Congratulations to John Casey and Dalton Tebo for winning the 10th annual Great Texas Catamaran Race!

John and Dalton were first overall, had the fastest elapsed time, and took first in the F-18 class.

They overcame an 8 minute deficit on the last day to win the race. The final day was very challenging as the wind swirled in all directions and all velocities. John and Dalton got pressure off-shore and were able to get in different line of air as second place finishers John Tomko and Ian Billings could only watch in frustration as JC and Dalton sailed away on a ribbon of good air.

John and Ian had a great race going and showed good overall speed. They looked like they were ready to take home their seventh victory but the wind gods decided to mix it up with some of the craziest winds ever seen in a Great Texas. In the end, JC and Dalton walked away with a 40 minute lead in the final leg. That's sailboat racing.

Also, congratulations to Team Chums, Lee Wicklund and David Ceredes, who took first place in the open class.

You can check everything out along with pictures at www.facebook.com/greattexas300 or at www.gt300.com

JC knows him some weather jankity jank. That won't no luck, he's a cloud whisperer.

well done

Agreed,

tough break for John and Ian. Usually running close to shore pays off, especially as the Rumb line almost matches shore on that leg from Surfside.

But, Whoa there!

What about Mike (Rhorer) and Chris (Holt) on a Tiger!!

Way to go guys!!

Indeed. There is a definite method to reading storms. JC knows to do it like few do.

Someone obviously loves me...SailRev got utterly hacked and had been down for 5 days. I'm still on the road, and this is my best synopsis of Leg 4.


Thanks to racer Lee Wicklund, I had the chance to follow the fleet from Surfside to Galveston for the 50 or so mile leg 4 of the Great Texas 300. We launched Lee’s Zodiac about 8 miles north of the start line, and set up to broadcast live updates to the Great Texas 300 Facebook Page. While driver Karl Brogger and I prepared to launch, a powerful thunderstorm rolled through and drenched our kit.

We set out through the San Luis pass, motored underneath the Bluewater bridge, and hit open water. The wind was patchy and light, and the sea was confused from the storm that was overhead. We could see huge squalls, and a lot of visible precipitation in cells all around us. It was quite a bumpy ride up to the start.


We reported positions via cell phone to our media colleague John Williams, who was on the beach broadcasting live to the Great Texas 300 Justin.tv channel. The light breeze and 2-3 foot wind chop, created a tough beach launch. The fleet leaders, John Casey on the Cirrus R and John Tomko aboard a C2, both got poor starts, while Lee Wicklund and David Cerdas of Team Chums and the Mike Rohrer and Chris Holt aboard Team Sailboat Shop, scored big! Team Chums and Team Sailboat Shop shot for the outside, and as things progressed, Chums wound up several miles ahead of the entire fleet. Meanwhile, south of these two leading teams, Tomko stayed on the beach in more pressure, and Casey headed for the outside. In a post-race interview, Casey told me, “We headed straight toward a big storm cell. We knew the wind direction would be favorable on the other side.” That type of epic tactical call is one of the reasons that Casey and his crew Dalton Tebow win so many events.

Casey and Tebow clear the surf and head offshore.


Tomko stays on the beach.


I followed the leaders northward, approximately 1 mile offshore. Tomko was on the inside, Casey on the outside and Team Chums and Saiboat Shop ahead but right in the middle. It was light and lumpy, and only occasionally would any team be trapping. On the outside approximately 5 miles, we saw the huge storm cell that Casey and Tebow were gunning for. We felt the first few drops of rain, and Team Chums doused and headed offshore. Casey was gaining on Team Chums, and Sailboat shop was falling back. Tomko was in toward the beach in light air, and falling back as well.

When the north edge of the cell hit the front three boats, we were nearest Casey and Tebow. The immediately double trapped, and shot off like a rocket. They passed Chums, and we didn’t see them again until just a few miles north of the finish at Galveston. Karl and I hid our electronics from the deluge, and didn’t update the FB page for about an hour. When we did reconnect, Dalton’s mom had inquired via FB what position her son and Casey were in. We were immediately able to post a pic of them off of the Galveston Pleasure Pier, and told here that they were at least 3 miles ahead of Team Chums in two.

Casey and Tebow


Lee and his crew David out ahead.


After 40 or so miles in choppy conditions aboard the Team Chums RIB, Karl and I were feeling beat up, and welcomed the lighter conditions off of Galveston. Casey and Tebow hit the beach way ahead and needing only 8 minutes to beat Tomko in the overall standings. Sailing an incredible race, Mike Rohrer and Chris Holt aboard Team Sailboat Shop finished a mere 31 minutes behind Casey, putting them solidly into 3rd place overall. Great sailing by Sailboat Shop aboard their older design Hobie Tiger! Just over a minute behind Team Sailboat Shop, Team Chums rolled onto the beach, followed 10 minutes later by Tomko.

Team Sailboat Shop


The Great Texas 300 is one of the most incredible sailing events that I’ve ever been to. It meshes Teaxs hospitality, hardcore racing, and old-school beach cat good times. If you do one big event each year, put this one on your calendar!

Post Race with JC and Dalton

[img]http://surfcityracing.smugmug.com/Boats/GT-300-2012/i-GMXdLsc/0/XL/IMG5569-XL.jpg[/img]

Karl and Dub talking smack!
[img]http://surfcityracing.smugmug.com/Boats/GT-300-2012/i-gnmZz3Z/0/XL/IMG5363-XL.jpg[/img]


Post race with Lee and David
[img]http://surfcityracing.smugmug.com/Boats/GT-300-2012/i-Q85RhGF/0/XL/IMG5349-XL.jpg[/img]

Chums congratulates Sailboat Shop for the great sailing.
[img]http://surfcityracing.smugmug.com/Boats/GT-300-2012/i-CfS3GFt/0/XL/IMG5376-XL.jpg[/img]

[img]http://surfcityracing.smugmug.com/Boats/GT-300-2012/i-jZBLnJw/0/XL/Screen-Shot-2012-06-19-at-XL.png[/img]

Who on earth would want to hack you, Jer?

A new low.

Excellent coverage. You guys were great.

Probably an anonymous random spam thing - it happens periodically to TeamSeacats.com and I have to go find the malicious code that gets inserted in my database (that subsequently gets secretly displayed in a blog post). What is REALLY fun is when the google crawler sees the malicious code (which may or may not be affecting anything on your site) and tags your site as an internet threat.

I have an idea....

On a positive note, Jer did the best job covering this type of event of any past coverage I've seen before. JW in front of the camera was outstanding.

Hey Lee, tell that string pullin' Mexican he didn't give me back my Barz.

That's nothing - you should see him behind it!

I can't take that kid anywhere. I'll call you tonight.

He's officially a Mexican't.

They're sneaky.

I'm sure it's nothing compared to what JW and I saw behind the camera from Piche's crew..... it was unfathomable (did I spell that right?) It's still burned into my mind's eye.

Jukie was just trying to "butt" a question... and his breath was horrible.

He should chew his food a little better too.

SurfCity, if you need any help tightening down the SailRev site, let me know. I've got quite a few years of developing on the Joomla platform, and about 15 on the linux side.

This topic is getting dangerously close to "TMI".

Thank you, Philippe! Talk about a bad time to get hacked!

As it turns out, the host didn't update their Plesk Admin platform as recommended by Parallel. About 90% of their clients got hacked. I changes servers, and my web guy has it sorted.

I appreciate all of the friends (like you) that have come forward to help me out!