West Palm Beach Sailors: I got a firm commitment from Dick Macdonald on his F18. I have a softer commitment from Matt Derego (Hobie Tiger). He works with the Coast Guard and might not be able to get the time off. I will check with the Delray guys but they don't usually like a lot of distance.

I am on the fence and at odds because I will be helping with the race. Ive always wanted to do the Tybee but my boat never fit in the rules. It is looking like my boat won't be excluded from this event.

My boat has been sitting on the beach for the last five years and needs a lot of work. I need new sails, new trampoline and a third crossbar added. My big issue is like most, time and money. Unfortunately I am going to need to spend a lot of time helping to put this race together. That is why, I am thinking of just working toward a test run to the Bahamas. I have a set of dacron sails that are not fast, but will work for a run across the gulf stream.

I know Dick has aspirations of building to the 1000 mile race and I think after doing a 300 miler Matt could be headed that way as well. That is part of the reason I am partial to the 300/500/1000 build up. Getting new blood in the sport is critical. It would be great to have three good distance teams based out of West Palm Beach.

I would give my left nut to race over to the Bahama's with some other boats. I'll even bring a chase boat for safety if we could get someone to organize a race no matter how low key it is.

I want to really do it with two guys, one boat, no support. I have all the proper emergency gear and my boat will be properly prepped. Picking a good weather window is key and since my boat lives on the beach, that is not the issue.

If I understand correctly, there may be a few trimaran group sails to the bahamas. As these boats are close in DPN to the F18s, maybe "carpooling" with their event could provide some support? I would suspect the start/finish lines may be different if you wanted a LeMans type start but if you're just out to do it, I think Steve Marsh at Finish Line of Treasure Coast has a bead on the when/where ...

On one hand, that sounds almost foolish. On the other hand, if the weather is right there is a good bit of traffic between FL and Bahamas.

About August of 2013, a friend of mine had his boat sink right in the middle of the passage (he stepped "up" into his lifeboat) and another boater spotted him about 90 minutes later (he didn't have an EPRIB).

Oh, and don't expect your current insurance to cover a beachcat going offshore, no matter what navigational territory you signed up for. No BI/PD, either. The boats aren't designed for that usage and the underwriters sure as sh*t know it.

One of the main drawback of distance races is the cost and manpower of the support teams. One of the advantages of races like the steeplchase is the you eliminate those costs. It looks like most of the raids that are becomming so popular are also setup so to eliminate those costs. The other thing that seems to attract people is warm water warm weather. We have the florida keys. Run the race in the same time frame that the Tybee was run but start and end in the keys. Maybe 25/35 mile legs. Two legs most days and maybe 3 short legs on one day. Total 5 days. You could run some great courses on the bay side back thru the islands on the Florida bay. Start in Ley Largo end in Key Largo. Both Ocean side and Bay side with a lap around Key West. By having shorter legs and multiple legs each day you keep the racing tighter. Scoring done on low points so you don't have to worry about keeping time.

On the one hand sailing off shore in a cat that has been sitting on the beach for 5 years sounds sketchy. They use stainless rivets in aluminum all over beach cats. Corrosion can be a problem. Then there is the stitching on the tramp to rot as well.
On the other hand, in the early 80's, when i was manager of the Hobie cat rental at Phil Foster park, The sails were left up one nite by the slackers working that day, and along came a fugitive running from the law. He jumped on one of the H16s and sailed all the way to the Abacos. We got a letter weeks later to come and pick up the boat. The boat wasn't worth it though.

As for a Raid in the Keys. Makes sense, but you would need to pay a crew to set up all those start and finish lines.

Also Mike Worrell sailed the 1000 miles with just the one boat the first time. Later on,i think it took 3-4 days non stop, except for checkpoints, for the 3 man teams to finish the 1000 miles on H16s. They would rotate the third man in at some of the checkpoints, and the turn around took seconds to complete.

Seems several are interested to do this. I'm in.

yes, and it seems there might be several "camps":

- expedition (checkpoints) style racers
- formatted, multi-day (everyone starts together each day) <500 mile distance racers
- formatted, multi-day >500 mile distance racers

This is the problem with putting this **** on the forum. You get about 1000 different ideas from the sailors, the conversation veers off topic and then someone gets their feelings hurt along the way. Its like ****ing herding cats.

Chuck might have rubbed people the wrong way at times but at least he had the testicular fortitude to say "this is how we're doing it, take it or leave it" and I think in a way, that was probably for the better. I know he asked people for ideas along the way, but it took a single-minded director to get the damn race started.

**** if we used the forums to figure out how we wanted the race to go, we'd start in Islamorada, go around in circles in the Keys for days, sail to Tybee, where the race would start officially, take a stop in the Chesapeake bay, then finish in Maine somewhere. The boats would range from Hobie wave through USA 17 with a crew member requirement of X+2. It would take place over 3 days unless a sea turtle sees his shadow on the morning of the 2nd day and which case it would go to 9.5 days with a provision for a rain delay day.

Larry, I'm interested in your race. I don't know if I can make it this year but I'm definitely interested.

The only idea I'd like to add to this whole mess of a thread is that you name the race "The Flesh Torpedo 300"

With the legs not being a straight line two people could start and finish each leg. By using a points system you only need to write down the sail numbers as they finish. The finish line only needs to be a line between two points. The boats do not have to finish at the beach. Leg 1 around black water sound thru the cut out around nest key and end at the sailing club on button wood bay. Lunch. Leg two out of the bay to a turning mark somewhere in the Florida bay and end up at the park in Tavennier. The next Day two legs that end in Marathon. Marathon to Key West Bay side. Key West to Marathon Ocean Side. Marathon to the Islander with turning mark running around the lighthouses and back to the shore. Last legs Islander to Jew fish creek thru anglefish. Plan each sail with breaks for lunch.

Back to the original topic, I would make a real effort to give the 300 a go. Maybe the people who actually show up to that even could establish some credibility in their thoughts on what should happen next.

Where as this thread might seem like a mess, it is good for the brainstorming phase which is where we are at. It is also good to see which ideas draw interest and which ones do not. There are always a lot of tangent that arise but that is a small price to pay for the nuggets taken. Thanks for the input!

What are the politics involved in sailing to the Bahamas? Is a visa needed?

I'd be interested in a "stay in each other's sight flotilla", not a chance I'm going solo.

I'd be interested in doing a 300 mile race. Time and more than that Money would keep me out of a 500 or 1000. I did the Tybee years ago. I enjoyed it but spent a lot of money doing it.

Agreed. I believe there was an earlier post referencing what it takes to actually get a race "approved" by various officials (USCG, municipal marine patrols, other gov't entities, etc).

And to Pete, I believe you do need a full (not cruise ship card) passport but maybe not a visa to Bahamas unless you plan on staying beyond a certain timeframe (or plan on working while there)?

I have a contact in the Bahamas Tourist Commission. He said that if we arrange the race, he can have customs come to us.

We pre-cleared customs for the Newport to Bermuda race. I highly recommend doing the same. We will still need passports on the boat, partly so we can return.

I'd definitely be concerned with a 2 day weather window, that will be tough to manage. We could wait a year for the right window! Lots of other details with liability and insurance (blah blah IMO but this is lawyer-centric 21st century america). I highly doubt you could get event insurance for that race, I know my boat insurance runs out 25 miles offshore but I'm skeptical you absolutely cannot get insurance offshore. Will it be worth it $$ wise? Maybe not.

If there was flotilla I'd likely do it as a bucket list item and not be inclined to pay anything that wouldn't land me in jail.

What I would pay for is room for my junk (that doesn't sound quite right) on a motor vessel that was following along for safety and convenience. For me to do this it has to be a party!

Sailing across the stream on a beach cat is worthy of a bucket list even if I'm not racing.