I guess I just assumed that there was a power boat there to help out with the event. Woops, didn't mean to get anyone's panties in a bunch.

j

politically motivated???

Everyone loves a chase boat support.... much better then Sea Tow for all the reasons that you state... All I am saying is that you shouldn't include it in the official race or expect the OA to provide it..

Scramble WHO's chase boat... the Organizing Authorities? That is what I thought you were suggesting.... My solution.. 1 800 Sea Tow.... negotiate salvage before you go out.

Take a look at pepin's description of the Brit's Chase boats... They have three levels of certifications for all of the personnel.. in addition to the same general liability waiver. I think they have requirements for safety boats to even run a regatta as well.

The USSA does not have any of these training programs, certifications, or requirements to run races.... We have the liability waiver and Good Samaritan law... it's a huge cultural difference and probably different legal consequences as well.

the advice we have followed from legal and insurance people is... the OA has RC and mark boats. Period. Distance races...just race committee. Everything else is on the sailors... Good Samaritan Law then comes into play when your power boat people render what assistance they can.

The problems arise when the OA doesn't make it clear to all involved what the respective responsibilities and expectations are.... Sailors then expect rescue of them and their boats. But some mark boats and personnel are not equipped or able to rescue boats.... What they can do is take sailors on board to safety.... after that... anything else they can do is gravy.

Chase and Crash boat titles deliver a different message and expectation (very much like the Brit's provide) .... check with your regatta insurance and your personal lawyer before you agree to serve as a CHASE or CRASH boat.

Any word on Team Pacman (Tom Sutton and his son)?

Justin TV just went live in TX for the Friday start! Check it out at http://www.justin.tv/onthewateranarchy

Guess they found the infusion washed up on the beach. Sails, boom, rudders, ect are trashed. Hopefully they will have an update later.

Boat HelmName CrewName Fleet Class Rating Elapsed Corrected BCE
Ruff Rider John Tomko Ian Billings F18 F18 Wildcat 0.624 22:24:10 1:11:54:07 0:00:00
Velocitek Aaron McCulley Clay Cassard F18 F18 Infusion 0.624 22:48:30 1:12:33:07 0:24:20
TCDYC Chris Green Jim Kondziela F18 F18 Tiger 0.624 1:0:00:27 1:14:28:25 1:36:17
Salva Vida Vela Drew Carlyle Bo Kersey F18 F18 Capricorn 0.624 1:1:38:04 1:17:04:51 3:13:54
Rudderless Steve Piche Juke Ball F18 F18 Tiger 0.624 1:1:57:56 1:17:36:41 3:33:46
Yost Auto Michael Yost Ryan Verret Open I20 0.593 1:0:52:14 1:17:56:25 3:34:51
Poison Girl Michael Niggli Todd Bouton Open I20 0.593 1:2:20:14 1:20:24:49 5:02:51
Jack Flash Collin Casey Jonathon Atwood Open TheMightyHobie18 SX 0.668 1:6:02:08 1:20:57:48 6:03:11
Chums Lee Wicklund Carl Theyssier Open I20 0.593 1:3:45:10 1:22:48:02 6:27:47
Corpus Corey Harding Pete Meyer F18 F18 Infusion 0.624 1:8:49:43 2:4:36:36 10:25:33
Pacmen Tom Sutton Cote Sutton Open I20 0.593 1:12:35:15 2:13:41:56 15:17:52
Quiksilver Mike Beuerlein Dave Yoder F18 F18 Infusion 0.624 1:14:30:02 2:13:41:59 16:05:52

As an armchair sailor, I want to thank all those involved with this race. what a great event! I have been following it since Lee(Chums)started traveling from Cali to do it. That was back in the old "Hobie List" email days. Major kudos to Mr. Clean and JC for their coverage. I watched the awards this A.M., and found myself LOL and clapping at Chums first award. Yahoo! How cool is it that you have a 300 mile race, and boats finish seconds apart? It sure was exciting to watch! Way to go Great Texas 300!

Thanks Brian. I'll put some of the day one speculation to rest. When the teams that got rescued actually got rescued, the boat was the last thing on thier minds. Pac Men were out there turtled for 6 hours before the Coasties found them. Not sure of the time frame on Quicksilver but this squall may have been only 30 knots onshore but when it hit us it was blowing 50 plus and we had the spin up. I guess I had dillusions of out running it. We were pretty far off shore when we got donkey punched by it. It pushed us turtle immediately then back up again causing the boat to do a complete rollover and we actually had to hold the boat down from righting itself. We were blowing parralell to the shore at 3.5 knots! After an hour of this we decided to lower the main and roll it up to stow it on the tramp and sail to shore with just the jib. We rode out the rest of it then raised the torn main and continued on to finish at around 10:20 pm. This was the worst storm I've ever encountered on the water. It was blowing water spray off the top of the water making a white mist on the leading edge of it when it hit us. I'm glad now that I've been ultra anal about making sure my mast was sealed. I'm still amazed that I found my dagger board poking though the mainsail when the boat was on it's side.

This was not a white squall - it was a nasty 'ole thunderstorm. We got caught 3 miles from the finish after nervously watching it for some time. We got the rapid air temperature drop which was our cue to drop the kite. We then got nailed by a burst from a different direction. When it hit us it was not as bad - perhaps 30-35 knots. The rain was freezing cold and the chop picked up rapidly. Once it backed off a little we righted the boat, but flipped a further two times (once on turndown, once on a gybe). We sat the boat on it's side and rode it out for 10 minutes.

Our final flip of the day was death reaching through the surf line with our weigh too far forward - captured on the front page of SA...

All part of the distance racing game.

Chris.

It sounds rather wet n wild and hairy! great matelot stories.
Sitting in my armchair looking at the wife's broken foot here it rather does the old head in to think of being on a beach cat in a white squall or whatever it was. I have dropped the main on a Cat once in daylight in the Solent in 45Kts and lashed it. Not easy but at night? eegads!
Kudos

This storm was the first time I've been rounded up on a catamaran.

We felt the temperature drop too and I knew we were in trouble. We didn't get the kite down in time and capsized when the wind hit. We were a bit optimistic in our hopes that we could outrun the storm. However, I must say that I was felt much more comfortable in this storm than the one that beached us on Lake Travis in January. The nice thing about sailing in the gulf is that there aren't so many hard things to hit and you have time to think as you are being pushed along with the boat on the side. At least the storm was pushing us in the right direction.

So after the first capsize, we righted the boat and tried to head down. Talk about pucker factor. I was at the back beam holding on to the hiking straps and Drew was doing his best to get up some speed before turning down. During the first turn down, the main was traveled down and we were sheeted out (big mistake) and when the first gust hit us the rudders came out of the water and we were rounded right back up to head to wind. On the second attempt to turn down we did the same thing again except we did the most perfect pitch pole I've ever seen. We were going fast, still sheeted out and traveled down, and a gust hit us. I don't think the bows really stuffed, the stern just lifted up went over our heads. Both of us were sitting on the back beam when this happened. After this capsize, we stayed down and rode the storm towards the finish line on the capsized boat while we considered our options. It seemed to calm down a bit after about 30 minutes and we righted the boat and got back on (which is really easy in the big waves if you time it right). This time when we turned down, we centered the traveler and sheeted the main in hard. With the leach of the main facing into the wind to depower, we found that we could handle the 25 to 30kts without difficulty. If we had only had the presence of mind to think of this on the first turn down we would have done much better on this leg.

I'm thankful that no one was lost or seriously hurt. I'm thinking that next time we need some longer safety lines and that we should actually wear them. I'm just glad we were on such a well built boat and we made it through with only a broken batten.