The Earthist Chronicles

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…”

Why? Because, you can. Unlike the poor saps who saw this sandy mofo coming at them…

Want the story. Click here…

American climber Ed Viesturs has climbed 13 of the world’s 14 8,000 meter mountains. No American has ever knocked them all off. Why? I’m not sure. Yes, it’s really, really hard. But this dude just knocked off the Grand Slam, which means he has climed all 14 8,000ers AND walked to both geographic poles. So, while we should honor Viesturs as he goes at Annapurna for the third time, let’s not overhype it (that will come later, judging from the nmber of photo and film types who are with Viesturs). Anyhow, Viesturs and his gang are in Base Camp, and you can follow the expedition here. Here’s a report that reminds us that Annapurna–statistically the most dangerous mountain to climb according to Explorer’s Web, killing 2 climbers for every 5 that summit–doesn’t give a damn who the climbers are and whether they are on the verge of a milestone:

Ed Viesturs, Veikka Gustafsson, Jimmy Chin and David Breashears left their own warm bags at base camp to climb roughly 3,000 feet up to Camp 1 to drop a load of gear. By 10 a.m., they had reached Camp 1, scoped their route to the summit and turned back down toward base camp. Ed wanted to head back before the sun started to bake the peak.

At high altitudes, the sun’s energy pierces through a reduced atmosphere to reach to the earth, thus making solar rays exponentially more powerful. This radiant heat combined with the reflective property of snow crystals turns the peak into a veritable sauna. What happens to snow and layers of ice when you put them into a sauna? In large enough quantities, such as in glaciers, ice and snow calve off to create mammoth avalanches. As the sun’s rays gain strength, the probability of severe avalanche activity increases. The high odds for avalanche are one of Annapurna’s signature “objective hazards,” as most of the climbing route faces east, thus allowing the sun’s early rays to heat the snow surface. Typically, when clouds shroud the peak after noon, things cool down.

By midmorning, the sun had warmed a lower glacier to its breaking point. At 11:15 a.m., we heard a series of cracks. Standing on the crest of a grassy plateau, we watched a severe avalanche thunder downhill 1,000 feet to where Ed and Veikka were crossing the glacier on their way back to base camp. They tore across the expanse to hide behind a conical mound of snow for protection. “Sprinting at 15,000 feet in hard plastic boots is pretty difficult,” Ed remarked as he walked into base camp shortly afterward.

I’m getting nervous…

Very Close Viesturs: “Hmmm. If I knock Annapurna off, what the hell am I going to do to stay busy…?”

Yesterday we had the fastest sailors on earth looking oversized–and slow, slow, slow–in a couple of Optimists (see below). Today we have a nice shot from John Potter (aka Alden Bugly) of a downwind leg from the 2005 U.S. Optimist Team Trials, currently being sailed in Annapolis. Here’s Potter’s brief report:

“Titanium rash guards, BillaBong and Roxy board shorts, Dirty Dog shades, and pink-patch light sailor, or green-patch heavy sailor NZ-North sail logos were hot on the opening day of the 2005 U.S. Optimist Team Trials in Annapolis, but the racing was not. After two general recalls the first division set off in a false-promise southerly that waned as the beat moved on. Bang. Bang. The race and the day were dead.

For Friday the 180 sailors can expect a northeasterly of 9-17 knots and rain. They’ll get some wet races in.”

Potter is an Annapolis institution and a very, shall we say, eclectic guy. If you don’t believe me, click here, and check out some of the Buglyesque whimsy he has authored. Be careful, though. It can be a long, strange (and very humorous) trip…

Wheel Of Fortune: “Can I buy a lane please…?”
(Photo: John Potter/Photo Gray)

Orange II world record-holding skipper Bruno Peyron (left), and Open 60 stud and Vendee Globe runner-up Jean Le Cam (center), have apparently decided high speed multihull sailing is too dangerous and expensive…

“Allez, allez! Damn, you old farts are slow…”

While I was on the big bender, I mean attending yoga camp, Yves Parlier’s radical hydroplaning cat did a big ole nose dive and flipped. Parlier broke a few ribs, but the shore team has managed to get the broken cat back to the Canaries. No detailed word yet on how trashed the thing is, but it doesn’t sound good. Read all the updates here. Here’s what she looks like (via Sailing Anarchy):

(Photo: Fco. López)

Meanwhile, if you want to own a record breaker cheap, real cheap, Steve Fossett’s Cheyenne is on the market at a bargain basement price. Of course, the boat is down in Argentina without a mast, mainsail, etc., etc. Quite a refit required. How long before Cheyenne is taking sunburned tourists out for evening cocktail cruises in the Caribbean? Here’s the very honest ad:

CHEYENNE FOR SALE
Record-breaking catamaran for sale. Dismasted March 2005, now at Belgrano
Naval Base, Argentina. Lost mast, mainsail, solent, staysail, plus broken
compression tube. Successfully compete again with new updated rig, or
resell for profit. Appraised $3.5 million in December 2004. Priced as is at
$650,000. Contact owner rep: brspaeth@aol.com or 1-312-786-5057.

So now Cheyenne and Parlier’s baby could be joining Team Adventure on the scrap heap. At this rate, Tony Bullimore’s 30-year old Daedalus will soon be ruling the seas…

Bulldog Bullimore: “Heh-heh. We just keep going and going and going…”

Sorry to be away so long. I was chasing after that stupid bride. Anyhow, I finally convinced her to turn herself in, so I’m back in action and here to bring you some great action. In April I posted a little preview of the Red Bull Icebreak, surfings most painful competition. Well, the surfers finally got the call and headed to Nova Scotia. And yes, it was fu*king frigid. Check out the killer Quicktime highlight clip here (“Everybody pees in their wetsuits. Because it’s warm and nice…”). And the photos are here. I love this event…

“Uh-oh, that wetsuit warmer is still shakin’ it out, and I don’t think he sees me…”
(Photo: Portmann)

No posting until next Thursday. Apologies…

Remember that Santana 22 that inadvertently went surfing under the Golden Gate Bridge, and got rolled and dismasted (if you haven’t seen the amazing pics yet, click here). Well, Sail magazine’s Kimball Livingston took the trouble to track down the skipper and ask, umm, “WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?!” Here’s the key part of the story:

Ocean races passing through the Golden Gate restrict the waters between the South Tower and the shore, but usually, it’s navigable water. Schmidt had sailed through there before. On this day, however, Schmidt had been struggling with the whisker pole–a distraction–and was unable to get it out to weather. Instead, he left the jib poled out to leeward and then returned to reclaim the helm as YachtSea approached the bridge on port tack. “My intent was to get to center span, but I didn’t feel desperate about it,” he says. Then he reached a point where he was committed to go “inside” the South Tower. Then he saw the surfers: “I had never seen them that far out before.”

Fort Point was experiencing a remarkable break that day. It’s a popular spot for local, expert surfers, but on the afternoon of April 2 there was more than the usual close-in break that wraps around the point and continues all the way into the cove. Suddenly Schmidt realized that he was going to have surfers to the left of him, surfers to the right of him, and no options. Going in, he says, there were two surfers to his left, closer to the South Tower: “I can sail by feel, and I was focused on not hitting the surfers.”

The wave went vertical, and things happened fast: “Is this the way I’m going, I wondered? I didn’t know what the hell happened. It was like a freight train had hit us.”

And you can read the whole tragic tale here. There are surfers scrambling for cover and then helping make a rescue, near hypothermia and a life jacket that didn’t inflate (yes, those cylinder thingies need to be inflated more than once every 5-plus years). Wayne Lambright, who took the photos which made Schmidt and YachtSea (you’re destined for doom with a lame name like that…) a worldwide sensation, got 17,000,000 hits on his web site. That’s Paris Hilton/Anna Kournikova territory. Who says sailboating is not a popular sport…

“Hey, Skip. What the hell are you doing? My beer just spilled…”

So the Volvo Open 70s are shaping up to be spectacular boats. What are the chances that you or I will ever get behind the helm of one? How about zero, does zero sound about right? But wait. Volvo is prepared to throw you a bone. Check out this virtual ride, which puts you in the drivers seat and splatters you and the camera with virtual Southern Ocean spray. Then click on “The Race” for a kickass promo video. Also found this video of ABN Amro at speed on The Daily Sail (subscribe, you effing cheapskates!). The only problem I can see for Volvo, is keeping this level of interest and excitement up for another, err, 201 days…

“Jeez, why did we bother even building this boat? That virtual stuff is just as real, and a hell of a lot cheaper…”