I think the "results" page Kevin is referring to is actually on the Tybee 500 website. There's a link to it on Rick's coverage page "Race Results".

One of the questions I need answered is whether they are going to consider the Nacra 6.0's as a class for trophy purposes. I am assuming not, since the sailing instructions require a minimum of eight boats for a class.

Good question . . .

Mary - Just to confirm that it is Mark Self who is sailin with Will Sunnucks (the photo on the teams page confirms this).

Thanks, Catboy Slim.
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Also, I just talked to Barb Short. Unfortunately, she and Chip are not going to be able to accompany the race at all on the water because their new motorboat has not yet arrived. Too bad, because Chip has been developing great photography skills.

In case anybody is wondering, Rick did get pictures of the finish Monday, but was not able to put them on our site because of technical problems which I have explained on my Hotline. He should be able to get them up sometime today.

I hope you guys are all going to my hotline -- I have no way of knowing. http://www.catsailor.com/Tybee500/Hotline.htm

its awesome mary, keep up the excellent work!

Rick now has the morning story and pictures posted on our Tybee 500 coverage page.

Yes, even from deepest darkest Wales; thanks for the coverage; it's great to be able to follow what's happening...

Colin J
www.sailwave.com

Mary,
The only thing I see that could be changed is the photo size. They are fairly small and it's hard to see much detail in them. Is Rick sending a larger photo? It would be nice if you would have them linked to a larger photo (maybe 800 to 1000 pixels wide)
Jack

Thank you for mentioning that, Jack. I will pass your suggestion on to him. Maybe it will be more effective coming from you. I have been begging him for years to make his pictures bigger with his stories, but he says it makes it take too long for the page to load. And I don't know why he can't make them so you click on them to make them bigger. He told me once that he doesn't know how to do that.

I'll second what Jack said. The pictures are really great. Often I want to see some more detail. It would be great if they were clickable to blow up. Little things I often want to know like who is skippering at launch would be easier to determine.

Thanks again for the great coverage. But we want more!!!

Mike Hill
H20 #791

We found an error in our competitor names. Team TKO Racing, it is Ian Sammis, not Jim Sammis, who is Ian's father. I have changed it on our team list page.

to make the images clickable.... simply make the small images links to the image files stored on your webserver.

treat it as if it were just another page.

Or you could go ahead and use a gallery package like, "The Gallery" on sourceforge. Your webmaster should know what I'm talking about.

I got a rather venomous e-mail from somebody yesterday saying our coverage is terrible because we are only talking about the top sailors.

I don't quite understand it, because, as I explained to him, it is the same way in all sports -- like auto racing, motocross, golf, tennis....

But what troubled me more about the e-mail is that he suggested that the top sailors are the ones who HAVE A LOT OF MONEY and that we should be talking about all the OTHER sailors in the fleet who ACTUALLY love sailing and racing.

I'm just going to leave it at that for any comments you might have about this point of view.
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However, I will also point out that during the Worrell 1000, which is a much longer race, there is plenty of time, what with the lay day and night races, to talk to all the sailors and do feature stories on people who are farther back in the pack. The Tybee 500 is a relatively short race; and there really is no opportunity timewise -- especially with only one reporter on the scene and the need to get story and pictures posted asap.

Feedback, please.

Also, I have been recently notified that the link to the results on the Tybee 500 page has been changed, so the link from our site has been broken. Maybe Rick will be able to fix it later or tell me how to fix it. Meanwhile, you will need to go directly to www.tybee500.com to get the results.

I wouldn't want to stay up into the middle of the night to interview the people in the back of the pack.

The only time you'd want to cover something like that is when a team starts out poorly, but makes considerable progress in the final legs to vy for a top spot in the standings.

I just have a suggestion for these long distance races, and especially the ones that last more than a two-day weekend --the Worrell 1000, the Tybee 500, and the Great Texas Race.

It would be really helpful if they would post on their website, both for safety reasons and for the benefit of the spectators, all possible identifying information for the boats. Like hull color, mainsail color, jib color, spinnaker color, sponsor logos on sails, life jacket colors for the crew, and whatever else would identify the boats and people, when you are looking at (or for) them from land, sea or air.

For many years for our Key Largo Steeplechase I have required all that information. Originally, it was for the benefit of the spectators. But in the 13th annual race, that information was absolutely crucial when a bad weather situation resulted in lots of bad situations -- people separated from boats, a boat being blown out into the Gulf Stream (and ultimately lost), and boats having to come ashore at numerous points along the course -- Coast Guard and Marine Patrol and Sheriff's Deputies involved in the rescue operations.

That kind of information has never been available to the public for the Worrell 1000, and it is not available for the Tybee 500. (I hope the race committee has it.)

Hope you saw Rick's morning report and pictures today. Sorry my Hotline is down until he gets his cell phone fixed.