Gilligan's Run: Endurance Series Round Two

After a three month break, the Endurance Series heads to Daytona Beach on August 1st for round two. The race boasts fierce competition, a great venue, online tracking, a leisure start time and a great fish fry.

Fierce Competition
The competition will be fierce with 18 boats preregistered including three of the past series champions and the defending Gilligan's Run champion. The defending series champions Bret Moss and Mark Jones with Carbon Cruising will definitely be the ones to watch. They suffered a broken spinnaker and had to retire early from the Keys 100 after a perfect start. Team CyberSpeed won the Endurance Series in 2007 and also won the first round (The Keys 100) of 2009 series. Rob Behrend was injured during the Keys 100 after he hit the port shroud to avoid a pitch pole in heavy wind and seas. Tristan Fiedler will be Rob's replacement teaming with Craig Van Eaton. Dave Ingram who won the first Endurance Series Championship will be competing with his wife Cathy forming Dingo Racing. This is their second year competing together and they are always at the top of the score card. Also making it a family affair is Team McDonald. Matt McDonald will either be racing with his wife Gina or his daughter Riley. Matt and his son, Peyton, won the race last year.

Great Venue
Gilligan's Run is the shortest race on the schedule running from the Acapulco Hotel and Resort in Daytona Beach to the Ponce de Leon Inlet and back. The logistics of the 26 mile course is simple; it starts and finishes at the hotel where the competitors are staying. After the race is over, the competitors head to Steve and Cindy Caron's house for a fish fry. Steve is Fleet 80's commodore’s and recently had heart surgery. In the true spirit of the sport, Fleet 111 based in Jacksonville, Florida volunteered to take over the cooking duties for the fish fry.

Satellite Tracking
Live tracking on the internet will be provided by TopoFusion.com for teams equipped with SPOT Satellite Messaging Units. SPOT units can be purchased at most West Marine stores and need to have tracking activated. West Marine is currently offering a rebate for the price of the unit with two year tracking activation and rental units are available from Skycall Communications (http://www.skycallcommunications.com). Please e-mail your shared tracking page and avatar to tracking@sailseries.com.

Race Info
The race starts at 11:30 am and if you have any belief in weather forecasting, the wind is predicted to be out of the ESE at 8 mph with a 30% chance of precipitation. Traditionally the real race is to finish before the afternoon thunderstorms develop. Online registration and additional information can be found at www.Fleet80.com and www.SailSeries.com.