their spinnaker immediately. Alexander's on the Bay was in 10th at our last report and picked up at least four boats during the rounding of the Cape -- not sure exactly what position he's in now. As soon as the Catsailor team can review their video, they will update us on the positions of all the boats.
AWESOME PHOTOS at the Cape. Rick said the wind is now about 5 out of the east-southeast, but the waves are huge at the tip of the Cape, and the pissups are spectacular. As soon as he gets to a phone line, you will be seeing some incredible pictures on our main Worrell site.
(Posted Friday, May 18, 11:20 a.m.)
HERE ARE THE POSITIONS AT THIS POINT: Tommy Bahama, Guidant, Sail for Sight, Spitfire Racing, Tybee Island, Fully Involved, Castrol, Pyacht, PIsailing, Alexander's on the Bay, Dinghy Shop, NexisLexis. Can't yet make out the rest of them for sure.
THE WHOLE FLEET IS ON STARBOARD and are now getting a lift right to the point of the Cape.
(Posted Friday, May 18, 11:15 a.m.)
SOME OF THE BOATS have covered the first three miles of the race in a mere hour and 15 minutes! It's still about five miles to the Cape, so estimates are they won't get there until noon or 1:00 a.m. unless the wind picks up. Right now Tommy Bahama is in first place and Guidant is in second. Alexander's is back in mid-fleet. They were in near shore and just recently tacked out but are now just sitting there not moving.
(Posted Friday, May 18, 11:00 a.m.)
RIGHT NOW Rick is parked at a beach about three miles north of the starting line, waiting for boats to appear. He says it's sure not like last year when he had to make a mad dash to the Cape and then jump into a jeep for a crazy ride flying over sand dunes just to get out to the point before the boats -- and he just barely made it. No problem like that this year.
(Posted Friday, May 18, 10:30 a.m.)
CATSAILOR is about halfway out to the Cape and reports the boats are moving along but pretty slowly.
DOLPHINS ARE BIGGEST SPECTATOR GROUP. A large school of dolphins watched the start of the race yesterday and they were there again today. Rick said there must be at least a hundred of them and the interesting thing is that they weren't swimming around like they usually do -- they were just sitting there with their faces out of the water watching the preparations for the start. Now the dolphins are swimming along with the fleet. Apparently, they are really interested.
(Posted Friday, May 18, 10:10 a.m.)
TWO BOATS HAVE PROBLEMS AT START. Despite being able to start on a reach, the boats still had some problems getting through the surf. Spitfire Racing returned to the beach with a broken rudder. Outer Banks is on the way back in with its mainsail coming down. Don't know what the problem is -- and may never know, because the Catsailor team is leaving now for the Cape to watch the boats go through Diamond Shoals.
(Posted Friday, May 18, 9:40 a.m.)
CREW CHANGE on Earn Your Potential. Mike Beuerlein is replacing Chris Sawyer for the last two legs of the race. Chris was called away by business commitments.
(Posted Friday, May 18, 9:30 a.m.)
WEATHER REPORT: Right now wind at Hatteras is about 5 out of the northeast and the forecast for the rest of the day is variable 5-10, with some predictions that it will switch to the southeast. Sounds like a beat to Cape Hatteras and maybe a reach from there to the finish. Surf at the starting line is rather large for the amount of wind, but they should be able to reach out through it with no problems.
I also received a report on the weather at Nag's Head (which is just south of today's finish line at Kill Devil Hills), called in by Roger Huffman. He said right now there isn't a lick of wind there and hasn't been in the mornings for the last couple days. He said it usually picks up at about 11 a.m. and then dies again in the evening. Roger sailed in the Worrell back in about 1979 when it was still being done on Hobie 16's.
(Posted Friday, May 18, 6:00 a.m.)
REDHOOK ALE got in at 3:38:22. Nobody called me. Probably nobody called Rick. It is very, very difficult to impress upon people at the race itself how important it is to let the people at home know, and as quickly as possible, that all the boats are safe.
(Posted Friday, May 18, 2:35 a.m.)
WHEN TOMMY BAHAMA had its confrontation with the finish pole, somehow the pole put a hole in one of the hulls. (Scroll down and see posting at 1:40 a.m.).
REDHOOK ALE is still out. Rick is going to bed in his motorhome at Hatteras. I am going to bed in my bed in Key Largo. We both have phones by our ears, so we hope somebody will call him when Redhook gets in and he will call me. It's the best we can do at this point. The race officials and, I'm sure, Redhook's ground crew are standing watch. Not a lot to worry about with no wind out there.
(Posted Friday, May 18, 2:27 a.m.)
KEY SAILING is in at 2:22:43, finishing in 17th place. Only boat still out is Redhook Ale (didn't we say that last night?)
(Posted Friday, May 18, 2:18 a.m.)
TYBEE ISLAND is in, 16th place, at 2:14:50. Still waiting for Key Sailing and Redhook Ale.
(Posted Friday, May 18, 2:12 a.m.)
WE HAVE PIsailing reporting in in 14th place at 2:08:11, and Australia in 15th place at 2:08:33.
(Posted Friday, May 18, 2:05 a.m.)
LexisNexis is #13, in at 2:02:15.
(Posted Friday, May 18, 2:00 a.m.)
#12 IS Cat Fever, in at 1:56:05.
I CAN HEAR SURF CRASHING in the background on the telephone -- it's like having my ear to a seashell. Rick says the surf is pretty big, even though there is no wind. If the wind doesn't show up for the start, it could be pretty difficult for the boats to get out through the surf. Of course, they've all had a lot of practice by now.
(Posted Friday, May 18, 1:50 a.m.)
MASS ARRIVAL. #5 is Pyacht in at 1:41:25; #6 is Sail for Sight, 1:41:43; #7 is Outer Banks, 1:43:43; #8 is Fully Involved, 1:43:38; #9 is Earn Your Potential, 1:44:47; #10 is Spitfire Racing, 1:47:03; and #11 is Dinghy Shop, 1:49:17.
There is a lot of background noise on the phone -- sounds like a bunch of very happy people. And I'll bet they are hungry and tired, too. I wonder whether they will go for food or bed.
(Posted Friday, May 18, 1:40 a.m.)
WHEN TOMMY BAHAMA beached at the finish, they ended up on the wrong side of the finish pole with the yellow-flashing strobe light on it. As they were moving their boat to get it to the north side of the pole, a wave hit the boat and knocked over the strobe light pole and also Lee Queensberry, who was taking the finish times, and Lee got pinned under the boat, much as Dave Lennard did earlier in the race. Lee seems to be okay and got right back to finishing boats. More coming real soon here. In fact, here is Team Castrol right now, in at 1:34:37.
(Posted Friday, May 18, 1:25 a.m.)
THREE BOATS ARE IN! Alexander's on the Bay was first, at 1:17:49; Guidant was second, at 1:23:55; and Tommy Bahama was third, at 1:26:07.
(Posted Thursday, May 17, 11:55 p.m.)
A BOAT HAS CALLED IN and reported they are two miles out. But the wind has totally died. Rick is now predicting arrival at 5:00 a.m. I wonder what would happen if the whole fleet did not arrive in time for the 10:00 a.m. start -- Mike Worrell would have to write a new rule. Sailors are on the beach keeping watch. We will let you know as soon as the first boat arrives.
(Posted Thursday, May 17, 9:55 p.m.)
NOBODY IN SIGHT yet. Rick will not be able to post anything on our main Worrell 1000 page because of really bad phone line or service or whatever at the hotel on Hatteras. It took him 35 minutes to upload one file to the site, and photos and graphics are out of the question. So for tonight it looks like this Shore Report is your news source. Rick will be calling me as soon as he has any news.
(Posted Thursday, May 17, 8:20 p.m.)
WANT TO START BETTING on when they'll get in? The lead boats are still about 20 miles out. Beating in very light air. Predictions range from 11:00 p.m. to Rick's prediction of 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. I'll take midnight.
(Posted Thursday, May 17, 7:35 p.m.)
CATSAILOR CREW is now at the Hatteras checkpoint. The lead boat is reported to be about 22 miles out. Race management estimates arrival in 3 hours. Rick think's that's impossible -- probably lots longer. Wind is very light.
(Posted Thursday, May 17, 6:10 p.m.)
FERRIES ARE LINED UP NOW to take the Worrell ground crews from Ocracoke Island to Hatteras. One ferry has already gone, another is loading, and a third will be coming in to the dock soon.
BOATS HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO. Word within the past five minutes is that the boats are 35 miles from the finish line and are in very light air. So it looks like the ground crew will beat the sailors to the finish line. It's been a long day for everybody.
(Posted Thursday, May 17, 4:08 p.m.)
ALL THE TEAMS that didn't make the 11 a.m. ferry (meaning most of the group) got on the 3 p.m. ferry, and now the ground crews, as well as the sailors, are at sea. From his vantage point on the ferry Rick says the wind now looks to be about 8 knots out of the east.
(Posted Thursday, May 17, 3:50 p.m.)
Hi there...
I am a Mom (of shore crew) and just wanted to send a note to say Good Luck
to all today ... and hope everyone arrives safe at Hatteras... and thanks
catsailor for the great coverage. From the point of view of a first time
"spectator" (via the Internet) this has been soooo exciting. I am SO
impressed with what crews, shore teams, journalists, photographers and
followers have done so far. Can I also say.... GO DINGHY SHOP from
Vancouver, B.C.!! Veda Howell
(Posted Thursday, May 17, 1:00 p.m.)
FERRY SNAFU. All the teams hurried this morning to catch the ferry to Ocracoke. Instead, two-thirds of the entourage is going to be sitting and waiting until the next ferry at 3:00 p.m. Supposedly, everything was arranged and the ferry company had been notified of the number and lengths of the vehicles. But when they got there, the ferry employees said they did not know the vehicles were all going to be pulling trailers. So only about a third of the group made it onto the 11:00 a.m. ferry, and some ground crew members from other boats hitched a ride with the lucky ones who got on. After the 2 1/2-hour ride to Ocracoke Island, everyone drives a short distance across the island and gets onto another ferry for the 40-minute ride over to Hatteras. This puts them at the Hatteras checkpoint by 8:00 p.m. If the wind stays light, the boats should be arriving at about the same time.
(Posted Thursday, May 17, 12:45 p.m.)
THE BOATS STARTED AT 10:00 A.M. IN A LIGHT NORTHEASTERLY. My personal source at ground zero, my husband, thought he had called me right after the start, but thinking doesn't do it -- I reminded him he has to use a telephone.
TEAM CASTROL (Jay Sonnenklar and John Casey) of the Miami area have their own weather and water consultant, Dennis Mayer, an oceanographer who works for NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminstration) in Miami. Dennis provided them with the tidal height curves for all the venues along the route of the race for the relevant period of time, and also is sending them weather information every day. Dennis told me he gets his weather information primarily from two web sites. One is www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/zone/usamz.htm for overall weather. The other is for data from the buoys offshore along the course, and that site is www.ems.psu.edu/wx/buoydata/curr/usseatl.gif (it prints out as a graphic in chart form). For the buoy data Dennis says it is done in zulu time (Greenwich mean time), so you have to subtract four hours from the times given.
(Posted Thursday, May 17, 9:55 a.m.)
IT IS A COLD, RAINY, DISMAL DAY at Atlantic Beach. As Steve Piche of PIsailing said on their web site this morning, on the way to Hatteras they will be sailing along deserted barrier island beaches, where there is no habitation and no roads. If you break down there, it can be at least two days before anybody can get to you -- IF they can get to you at all.
(Posted Thursday, May 17, 9:50 a.m.)
FINALLY, A PRE-START REPORT: A whole school of dolphins is just offshore watching and waiting for the start. The wind is very light out of the east, maybe 5 knots. Looks like light air beat to Cape Lookout. If the wind stays this way, it would be a reach to Hatteras.
MEANWHILE, OUR MEDIA BUS is apparently packed up and ready to roll on the wild ride to the ferry to Hatteras (check our main Worrell 1000 page for the morning report).
(Posted Thursday, May 17, 9:05 a.m.)
RELATIVES SHOULD NOT PANIC when they see from the postings and from the race results that a boat is not in yet. There are a zillion reasons why a boat will come in late, and it usually is not anything life-threatening. Most of the reasons relate to boat problems of one kind or another, and the sailors are usually able to deal with them -- just makes them slow. Or, sometimes the earlier boats finish in good wind, and then the wind dies and the later boats take forever to get there. A number of times boats have gotten in late just because they have missed the checkpoint and sailed on past it. When they realize their mistake, they turn around and come back to the finish line. I think all of the boats have plenty of communications equipment to call in if they have a real problem. And race management always is monitoring the situation and will search for the missing boat(s) if it is necessary.
I do think, however, since there is an official helicopter with the race this year, that it would be nice to do a last sweep before dark (like the ski patrol does on a ski mountain), to try to see any boats that are some distance from the finish line and try to identify the boats that are going to be late. It would be a comfort to everybody to know that all the boats have been seen and accounted for.
* * * * *
Okay, I have just been told that the helicopter IS doing a sweep before dark. It would be nice if they would tell us what they have learned, so it can be passed on to the spectators at home.
(Posted Thursday, May 17, 6:55 a.m.)
WHY DO PEOPLE RACE THE WORRELL 1000? I have asked that question of various people over the years, and they don't seem to have any good answer for it -- just, "Because it's there," or "It's a great challenge" or "So I can say I've done it," or "To see if I can make it all the way."
By contrast, when I asked six-time Worrell 1000 winner Randy Smyth why he does it -- and why he will be returning to do it again next year -- he replied, "Because it's a once-a-year test of so many skills." And he is right, of course. Here are the skills I can think of that are required to succeed in this race:
Boat-handling, helmsmanship and excellent sailing skills are a given. But it also requires skills in navigation (both with and without the help of electronic gadgets); ability to "read" the water; boat preparation (far more important when you are going a thousand miles than when you are racing around a triangle); boat repair and maintenance; ability to jury-rig repairs on the water; the ability to adapt to rapidly changing weather conditions; understanding wind and weather and tide and current patterns; experience in sailing in and out through surf (as with an airplane, it doesn't do any good to know how to fly if you don't know how to take off and land); racing tactics; the ability to concentrate and stay focused for long periods of time; the ability to sail "blind" (whether in fog, a driving rainstorm, or at night); man-overboard recovery; knowing the limitations of the boat (and of yourself); having the common sense to know when it is prudent to reduce sail; having an overall game plan for the race as a whole and for each given leg as it comes -- and alternate plans if the "A" plan isn't working or conditions change; ability to get along with your sailing partner for two weeks on a small boat. In addition to the on-the-water skills, most sailors also need some skills in marketing their team and getting sponsorship money to make the whole thing possible.
I know readers will probably think of other skills after reading this, so please pass them along to me, so I can add them.
(Posted Thursday, May 17, 6:05 a.m.)
TACKS AND TACTICS are the two words that best describe yesterday's long, slow beat from Wrightsville Beach to Atlantic Beach. Most of the boats reported doing near 100 tacks -- for the group as a whole, that means almost 2,000 tacks. Think what it would have been like if this had been one of the night legs. The boats were all pretty closely grouped and all hugging the shoreline. Can you imagine all these boats constantly crossing paths in the dark? And it also occurred to me that if this leg had been at night, it would not have been possible to have the great tactics and match-racing that were going on. It's hard to cover your competition when you can't see them.
(Posted Wednesday, May 16, 1:45 p.m.)
FROM ATLANTIC BEACH. We're here at Atlantic Beach. Wind is out of the east, but here the beach runs east-west, because if you look at a map, the coast curves around to the east in this area.We are anticipating the boats will be beating to the finish, with long starboard tacks and short port tacks. No boats in sight. Fortunately, the boats are not yet fast enough to beat the ground crews to the finish (except the year the ferry broke down to get to Hattaras.)
(Posted Wednesday, May 16, 1:30 p.m.)
ANOTHER MOTHER REPORTING IN: So glad to find your site with so much info about the teams. It helps to put "faces" on them, rather than just being two bodies on a boat. I, too, am a team Mum, watching the sites from Canada and waiting to hear how my son Reigh North and his crew Scott MacDonald are doing on Team Dinghy Shop. It's their first time in the Worrell 1000, and of course, my first concern is for their safety. Then, that they are able to do their finest sailing without breakage or other snafu's. (It sure is great to have wonderful sponsorship and a dedicated Shore Crew to look after the boats and the sailors.) A lot of water has been sailed over since Reigh raced Mirror Dinghies at the Royal Jamaica YC at age 10. Now it's the Worrell 1000, really 'big-time sailing', and I know, all of us Mothers are very proud of 'our boys'. Thanks for the great coverage. Lois North
(Posted Wednesday, May 16, 12:15 p.m.)
GROUND CREWS are still on their way to Atlantic Beach. Rick called from the motorhome as it was wending its way through the winding roads through Camp LeJeune, a marine base -- he says they have seen 15 or 20 signs so far warning of "Tank Crossings." He hasn't seen a tank yet. This is worrisome, because in our experience, deer do not cross at deer-crossing signs and in the case of the Keys, crocodiles do not cross at crocodile-crossing signs. So he is expecting a tank to pop out at any minute from someplace where there is no sign.
THE SKY IS OVERCAST AGAIN, which does not bode well for a sea breeze. May be a long beat in light air.
(Posted Wednesday, May 16, 11:35 a.m.)
WHAT IS RANDY SMYTH DOING DURING THIS RACE? He's changing diapers for Logan Randolph Smyth, who was born April 11. Mother Paula Smyth reports Logan weighed 10# 3oz at birth and, ironically, was born at exactly the same time of day as their daughter Nicole, who is now 3 years old. Paula also says Logan has "flip-flop" feet like Randy's, a space between the big toe and the second toe that makes them perfect for wearing flip-flops.
Randy Smyth is the winningest sailor ever for this race. He has been in it seven times and won it six times. The only time he didn't win was in 1987, when it was an open event for all designs. He was sailing a Holder design, with planing-type hulls, and the boat dismasted twice on the first leg. He won in 1985 and 1989, and since Mike Worrell revived the race in 1997, Randy has won it in all of the past four years.
Everyone was shocked when he withdrew from this year's race, but some were probably relieved that maybe someone else would have a chance to win this year.
The main reason he is not in this year's race, though, is that he had just been gone from his family for five months preparing for and then sailing in The Race, the around-the-world race in the mega-catamarans ranging from about 100 to 120 feet in length. With the new baby arriving in April, and five months of back sail orders to deal with, he decided to skip this year's Worrell. When I talked to him this morning, he said, "I'm strapped to my computer, with a pile of diapers behind me."
Although he is enjoying seeing it from the perspective of the spectator this year, he said he definitely plans to be sailing in the Worrell again next year -- "It's a once-a-year test of so many skills." I asked if he cares what kind of boat it is on, and he said, "No, the boat is secondary -- the skills are the important thing." He won the race in 1985 on a Prindle 19, in 1989 on a Richard Roake experimental planing design, and the last four years on Nacra 6.0's and the Inter 20's when Mike Worrell went back to a one-design format for the race.
About the problems with the big surf in the early legs of the race in Florida, he said, "Usually, the sailors do not have to contend with surf like that until later in the race when they have already gone in and out through the surf a number of times. This year caught a lot of teams off guard. The reality is that very few catamaran sailors today ever sail in surf,so they do not have the experience."
I asked how they would get that experience without trashing their boats in the process, and he said, "Go out in a $500 Hobie 16 and just crash around."
* * * * *
On another subject, I asked Randy Smyth some questions about his participation on Team Adventure in The Race around the world.
Would he ever do it again? "No. I satisified a lot of personal goals by doing it once. I got to sail around Cape Horn. I got to sail around the World. And I had the tremendous challenge of designing and building sails that would stay in one piece for 21,000 miles -- that's 21 Worrell 1000's -- and being able to change battens out on the water and knowing we would not be able to do much in the way of repairs, except with sail tape and a hand sewing machine that could be used above decks. It was like going to sailmaking college all over again. It's a whole new frontier."
What he found most interesting, though, was what happens to people and their personalities when they are cooped up on a boat together for three months. "Sometimes I wondered what happened to the person I got on the boat with at the beginning." The biggest problems came after they pulled into South Africa for repairs of the main beam and lost about three days of time -- and also lost four crew members (two by choice and two because of injury). When they left South Africa they were 4,000 miles behind the leaders and knew they had no chance of winning the race. "What happened at that point was that we had a bunch of racing sailors basically on a cruise -- a lot of high-energy people without a focus or goal. Delivery people do a good job at what they do and racers do a good job at what they do. At that point we were basically doing a boat delivery."
(Posted Wednesday, May 16, 10:20 a.m.)
THE START was uneventful, surf was not a factor. Wind is basically out of the north at less than 10. The boats all started on port but some tacked immediately to starboard to get out of the mess and find clear air. Right now it is a beat to Atlantic Beach. The sky has been overcast but is starting to clear, which means a sea breeze could kick in later, switching the wind to more from the east. Rick says the rule of thumb is that if the land is on the left and the sea on the right, stay left, near the shore, so you can pick up the sea breeze early. We'll see if he is right.
It will probably be a few hours before you hear from us again unless there are reports from on the water.
(Posted Wednesday, May 16, 9:40 a.m.)
OUR OPEN FORUM had a question about why they are still doing two-tiered starts for the race even though conditions are not severe right now. The answer is that this makes it possible to keep the boats more consolidated in one area instead of being spread out for a long way down the beach. Right now they are only having a one-minute lag between the two starts, which is probably not as much of a handicap for the second tier as having to start much farther down the beach. The only drawback, possibly, is that the air gets a lot more messed up when so many boats start so close together.We have not yet asked the sailors what they think about it.
(Posted Wednesday, May 16, 9:30 a.m.)
REMEMBER CARLTON?. The Wilmington Morning Star has a very nice story about yesterday's leg from Myrtle Beach to Wrightsville Beach and about the Worrell 1000 in general. But the article says that at the end of the Worrell not much awaits the winner but a cold beer and a handshake. That may be technically true as far as what they physically receive at the finish. But it ignores the fact that there is a huge trophy, The Carlton Tucker Memorial Trophy, which bears plaques with names of all the past winning teams and will have the names of all the future winners. It is on display at The Boat in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida. The Boat is the catamaran dealership and marine business owned by Jim Tucker, Carlton's father.
The trophy was donated by Catamaran Sailor Magazine in 1999 to provide a way to immortalize not only the great Carlton Tucker, but also all the sailors who emerge victorious in the Worrell 1000. It is a shame that the rest of the media cannot be made aware of this trophy and reminded of the contributions that Carlton Tucker made to this sport.
Carlton sailed the Worrell four times, including back in the early days on the Hobie 16's, with finishes of 5th, 2nd, 1st, and 3rd. His sailing record is one of the most impressive of all time -- he won nine national championships on seven different types of boats, and won the Alter Cup Championship three times. 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. In distance racing 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. He was one of the first 10 sailors inducted into the Catamaran Sailing Hall of Fame, which was established in 1997. Those are just a few of the high points.
Carlton Tucker died at the age of 38 of what was reported to be a heart attack. He died May 7, 1998, at the hospital in Ft. Walton Beach, and, ironically, it was during the Worrell 1000, a race that he truly loved. The race competitors held a memorial service for him.at the Myrtle Beach checkpoint.
Carlton should not be forgotten, and the winners of the Worrell 1000 should be proud that their names will be on the trophy bearing his name.
(Posted Wednesday, May 16, 8:27 a.m.)
THE WIND right now is light (maybe 5-7 mph) out of the north, and the sky is overcast. But it is still an hour and a half to the start. If it stays light, at least it is a relatively short leg today, 67 miles to Atlantic Beach.
(Posted Wednesday, May 16, 7:50 a.m.)
REMEMBER THE FIVE BOATS that were the only ones to get through the surf at Jensen Beach and make it to Cocoa? They were Alexander's, Fully Involved, Dinghy Shop, Outer Banks, and Guidant. In that order they were the top five in the overall standings as of Cocoa Beach. The rest of the fleet was required to trailer to Cocoa and all those boats were given the elapsed time of the fifth boat plus a two-hour penalty. Some thought the penalty was too harsh and others thought it was too small. Some predicted the race was over and there would basically be two fleet divisions from that point on. But now things are starting to even out. Only two of the original five are still in the top five. Alexander's on the Bay is still in first place overall, and Guidant has moved up to second place. Dinghy Shop has dropped back to seventh place, Fully Involved is in tenth place, and Outer Banks is in thirteenth.
(Posted Wednesday, May 16, 7:35 a.m.)
SURVIVAL REPAIR TIP: Spitfire's website mentions that one of the other teams yesterday had a rudder gudgeon pull out of the transom, so they used a screw from one of the footstraps to hold the rudder in place until they finished the race.
(Posted Wednesday, May 16, 6:50 a.m.)
SO HERE'S THIS MOM, watching (in a manner of speaking)
her son work his way north, loving keeping in touch via the Cat Sailor Site, Worrell's site, and his own - LexisNexis.
Thanks for all the news, a photo here and there and enough news to know, if body parts are stressed, they're still
working . Continued good sailing to Brendan (Busch) and Jim (Korkosz) and all those other kind of weird people
who love challenge, danger, cold water and long nights. Keep up the good work.!
Judith Havas
THIS IS A LETTER OF PRAISE for the performance of the
Tack Tick compasses
and their outstanding customer service provided through LayLine. Jamie
Livingston and I got our Tack Tick for the 1998 Worrell 1000, which
functioned flawlessly for over two years. Right before the warranty
expired this year, and right before Jamie needed it for this years Worrell,
the compass died. I mailed the unit to LayLine who handles the Tack Tick
warranty with a note explaining what happened. Within a week Jamie had a
new unit for the race, no charge! Surveying the boats in the Worrell 1000
I did not see a single team that was not using this outstanding product. I
don't do testimonials often, but this product and these companies provide
great stuff. Congratulation Alexanders By the Bay!!!
Robert Onsgard, Miami, FL
(Posted Tuesday, May 15)
THE LASER NATIONALS is going to start this weekend in Wrightsville Beach, so a number of Lasers have already arrived and are out practicing on the ocean. A reporter for a local paper, along with a group of other spectators waiting for the Worrell 1000 boats to finish, watched the Lasers milling around out there.. Finally, some of them asked why the boats were not coming in to the finish line. I guess this means we still have a way to go to educate the public -- AND the media -- about catamarans and what they look like.
(Posted Tuesday, May 15, 3:30 p.m.)
SEA BREEZE HAS FILLED IN at about 10 knots, and it looks like the boats will be close-reaching from Cape Fear to the finish gate at Wrightsville Beach. The report from the helicopter is that the leaders should be here in less than an hour.
(Posted Tuesday, May 15, 1:20 p.m.)
GROUND CREWS ARE AT WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH. Rick reports that at noon the wind was west-northwest, 15-20, but an hour later it is very light and appears to have switched a little more northerly. The helicopter just went out to see where the boats are, so more later.
(Posted Tuesday, May 15, 10:10 a.m.)
ALL SPINNAKERS WERE UP FOR THE START. They're still having two start groups, but this time the second group was started only one minute behind the first group. The two-tier start makes it unnecessary for the boats to be widely spread out down the beach. At this point they are off on a pretty fast spinnaker run to the tip of Cape Fear, with wind still out of the westerly quadrants. But this race traditionally has been a sea-breeze race, so the wind may die later and and then turn onshore. Even the weathermen don't know for sure what is going to happen today.
Whoops, just heard that Team Dinghy Shop capsized after the start. That's all I know right now.
FERRY BOAT ARRANGEMENTS TO HATTERAS were finalized today in a pre-race meeting. Cape Hatteras is still three checkpoints from here, after Wrightsville Beach and Atlantic Beach, but the Worrell race officials reserve a whole ferry for the Worrell entourage, and everybody has to let them know the size and length of their rigs to make sure everybody can fit on the boat.
(Posted Tuesday, May 15, 9:10 a.m.)
LOOKS LIKE LIGHT AIR for the 10:00 a.m.start from Myrtle Beach. Right now on the beach the winds are light and offshore from the west-northwest. The flags are barely moving. Forecast for today is 10-15 from the northwest. Should be a reach to get around Cape Fear (a little over halfway) and a beat to the finish at Wrightsville Beach. This leg is 80 miles (Leg 9).
(Posted Tuesday, May 15, 3:00 a.m.)
NIGHT-LEG NEGATIVES. Rick wrote an editorial on our main Worrell page about the dangers and problems of the night legs. I would just like to add that there is another, completely different problem from the perspective of the spectators at home. The night legs themselves and then the subsequent lay day completely interrupt the rhythm and momentum of the race, both for the racers and for the watchers. Human beings are creatures of habit -- and we also are easily distracted. So we get into the habit of staying glued to our computer screens all day, surfing for every tidbit of information about the race, and then for literally three days in a row, there is NOTHING going on during the day. All we get is a scrap of news right after the 6:00 p.m. start saying, basically, "There they go," and then there is another news blackout until sometimes very late at night after all the fans at home are in bed. With no Worrell news (except for feature stories), we move on to other things, and probably a lot of us forget to come back to it when it starts rolling along again in the daytime. It's like you're watching a movie with suspense and excitement building, and then there is a really, really long commercial break, and by the time the break is over, you forget what the movie was about -- or you have gotten involved in doing something else and forget to come back to watch the rest of the movie. The Worrell is like a soap opera, and like soaps, it should be at the same time every day, so we can plan the rest of our schedule around watching it. Media coverage and maintaining interest in the race around the world is very important to Michael Worrell -- and to the sponsors of all the teams. The way to maintain that interest is to get people hooked and keep them addicted to following the race faithfully from beginning to end.
SOME HELP FROM ABOVE. This was sent to me by Judy Tomko:
I am a mother of one the sailors. my son is John Tomko of Spitfire of San Antonio, Texas...we did not sleep much
last night, while waiting to hear they all came in safely. I never really understood the Worrell until now....I
want to thank Cat Sailor and Worrell for all their coverage to help the families of the sailors that are at home.
There is a prayer group here in San Antonio praying daily the scriptures for all the sailors' safety...may the
Lord bless and keep them, may the Lord make his face to shine upon them and be gracious unto them, may the Lord
lift up his countenance upon them and give them peace and protect them and guide them safely through the waters.
God bless the sailors.
ANOTHER CONCERNED MOTHER. Thanks for your instant updates and all other info concerning the Worrell. My son is our own Todd Hart from Team Cat Fever, and it sure helps to read your site and have some connection with the race. Keep up the great job. Barbara Hart.
(Posted Monday, May 14, 3:50 p.m.)
SEAWALLS KEEP JUMPING OUT IN FRONT OF THE BOATS. Last night on the leg from Isle of Palms to Myrtle Beach, at least two boats had bad experiences with the Georgetown jetty, which sticks a good distance out into the sea and is about halfway between the two checkpoints. Team Castrol (Jay Sonnenklar and John Casey) ran into the rock wall head-on, cracking open a hull and smashing a daggerboard. Fortunately, they weren't hurt. Fully Involved (Les Bauman and Craig Callahan) almost ran into the same wall but saw it just in time. They were going to weather at the time and had to turn downwind and fly their spinnaker to sail out around the jetty. Soon after that, one of their tiller bars broke off at the rudder head, so they had to beat the rest of the way to Myrtle Beach with one rudder. According to Craig, they also ran up on a sandbar near the jetty and had to pull the boat off it.
One reason for all the jetty encounters is that, although the sailors set their GPS units with a waypoint to take them outside the jetties, many say they are having a hard time reading the GPS in the darkness. On the previous leg, Team Earn Your Potential (Chris Sawyer and Dave White) was 20 yards from the Charleston jetty before they saw it, and they were able to stop in time.
Team Tommy Bahama (Nigel Pitt and Alex Shafer) passed within 2,000 feet of the Charleston jetties. They were able to read their GPS, which was fortunate, because Alex said, "We never even saw them. It was just too dark, and with the washing machine in front of the harbor, we couldn't hear it, either."
SHARK SIGHTING. It was reported on the Tommy Bahama site that Team Key Sailing was accompanied for a while last night by a shark. "That sucker was big," Kirk Newkirk said. Glenn was worried about the shark's proximity. "It was just swimming along next to us, and I KNOW it wasn't looking at Kirk. He's too skinny."
(Posted Monday, May 14, 1:50 p.m.)
SANDRA TARTAGLINO, who broke her leg at the first beach landing in the big surf at Ft. Lauderdale, has rejoined Team Guidant, but as a spectator this time. She has two pins in her leg right now but hopes to do the race again next year.
(Posted Monday, May 14, 10:20 a.m.)
PARKING PROBLEMS SOLVED. See, no reason to get all worked up. The Breakers Hotel people and the Worrell officials have done a wonderful job of finding parking places for everybody, and the vehicles got moved before being immortalized in concrete. Doing all these almost-live updates is sort of like covering a plane crash or something -- first there are 500 people dead, then it's 50, and then it turns out it was a four-passenger plane and everyone survived except the cow in the field where they landed. But at least the viewers get to share in the process of getting to the final analysis or outcome.
(Posted Monday, May 14, 8:47 a.m.)
MORE PARKING PROBLEMS. If you go down to my posting at 10:15 last night, you will read about the parking problems that confronted the ground crews when they arrived at Myrtle Beach. A night watchman for the Breakers had finally told a lot of the vehicles to park in a lot two blocks down the street that had all this soft sand and gravel, getting the motorhomes immediately stuck. Well, apparently, that sand/gravel substance was in there for a reason. Rick just found out that lot is scheduled to be paved today, so all the motorhomes are going to have to be towed out of there. He left his post on the beach getting boat finish times to go check out what is happening back at the lot. And, worse, nobody has any idea where they are going to park when they get out of the lot they are in. Maybe the next town over and take a bus back and forth. Nobody promises this race will be easy, either on sea or on land.
(Posted Monday, May 14, 5:10 a.m.
JUST WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW that I am on the job here at home, waiting for word to pass on to you. But I think my media crew up at Myrtle Beach is probably sleeping. Last report from PIsailing at about 2:40 a.m. was that four race committee were sleeping on the beach, along with about 12 assorted ground crew members. Waiting, waiting for the boats to get in, but PI said the wind has picked up, so maybe, maybe, we'll hear something soon. To try to get into the spirit of the race, I thought I should probably go down and sleep on my beach, curled up with my cell phone. But it was just a thought.
(Posted Sunday, May 13, 10:15 p.m.)
SURPRISES ARE SO MUCH FUN! The Worrell 1000 ground crew entourage of 20-plus vehicles has arrived in Myrtle Beach, Checkpoint 8, only to find that, SURPRISE, there is absolutely no place to park. It seems that the big parking lot next to the Breakers Resort Hotel is now the site of a high-rise building under construction, and there are no other parking lots. Keep in mind that we are talking about vehicles that are almost all pulling trailers -- a number of the vehicles are motorhomes. They finally found a lot a couple blocks away from the hotel that appears to be planned as the site of another building, and the surface is soft sand and gravel. The motorhomes that sought refuge there are all now hopelessly stuck and will probably have to be towed out. To make things worse, apparently it is bike week in Myrtle Beach, and there is a constant roar from the motorcycles going up and down the street. What an idyllic place to spend the lay day tomorrow.
MEANWHILE, OUT ON THE WATER, the wind has died to almost nothing, and Rick says the boats probably won't be in until morning. At this point, maybe the sailors are the lucky ones.
(Posted Sunday, May 13, 6:25 P.M.
CLEAN START for everybody, no capsizes, all starting on a reach on port tack. Two tiers of starts, two minutes apart, so boats could be closer together for the television cameras. Story will be posted soon on our main Worrell site. Link back to it is at the bottom of this page.
(Posted Sunday, May 13, 6:10 p.m.)
JUST HAD THE 10-MINUTE GUN. Wind has already died to about 10. No surf, just little ripples.
(Posted Sunday, May 13, 5:50 p.m.)
THE START OF TONIGHT'S RACE is set for 6:19 so it can be broadcast live on Charleston's ABC affiliate station. This is Leg 8, the second consecutive night leg, and it is from Isle of Palms, SC to Myrtle Beach, SC, a distance of 86.3 miles. Wind right now at the beach is northeast 12-15, but it is supposed to back to north later and die.
KATIE PETTIBONE, veteran of ocean crossings, America's Cup campaigns and the Whitbread Around the World Race, is sailing in her first Worrell 1000, and she told the New York Times that "It's one of the toughest races I'll ever do. So far it's been harder than the Whitbread." Katie started out on Team Pyacht Women and the team dropped out when her crew decided not to continue. So Katie is now crewing for Rod Waterhouse on Team Guidant as replacement for Sandra Tartaglino, who broke her leg beaching at Ft. Lauderdale the first day of the race. The full New York Times story, which appeared in the Sunday edition today, is on the PIsailing web site -- it talks about a lot of other people in the race besides Katie, and there is a photo of PI sailing capsized in surf.
(Posted Sunday, May 13, 3:15 p.m.)
TEAM TYBEE ISLAND'S SPINNAKER did an unscheduled drop 35 miles from the finish last night when the halyard was sawed through on a bail on the mast. Steve Lohmayer says he has been using a quarter-inch Marlow line for the halyard and the casing is too soft and abrades too easily. He plans on going back to the line provided by Performance. Steve also says it was a unique ride last night after the wind shifted to the northwest, but the waves did not, and they were surfing down the waves going to weather.
RUDDER WOES: As everyone who has been following the reports from this year's race knows, an enormous number of rudders and rudder castings have been broken -- mostly going in and out through the surf, but also from hitting jellyfish, sharks, sea turtles, and other unknown underwater objects. After teams used up their spares, Performance Catamarans, manufacturer of the Inter 20, started providing parts through a representative at the race. But even their supply is running dry and replacement parts are just trickling in, so they are now giving out rudders and rudder parts only when one breaks, so people do not try to stock up and hoard them. Right now everybody is recycling broken parts, and some teams plan to spend the lay day tomorrow rebuilding rudders. Team Tybee Island alone has five broken rudders to rebuild.
TEAM DINGHY SHOP (Canadians Reigh North and Scott MacDonald) are getting website coverage at www.cat-alist.com/worrell. I already mentioned the other team web sites that are providing daily updates -- it's the last message in this whole batch of postings.
(Posted Sunday, May 13, 12:40 p.m.)
LOTS OF PEOPLE HAVE EXCUSES for getting "home" late last night. Key Sailing's primary reason, according to Captain Kirk Newkirk, is that they had an unplanned landing, running aground on the Folly Beach sandbar. Of course, they capsized once, too, but who doesn't?
(Posted Sunday, May 13, 2001, at 12:00 noon)
DID YOU READ Carl Roberts' story about the Charleston Deer on our main Worrell page? Well, Team Earn Your Potential had a similar experience with the same jetty that sticks out 4 or 5 miles into the ocean from Charleston. Dave White says, "We were screaming along on a reach and couldn't read our GPS because it was too dark and stormy. We had already broken our spinnaker pole stuffing into a wave. Suddenly Chris (Sawyer) screams, 'Stop the boat.' Somehow I stopped the boat, and 20 yards ahead of us were rocks." It was the Charleston jetty. They sailed out around it, but it was a bad night for them. Couldn't use the spinnaker because of the broken pole, and they also capsized four times.
OUTER BANKS was flying along with the lead boats and their GPS was telling them they could arrive at Isle of Palms about 11:30 p.m, which means they would have finished 1st or 2nd. Suddenly they hit something that tore the rudder gudgeons right out of one of the hulls (rudder and casting were fine and they didn't lose them -- just no longer attached to the boat). They continued on with one rudder working, but the storm gave them a lot of problems, and they were one of the unlucky ones that got caught in the light air and drifted in at 2:21 in the morning.
UPDATE on the posting farther down about Rod Waterhouse's spinnaker getting wrapped around the mast. What happened was that a trapeze wire somehow wrapped around the spinnaker, so they could not drop the chute and they couldn't use it, either.
(Posted Sunday, May 13, 2001, at 11:10 a.m.)
JAMIE LIVINGSTON of Alexanders on the Bay says capsizes seem to work to their advantage. Every time they have capsized, they have won the leg. Every time they haven't capsized, they haven't won. Last night going to Isle of Palms they capsized, with spinnaker up, righted the boat, never had to drop the spinnaker, and were off and running. They won the leg.
JAMIE ALSO HAD a rather interesting experience last night. Somehow, he ended up flying like a kite behind the boat, suspended in mid-air between the hulls by crossed-up chicken lines, and for a while was unable to get back to the boat. Skipper Brian Lambert said Jamie looked like a pinata.
(Posted Sunday, May 13, 2001, at 11:00 a.m.)
CAT FEVER says they flipped three times last night on the way to Isle of Palms after the storm hit, and Todd Hart lost his contact lenses. Probably less of a hardship losing them at night than in the daytime.
STEVE PICHE and Ian Billings on PIsailing reported "a wild sleigh ride" to Isle of Palms, "...double-trapping in the dark, 25 mph downwind, incredible acceleration down the face of the waves."
ROD WATERHOUSE (Team Guidant) said he had a bad finish last night (9th place) because he capsized and got the spinnaker wrapped around his mast. More later in our full report on our main Worrell 1000 page (see link below).
TEAM DINGHY SHOP had a similar problem, but worse. When the storm was approaching, crew Scott MacDonald wanted to take down the spinnaker, but skipper Reigh North wanted to keep the boat heated up, so the spinnaker stayed. The boat capsized, and when righted, everything was all tangled up and it was impossible to untangle it in the dark, so they had only main and jib. They lost so much time trying to untangle that by then the wind had died. They finished in 15th, which brought them down from 2nd place to 3rd place in the overall standings.
THE MONSTER CAT Team Adventure from The Race is in drydock for repairs near Tybee Island and PI Sailing team members went down to take a look at it Friday. The Team Adventure guys offered to repair a rudder for PI Sailing, patched it with some carbon fiber, and it's good as new.
CHARLESTON'S ABC affiliate TV station will be broadcasting tonight's start live. Start is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. but may be postponed to 6:20 to fit into the sports news segment.
BEST TEAM WEB SITE for up-to-the-minute information about what is going on with the team is PIsailing. Other team web sites that have good daily reports are Tommy Bahama and Spitfire Racing. Team Outer Banks posts daily reports, as well, but not as detailed. Those are the only web sites I could find that are doing updates. Just was told that Team Dinghy Shop (the Canadian team) is getting coverage at www.cat-alist.com/worrell