Really missing the W1000...

Well, there is something a/b the night legs and rounding the cape that the T500 is missing.... The outer banks is an experience that is for sure!!

Sometimes, you still get a night leg in the Tybee. <img src=

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Jump to 2:00 - http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1155184286/bclid24526455/bctid44132156

Shorter legs... <img src=

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I remember that night.

We couldn't see where the shore started and the water ended, so when we smelled

dead fishies

we gybed.

Then we almost hit the jetty because it was pitch black. Fun Fun. JDub you gonna come out to be an Adventure Online

Talent

again or have you been replaced by Tammy?

Ohhhh...that leg. I remember the sun going down and we still had 45 miles to go. Then at about midnight, I was out on the wire, driving the boat with the kite up reaching a bit (when the wind finally did come up), mild sea state, pitch black (could barely make out the white decks), while trying to keep my eyes open. I thought it was crazy that I was either THAT tired or THAT comfortable driving the boat from the wire that I could fall asleep while doing it. With the beach strobe marking the finish line coming into site a couple of miles away, a hole opened in the clouds exposing the moon which illuminated things for a short while. Frank and I looked around and noticed the silhouette of a Nacra 20 behind us - not very close, but not as far away as we would like. The moon shortly thereafter disappeared again behind thick cloud cover and our attention focused again on the yellow strobe that was visible only when we sailed to the top of each big gentle roller. The shadow of another boat on our tail instilled a bit of adrenalin and neither of us were quite as sleepy anymore. Considering the amount of time we had sailed in complete and utter darkeness and as long as it had been since we had seen another boat, we could very well have been duking it out for 1st place ... or last place. Maybe, just maybe, that was Team Tybee on our tail. An hour or so later, as we approached shore and could envision the finish line, the lights from the streets and hotels started to light things up. We saw that it was Team Tygart, the team we have been battling all week with for 3rd place finishes, in the dark and they had closed on us. They were farther out in fresher breeze while we were getting choked by the wind shadows of the tall buildings. Frank and I desperately footed to try and cover and got right down on them to only miss covering them by one wave as they rode it and shot their bow into clean air. We gybed for the beach and decided to not fight them through the surf (we didn't have much chance anyway) to make a safe landing...as the first wave broke over the stern of the boat and accelerated us to the beach, it was then we noticed a swimmer in the water...then someone tried to illuminate the swimmer with a spot light and put it right in my eyes. That was the hardest I've ever driven a boat bow first into the sand.

After what? 14 - 16 hours on the water we finished 3-4 within seconds of each other? That's nuts.

All we need is about 27 teams to pony up a $5,000 deposit (non-refundable of course), and I'll be glad to make it happen.

Send your money to my offshore account, US funds only.

mike@itsmyrace.com

The first guys just did it. Why can't that happen again?

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know the sailing distance from Ft. Desoto to Jetty Park? And I'm not trying to start anything, so someone please tell Ding to leave me the [censored] alone.

Perhaps creative minds could work out a long course with Abaco race week.
http://regattatimeinabaco.com/index.html

Cape roundings are it. To me that was the best part.And the offshore breakers are about as fun as it gets.Full speed, trapped out, sailing through breakers at night is a rush I probably won't get to experience again. At least on the W-1000 night legs we'd planned for it.

I have heard many stories first hand from Mark Murray and I am not sure I would be interested in doing that race!

I want to round the cape before I eventually hang it up someday. Also, while I admit to considering the night legs really exciting as a spectator, after being out there for hours on end IN it, I can do without. Being offshore, in the dark, on a boat like that, in the middle of the night is nuckin futz.

I should continue that story for the better conclusion...

Now completely blinded, I felt the boat surge ahead, bow down, and undoubtedly poised with the bows into the sand at a beach I can now only imagine. I knew Frank was near standing on the trampoline as he was only moments before trying to point out the swimmer in the water. As the bows dug in and the boat decelerated, I thought Frank was a gonner as I saw his shadow headed for a faceplant somewhere in the midst of the self tacking rigging and I slid and rolled on the deck of the boat. Our gracious and incredibly responsive ground crew, both awake AND sober, settled down the boat and picked us up out of the sand as I let forth a blast of profanity. While pausing for a moment only to catch my breath, my Mom, who had joined us for the her first Tybee and is certainly not accustomed to such language, patted me on the shoulder and said,

that sucked

. Frank managed to catch himself with the mast rotation bar and made a safe 3 point (cheek, foot, arm) landing between the hulls.

If you watch the video, you can see my state of mind early ..,. and then a little later after I gained my composure.

Jake's right about the night stuff. Unless you have a death wish, it is a bit mind numbing. I don't mind the night stuff too much as long as you don't have lights on the shore to get in you head. You start to see wierd things, and I mean WIERD.

Lee Wicklund/ Team Chums

Going around the jetties at night is a serious trip. The only thing on them is ONE light... How far is the light from the end??? All you hear are waves breaking and spinnakers... Oh wait.. the second night... you can't go too far from the jetti b/c there are more rocks!!! Not to mention the fishing boats, the buoys... jelly fish.... unmarked sand bars... oh yeah.. and the other unlit boats.

I'd do it again.... but with a capable skipper I trusted... not like the first time.

Will,

I may need crew soon.

Lee

my

employer

has me sending you a check tommorrow... it will be for 10,000... so just send me the difference back in a cashier check form <img src=

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off topic here:

Long story short, I was in Round Island Regatta a few years back, on my then Nacra 6.0na, + spin. It was about 11-12pm, and we were slowly sailing back in the ICW towards the finish.

It was a moonless night, often with little lights on the banks.

My crew Emory, wasn't really paying attention at that moment. I just finished relieving myself, kneeling near the windward stern. I looked up and out of nowhere, this huge steel 'nun' appeared about 10-15 ft ahead. We were probably doing 4-6 knots.

I had no time to utter a word, or we would have nailed this huge steel bouy, sticking up about 3 ft out of the water, no light on it.

I Pushed hard-a-lee, and then pulled hard again, and we narrowly missed it, whew!

My crew and good friend Emory, nearly thrown off the boat, looked at me in dismay, looked back, and we high fived.

I have never had the opportunity to sail the Worrell, or Tybee, but I have sailed and raced at night several times,
-challenging.

BTW, I will be sailing in this years Great Texas 300, again,
check it out www.GT300.com

There still exists one nearly sure night leg and that is the Around the Island Race in Ft. Walton. I've finished before dark only once in - I don't know how many attempts - but I've never quit and I've never been last to finish. One night, we were sailing through the darkness spin, main and jib near the the Navarre bridge. Suddenly, the crew yells

Dock - dead ahead!

There is an immediate gybe with associated confusion. We get the [censored] sorted out and head back into the channel and immediately again

Dock - dead ahead!

It was a T-head. I missed both collisions by inches.
That said, the RTI in Ft. Walton is a catamaran classic sailing race. Your claim to being a serious racer are always subject to challenge until you have finished it.

Nacraphiliac

All the W teams have night leg stories... we talk about them and remember being there ourselves... I've spent a LOT of time on the water after dark under sail (mono's and cats) and power (HIGH and low speeds) and NOTHING comes close to the W1k. One night, 14 miles off shore, double trapped with the kite up clocking 20+.... I've know plenty of stories and have several of my own, but.....

I sailed across Lake Michigan at night one time at about 4 knots. That was sketchy enough and I knew I was in open water.
Not knowing if you will even see what you'll hit until you have broken your neck against it is not my idea of a good time. Especially if you are going 15kn! It is one of those things you might look back on and glorify a little but when you are there I am sure it sucks.

This isn't W1k, but the first year of the T500, we were doing the last leg on the HT from hell. There had been a lot of rain inland and the rivers were spewing tons of debris, trees, piling, parts of docks, etc out of all of the inlets between Jax and Tybee. We had been hauling butt the last couple hours dodging *noodle* right and left. The sun starts setting and Dave looks over and asks,

how are we going to see/miss this stuff in the dark?

I told him not to worry, that stuff doesn't come out at night...

We never hit anything and finished around midnight - much better than the English boat next to us that hit a Manta Ray and split the hull.

Like a knife through a bannana <img src=

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But if somebody revived the Worrell 1000, I wonder how many people would actually participate.

We hit a manta ray in the Tybee last year doing about 12 knots with BOTH dagger boards. Both of us almost went over the bows. We managed to stay on board but still had about 40 miles to go. Thank God the Nacra 20 is a bit more stout than the Jav. We made it to Fernandina but had to withdraw with a split daggerboard trunk. We left the board in to plug the hole. Looks like we are going to do it again this year.

Lee Wicklund/Team Chums

This is the first I have heard about manta rays being a problem. It always used to be big turtles.

I would if I were in the appropriate situation (team etc). To me, the fun part is North of Tybee!! <img src=

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The water was very murky. I am assuming it was a manta since we saw a few earlier and the fact that what we hit was atleast 8 feet wide to be able to clobber it with both boards. A turtle would have chunked up the leading edge of the boards and ours weren't. Team TCDYC t-boned a shark with thier Tiger on the second day that almost sent them into the water. They said it was abot a 6 or 7 foot hammerhead that got

tacoed

around the bow.

Lee

Sharks are no problem, you just gotta be faster on to the hull than your teammate(don't read this Karl). They're great incentive to get the boat righted and moving quickly.
The darkness will definitely make you see stuff. I saw the Charleston jetty on my first Worrell about a hundred times from 15 miles away until we passed it. Only saw it for real for a couple of minutes.I know Carl Roberts got real sick of hearing

I think I see the jetty

.I have never NOT trusted my GPS so much. It's the ones you can't see that should worry you.

The last time they made the race 1000 miles, only 5 teams decided to do the

upper half