Lumpy & machoman aka Jamie Livingston and Kenny Pierce appear to be leading early on in the EC in interesting conditions. Sewses aka Randy Smythe is apparently just behind, but his spot isn't working. class 5 is the multihulls and looks to be an interesting year with higher winds and more on the nose.

Dan

It seems like competitors are having really tough first day. Lumpy and Machman camped at Coyo Costa from a dask. It is first time I see them sitting a night out. Interestingly, team on Hobie 18 JustAnotherSailor(aka Guy deBoer)and AtWitsEnd(aka Birchard Ohlinger) arrived and parked next to them not a long ago.
Another catamaran sailor LivinRight(aka Matt McGee)on, I guess A-cat or 18 sq, is not far behind, at checkpoint 1. Randy Smyth aka SewSew expirienced hardware failure and doing repaires about 40 miles behind leaders. Bunch of very fast paddlers aproaching checkpoint one.

It's been blowing stink here all day. My hats off to the competitors.

From Randy Smyth's Water World on FB..........
"Mast fell, shipwrecked, epoxy all night, back in the water through the surf into 18+ winds... what else would you expect from Randy? His forestay broke at the mast off Casey Cay. He found a crab pot to tie onto and secure his mast. Headed to the beach to repair mast then broke ama in two in the surf. A fellow WaterTriber saw his Van with ground crew driving to find him and followed to help. Randy spent the
night in a fabulous home on Siesta Key after staying up most of the night putting the boat back together.... he is expected at the first checkpoint around 9 tonight. You find a link to track him on Watertribe.org Heis in the UF2012. I'll post again when I find a break in chasing him around the state. Next stop Everglades City..."

Update: Randy made Check Point 1 in Placida Florida around 8:45 pm and is on his way back out to the Gulf...

Justanothersailor and Bumpy are on a LOOONG off the wind drag race from the stop at Captive Vlad just mentioned. Surprisingly, the TheMightyHobie18 seems to be holding off the Tornado at present...

Looks like the boys on the T risked the crossing in what I'm assuming where nasty conditions and probably dark? Wonder where Smyth is?

The TheMightyHobie18 in certain conditions could possibly hold off the Tornado. Possibly, with good rudders and a good crew, near equal downwind speeds can be achieved in really nasty conditions. Upwind I'd take the T over the TheMightyHobie18 anyday, the tacking angles are significantly better on the T.

Sam, I thought you quit smoking crack. I'm sorry to hear your back on the rock.

Sounds like Lumpy and Macho man camped out for 19 hours then sailed with jib alone (100+ of 300 miles)doing 15 knots,finishing at 2:40. As of 7:30pm no one else had finished.

They're not done are they? Aren't they going around for the Ultimate Florida Challenge?

Thought provoking assumption, indeed.

Randy(solo) and Alan and his Mom were supposed to do it, not sure if Alan got everything sorted. Jamie couldn't take the time for the Ultimate.

Guy deBoer is one of the best crews I have ever known. He sailed with me on Ts , 18s and J/24s and then with Ding Schonemaker on Stars.

He is a big tough guy and I'm sure they will do well if nothing breaks.

Last I heard, Alan had merely delayed launching to button up a few surprises on the boat and were waiting for a gentler weather window to launch the new boat.

Now Guys (especially Todd ...)

You should know better then to poo-poo a ol' TheMightyHobie18 ...

... they are kind of like a ol' pick-up truck ... nothing pretty to look at ... not too fancy .... but very capable when there is tough work to do ...

My 84' TheMightyHobie18 has taken me through some hellasious conditions over the years ... remember some of those "Down the Bays" Todd .... w/ BJ and you on that P16 ... another tough boat that never quites ....

Harry
H18Mag/P19MX

Some days I like to take a trip to the dark side. I'd take the Tornado any day, especially considering most TheMightyHobie18's are much older boats and more prone to fatigue failure. My point was that in the conditions outlined, jib only in this case, you can likely maintain near average speeds on the TheMightyHobie18, with a highly skilled crew. Still, chances of survival are much greater on the T, especially if you start close reaching, going upwind etc.

Harry and Sam,
Nothing wrong with an H-18,but with all things being equal(crew, boat, conditions,etc. the H-18 isn't going to touch a tornado on any point of sail. Put Jamie and Kenny on that Tornado and the chances get even slimmer. Come on now. I got my info from Jamie and there was never any race. The 18 left earlier from camp and they still smoked 'em.

Ya .... I know ... how many years did we watch Greg and Casey Scase just disappear ahead on their "T" in all those "Down the Bays" ...

... BUT ...

I do have to stick up for my ol'"main" ride ...

Harry

Looks like Randy is taking a lunch break at present, but the T did indeed smoke the TheMightyHobie18. Not surprising given the additional power up and down + added waterline length... Randy should finish leg one of the UFC this afternoon. Sandy bottom and SOS are ripping at times with 10+ knots in snotty conditions. They are still having to bail the main hull at regular intervals. if they can get it fixed, they might be able to show the boat's abilities to it's potential. Really interesting--as is Randy's ride.

Dan