The only multi-day "Iron Man" type event for USA beachcat sailors this year is the Great Texas 300 4 day race from South Padre Island to Galveston, TX.
This race isn't as long as the old Worrell 1000 or the Tybee 500 (on hiatus) but has the challenges of a very desolate coastline and potential for contrary high winds. Racers also battle shallow water and sometimes dangerous surf during the morning surf starts of each leg.
I'll be posting updates to the front page as they arrive and they are also planning live streaming coverage of the starts each morning starting around 9am Central Time.
The streams will be available on Justin TV here.
http://www.justin.tv/greattexas300
Updates on their Facebook page at
There website is
http://www.gt300.com/
sweet, what is going on with the tybee 500, it is obviously not on this year but the website has not been updated since last years cancellation. i would always go down to daytona and fernandina beach for the legs just to look at the cool boats.
The Tybee is still "on hiatus" until big money sponsors can be found, it's an expensive event to put on due to the fact that every stop is a resort area in the middle of their busiest season.
The Great Texas is a lot lower budget afair but they still struggle with getting enough sponsors to cover expenses, but they have their local Texas sailors (all the entrants but one are from Texas).
I've got a brief report on the home page with the race results from leg one.
Did anyone watch the start live this morning? One boat (brand new C2) flipped in the surf and came in upside down. Expensive mast bites the dust (sand).
thanks for the update. i couldn't find the start but i think my work filtered out the "streaming video" is it on youtube?
And the Dash will run on Saturday, an hour before the GT300 racers take off.
The Dash is a race within the GT300, consisting of just the last, 40 mile leg from Surfside to Galveston beach.
We have about 7 spin boats and 7 non-spin boats entered in the Dash.
ÜberKat Racing is participating. Stop by and say hi if you're in the area.
I'm doing the Dash, too.
videos are here. Some titles are inaccurate (finish labeled as start) Some are broken because batteries died etc. Skip around and you'll find the coverage.
http://www.justin.tv/greattexas300/videos
This morning at the Day Two start team Salva Vida flipped and dis-masted in the surf on their brand new AHPC C2, lucky for us they were carrying a video camera on the spin pole which shows the whole thing close up.
The crew was lucky to be wearing a mask so he couldn't be identified. 😎