It used to be that the most masochistic sailboat race on the planet was the Worrell 1000, a beach cat marathon from Florida to Virginia. Alas, that insanity is no more. Still, we have the Tybee 500, which runs from Hollywood, Florida to Tybee Island, Georgia. It started yesterday and has the same crude characteristics: big surf, small, fragile boats, brave sailors and lots of crack-ups, dehydration and pain. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? Well, two TWC regulars are out there doing the race, which makes me, well, proud. They are Jake Kohl of Team Seacats (sailing as part of the SailMax team), and Tad Pecorak, sailing the race for the first time as part of Team Velocity. Team Velocity had its troubles on leg 1, finishing last, but A) they are out there; and B) you are not. Here’s a brief comment from Tad:
“We shoved off (for the 1.5th time…don’t ask) with 10 knots blowing directly on the beach. We had drawn the #1 starting position and port tacked our way towards Fowley Rocks Lighthouse. Things were looking good until the fleet hit the miami jetty then it really spread out.
On the way back from the lighthouse we lost our spinnaker tack line and almost torpedoed a sea turtle. Learned quite a few things today about keeping your feet firmly planted on the hulls while trapped out. Tomorrow we leave for Jupiter/Jensen.”
And here’s the Team SailMax report (Jake is part of SailMax II):
“The trip out to Fowley Light looked as if it prove more lengthy than expected, with the bulk of the pack rounding it at around 3pm. Both team SailMax I and SailMax II rounded the lighthouse in 8th and 7th place, respectively. The first team to hit the beach was Team Tybee, followed closely by Team Morada, with co-skipper Curt Johnson’s wife, Denise, jumping up and down with excitement on the beach. It’s been such a long time since I’ve seen anyone quite that happy that I even got a contact happy buzz. Next, was Coconut Grove Sails on the Marstrom 20. A few minutes later we spotted blue hulls and knew it had to be Windy Hill/Jaypro Sports. Their starboard hull was the only damage I saw today, with their rudder torn completely off, but laying up on the trampoline. At least it wasn’t lost. I’m not sure what happened to them. I hope there’s not a sad sea turtle story there. Then SailMax I made it back, much to our excitement. The guys were flying their spinnaker as they came in, as were most of the teams. St. Louis Cats and Pirates of the Tybeean finished almost simultaneously, which was quite a lot of fun to watch, but the most exciting finish by far was trying to gauge from far away whether or not Key Sailing was going to take SailMax II or the other way around. In the end, what happened was that one of their Jake and Carl’s dagger boards was sticking and they had to let out the sail to take off pressure so that they could release it. At that point, Key Sailing came screaming into the beach in a lovely beach landing, followed hotly by my boys. I haven’t had a chance to interview Mike and Dave extensively yet about their day, but I hope to over supper and will post more details later. I ran up here just to post the results. I do know that Team SailMax I worked really hard today and made a super advance back up the pack to finish in 5th place after starting in 10th. In the relatively light air with a heavy crew on a newly rigged/re-engineered boat, I feel that Team SailMax II had a respectable finish at 9th place for the first day. Carl and Jake feel optimistic that things will only get better and Mike and Dave are in great spirits as well. “
Turns out that SeaMax II had a crack in the starboard float, which, umm, let a lot of water in. Oops…
“Hey, Jake! I think we’re going to need a forklift to get this fu*cker off the beach…”
The Earthist Chronicles 