I surely didnt mean for my post to read as if Team Tybee skipper Steve Lohmayer is undervalued in any way. Steve is obviously an EXCELLENT driver and his finish in the race this year proves as much (as do his past accomplishments in Cat sailing, including the Worrell).
![[Linked Image]](http://www.worrell1000.com/archives2001/leg10/pics/big_4.jpg)
Tybee's Steve Lohmayer preparing for Leg 10 after win at Wrightsville in 2001 Worrell 1000
My only comment is it's very rare for a team, even of Tybee stature, to have a backup sailor they can pull in of the quality of a Brian Lambert, a past winner of the Worrell and very gifted in the rough section that encompasses the Outer Banks 500 portion. However, I have no doubt that Steve could have done an EXCELLENT job here as well.
I guess it was part in selfishness, too. I sure would love to see an hour and a half taken off so Tybee and Semp-Toshiba are neck and neck! Heh... Actually, I would have REALLY liked to see Team Castrol and OZ continue on, making the overall race as tight and competetive as the Tybee 500 shaped up to be. As is, the boats ARE very close, but the 1000 seems a safe bet unless something drastic happens.
No one could bug Castrol into going the whole route? heh.
kh
Off the coast of Wrightsville Beach
Yikes! Why don't you guys go back to the original Worrell format of sailing straight through, night and day. No motel room costs and a lot less time off from work. 
A lot more people could afford to do it -- but do you think anybody WOULD do it?
Rick is at Surfside Beach. Wind is out of the east-southeast at 7-8 mph.
Seems there was a typo on the Outer Banks site re: the leg distance. It is not 113 miles as printed -- it is 75-80 miles.
If the wind picks up, they could be in around 7:00 p.m. -- if not, could be 8:00 or 9:00.
Mary,
I dunno, some people around here apparently think I'm crazy enough to do it.
You should have seen Rick's expression when I walked up to him before the finish on saturday.
"Oh no its that guy!!"
I think bringing back some or all of the original format would be a very cool thing Mary...it would put a ton of strategy back into the event(s)!
What happens or has it ever occurred where the winds just do not fill in. What if even the leaders can not make it to the next checkpoint in time for the next start?
It could happen? Are there rules for that?
I remember it happenning on one last leg of a worrell where they just cancelled the last leg all together.
Thanks for the great coverage catsailor.
I'll need to get home tonight and dust off an old set of rules from the Worrell for that one - I just do not recall.
In the four years we ran - we were fortunate enough to sail the whole course - every year!
I know that I would love to see the event be 1000 miles ala the w1000. From a media standpoint, it just seems to build and build to a climax.
The Tybee 500 managed to do that this year with the battle for first and the battle for 3rd building to a climax. And the climax of Castrol winning by a couple of minutes and Oz winning by a couple of seconds was pretty outstanding.
But, going into the Outer Banks event.., and with only 5 boats seemed anticlimactic. It is still exciting, but after you build to that great finish.., and then.., oof! the wind went out of the sails.
Not to belittle the Outer Banks 500, but that was a hard act to follow.
In checking my log files of this event compared to the Worrell 1000, it seems that we are getting about half the hits that we once did, despite the fact that the site's normal traffic is close to 4 million hits per month. On a projected forecast from the days we were running reports on the Tybee 500, we would only jump to 6 million hits for May.
While that sounds pretty high, during the Worrell 1000 our numbers doubled and started to ge near tripling.
This tells me that interest for a two week tends to build and hits tend to build as people that at first watch, tell others, and the story grows, and the numbers grow.
But, with a week long event, followed by another week long event doesn't seem to get that same reaction.
I know folks are pretty upset with Mike Worrell, as am I. Every year we covered the race we made huge improvements.
Mary and I were quite instrumental in getting the race going again and really helped promote it.
The first year we had some pretty so-so coverage. The following year we added a couple of reporters and got different views of sujects.., big improvement.
We worked up to the point where we had several reporters, several photo takers, and then added video that we could upload within an hour or so.
So, we decided to go all out for the W1000 that was canceled. We acquired a better RV and added satellite internet at a cost of around $6000, plus monthly service fees. All just so we could quickly upload pix and video to the site for all to see.
However, we also planned on doing live feed of the starts, finishes and interviews by have a wireless camcorder broadcast to the RV which would then feed the data to the website so you could see these events "live."
But, another problem arose.., we needed our server to give us a lot more bandwidth and dedicated boxes to handle the traffic. More huge expenses.
And all to cover the Worrell 1000 that was canceled.
Luckily, Mike Worrell announced the cancelation just before another big expense. We had made arrangements to place gps position broadcasters on each boat that would transmit location every 1/2 hour and leave cookie crumbs (so you would know where each boat went, where they tacked, etc.)
The total would have been another $10,000.
We were able to defray some of our expenses with adbanners, but that was not even a drop in the bucket.
There is only one way we could have afforded all this -- if we got enough traffic to come to our site.., and hopefully just take a look at our OnLine Marine Store at www.onlinemarinestore.com
But, with the traffic so far, nothing is really being paid for.
The good news is that I am on my way to Put-in-Bay, Ohio anyway and really Love to follow these races. 
Almost 5PM and hope the boats are getting nearer. Gotta go look.
Thanks for listening,
Rick
As of 5:15 PM there are still no boats in sight. The good news is the wind has built and gone more to the south -- should be under chutes in winds close to 15 mph.
Maybe between 6 - 7 pm
Rick
Tybee and Semp Toshiba have finished -- Tybee had about a 10-minute lead over Toshiba. The rest of the boats are in sight.
The rest of the boats are in:
3rd -- Accelerated Chaos
4th -- Cat Fever
5th -- Chesapeake
Rick will have a story and pictures later on our race page.
Order of finish:
Tybee
Toshiba
Chaos
Cat Fever
Chesapeake
Story (scant) and pix up.
I won't be at the start in the AM as I have to put the coach in the shop for some minor work on the satellite dish.
But, should be at tomorrow's finish.
Rick
Jake,
Now that you've had time to rest, I have a few questions. were you glad when the race was over? Would you have gone on (time and money permitting)? i saw you guys when you came in to Hollywood and you were pretty tired from the incident with the rudder. Did the exhaustion get progressively worse each day? What would you say was the hardest thing you had to deal with on a daily basis both Physically and mentally? The first time I got out on the wire at the beggining of this winter (in this same ocean) I couldn't believe the feeling. It was awsome! but about 30 seconds into the experience my butt hit a wave and I was sent flying and spinning back into the rudder. I thought it was hillarious and couldn't stop laughing! Did you guys have any moments like that where you just lost it or was the mood throughout the race more intense because of exhaustion or because of the work you may bd doing aboard?
take care .
(Oops! I guess this is food for another thread) 
The fleet had a beam reach start this morning out through 2-foot breakers, and then they bore off toward Cape Fear and raised their spinnakers and took off pretty fast in 10-12 mph wind out of the south.
The wind is supposed to build later today to about 15 and clock a little more to the southwest.
It's about 65 miles to the Cape, and then another 20 miles to Wrightsville Beach. After rounding the Cape, they should be jibing along the shore to the finish.
Mary or anyone, do you have the latest forecast approximate finishing time for the fleet? Are you thinking 6 or 7 hours?
Planning on taking off to see the loons arrive.
kh
Sailing - Wrightsville Beach, NC
Steve Lohmayer is saying mid-afternoon arrival.
Thanks for the tip... For a brief moment I was considering sailing out there and meeting them off Masonboro Island but then realized that with spinnaker, I would be left behind so fast, it would look like I was the Picasso sculpture of the GOAT at MOMA...
On another note, thanks again for the HUGE effort with the Atlantic 1000 as well as past Worrells. After reading Rick's post above, I realized what a MAJOR commitment this was, both in effort and especially financially. I had no idea you have invested this much in the coverage. I would love to see it utilized, especially the GPS tracking, which would enable me to get absolutely ZERO done on this swine machine during this two week period!
I live on the beach at Wrightsville and just popped outside to take a look at the conditions. Wind has definitely picked up a bit here looking like a nice SSW 10-15 or so. Light capping at the moment. The kite surfers are out.
Nothing on the horizon since it's too early but here is a great link to LIVE REAL TIME VIDEO of the FINISH LINE AT THE BLOCKADE RUNNER. You can see ONE of the finish line flags in the picture. This might be the first chance to actually see LIVE footage of the boats coming in.
The camera is up and running as I type. Take a look. See RED FLAG to right of vid screen. Not sure which flag this is, unfortunately. Judging by past Worrells, it could be the south flag. If it's the North Flag, it might be hard to catch the action. Still, it's worth a shot. Dig the WAVE sounds! heh.
Blockade Runner Surf Cam / OBX 500 Leg Finish
http:/
Four boats have been spotted on the horizon -- but that's from the 5th floor of the hotel. Can't see them yet from the beach. They should be arriving by 4:00 p.m.
Tybee hit the each at 3:33 p.m. Cat Fever is coming in now, about 12-15 minutes behind Tybee. All the other boats are in sight. Wind is southwest at 12-15.
Volleyball anyone???
At 3:50 I see two boats on the beach (I assume they are all in) and a volleyball game in the foreground. Is that a pre-recorded sound of the waves?
Jack
There was a dramatic race between 3rd and 4th... I couldnt see who it was, but 3rd place capsized within four hundred yards on the line! And the 4th place boat, which had gone much farther outside, caught up and passed them...I know they thought they had 3rd locked. Turns out 3rd was Chesapeake passing Toshiba. I know Toshiba is beyond bummed. It was an unnecessary move and they threw in an extra tack they didnt need by coming in too close before the muffed jibe.
Got some pics of the pass.
See the BLOCKADE RUNNER CAM link - you can SEE the boats!
http:/
kh
ps- ONE BOAT LEFT... have not passed Masonboro Jetty... about 20 minutes out.
Cat Fever was second in.
Toshiba was going to be third, but jibed in the surf and capsized, and Chesapeake passed them.
Accelerated Chaos is not yet in sight. Earlier sighting included an unidentified non-combatant of some other species.
I think I see what must be CHAOS on the horizon...
Chaos is in....not too far behind the other boats. The most exciting thing was the Toshiba capsize and losing of 3rd. Chesapeake was the only boat from this vantage point that appeared to go farther outside.
As Rick noted, Tybee is just killing it. Watching them come across the pier from the jetty, they just seemed to have the best boat speed and balance. Their line was excellent as well, throwing in less tacks. Toshiba elected to come in close to shore, far above the finish line, needing another few tacks; this ended up being costly as they blew that jibe with the capsize. They had the spinnaker up at the time which was an extra pain in righting the boat.
Know Cat Fever is hyped - they looked good as well today. Wonder what happened to Chaos - they had been doing really well but lagged behind the pack today.
kh
Sailing off Wrightsville Beach, NC
ps- Yes, the surf sounds are recorded...
Great morning! A nice breeze out of the WSW at almost 10knts already.
Check out the BR Surf Cam below to see the boats in full view... Looks like Cat Fever is just getting rigged, the rest have their mains up with a bit of activity. Really neat having the real-time cam going.
http:/
Kelly
Sailing~Wrightsville Beach, NC
I wish I could access that camera from work! Alas...I can't get it through the firewall. 
I think you meant Team Cat Fever - All the Team Seacats are back at their day jobs this week!
Only problem is that the sound of the surf keeps putting me to sleep. I think I will turn on that webcam at night when I go to bed. 
Doh... Yeah, I mean CAT FEVER. Ye olde SeaCats is not sailing the OBX 500 (at least you got another plug!). Todd Hart of CAT FEVER said that yesterday was the BEST DAY on the water he has ever had. It sure didnt hurt to finish in 2nd, probably the best FINISH he has had in Worrell or Tybee or OBX.
Mary has it right... Leave that on for 10 minutes and things get hazy as the surf loop starts to loop within your skull.
kh
Rick's early story is posted at Catsailor Race Page. Please bookmark that page if you don't want to go through our home page to get there.