Really missing the W1000...

And it was most excellent,dude.

When Chuck first came up with the Tybee 500 idea, I thought it would be a great event, but hated to see it go in conflict with the Worrell 1000. I suggested at the time to run it in the fall and not butt heads with grandaddy of events.
As it turned out, that was the year the Worrell was canceled, so there suddenly was no conflict.
The second year, they offered two venues at the same time.., Tybee 500, or OBX 1000. Most teams did opt to only go half way.., sort of ruined the event, in my opinion.
Love to see the W1k come back, and move the Tybee to the fall.
But, wish in one hand, and s*** in the other and see which one gets fullest fastest.
Rick

I don't think that having the two races, Tybee and OBX, back to back was a bad idea - but there just isn't a sailor base to support that kind of racing every year anymore. I think if the race was run every two years or so that attendance would go up quite a bit.

Maybe not enough sailors can afford to take a week or two off from work to do either of the above. And it can't be that easy to jump from doing simple buoy races to a 500-mile race. Maybe there should be some weekend distance races, say 250 - 300-mile ones, that last from Friday to Sunday. They might build the base for they Tybee or Worrell 1000.

Or maybe start with 120 miles.

The second annual Border Raid 120 from Suamico, WI to J.W. Wells State Park and back will be held September 6-7. NOR coming soon ( http://crawsailing.org/events.htm ) or contact me for more information.

There are single Worrell legs that are that long.

I think that alternating between the north and south 500 might be an interesting idea. i.e. this year south beach to Tybee, next year, tybee to VA Beach.

What a lot of the people that have done the T5 but not the W1k don't realize is that it's a VERY different world as you keep going north.

All I hear is talk...none of these so-called

Iron men of sailing

show up for these races anymore. They just type on the intarweb and reminisce about a life gone by. C'mon, it's not too late to enter the Tybee...

Any one ever picture a west caost Tybee type event?
I know this probably has been discussed but, damn thats a long drive.

Mike Worrell studied many different possible venues (I'm sure that included the West Coast), and he concluded that the East Coast of the U.S. was the only place in the whole world that was viable for a 1,000-mile race because there is so much beach most of the way.

When I envision the West Coast of the United States, I think cold water, big surf, and lots of rocky areas of coastline.

If there is a 1,000-mile stretch on the West Coast that the West-Coast sailors think might work, I guess you should do a test sail of it, just as Mike's little group did on Hobie 16's back in the mid-1970's. <img src=

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Bajan Bum,
There are lots of mini distance races around the country and are very popular, i.e., the Hogsbreath-Keys 100 coming up in a week or so,
The Key Largo Steeplechase (100 mile trek) is coming up on its 24th year.
Sandusky Steeplechase,
and many others.
Most are listed in our events page (click events on the top of the page on the masthead) and then click on Distance Races (a category devoted to just those type of events).
Rick

I was approached, coincidentally, on Wednesday night about an off-shore multihull event in California. Some of the Ocean Racing Catamaran Association (ORCA) guys here in Cali were wonding if any beach cats are interested in doing any distance racing out here... I know there are some guys that sail out to Catalina just for fun, but this group of larger cruising multihulls in California actually has a race schedule.

Yeah, so what did you tell him?

I told him I'd need to ask around and see what people thought. Just about all the distance racers I know are in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. Sounds like the ORCA races are one day point-to-point events. As you pointed out, Mary, there are parts of California's coastline that would be a problem in an emergency... for the same reason, I think the old Hogsbreath event that ran up the west coast of Florida had issues once upon a time, IIRC.

Right, the west coast of Florida is not a hospitable coastline.

Rick, thanks for the info. Didn't realize there were that many.

John,

In the years that I sailed those waters, I have never been warmly welcomed by the ORCA when I showed up with a beach cat to one of thier races. We had to fight for years to get them to let us in the Land Rover Island Series. They let us do the Anacapa race but not the other two. Finally on '06 we got to join in on the other 2. In '06 I was settng up my N20 at the boat ramp in Santabarbara the night before the Santabarbara to King Harbor Race and was verbaly assaulted by the ORCA president for even thinking about doing that race (only 80 or 90 miles, BFD). I told him we would stay off the start line but were free to sail where we wanted to. We sailed anyway and had a blast. It was a blast flying around the outside of Anacap Island passing all the F boats with the chute up as the sun was setting.
If their attitude has changed about things that would be great but they have a list of crap they want you to carry on your boat that is unreasonable. The owner of 2 of 10 (Rollands 36) spent a huge amount of $$ to meet thier demands and was later rejected.
Since they opened the Island Series, not too many beach cats seem to want to do it. The Tri-Point is the most fun of the 3 since it's in August and the wind blows like hell after you round Anacapa to starboard and get a nice 20 plus knot sleigh ride back to Ventura. John, let me know if yo ever need crew for those races, I'd love to do one of them again.

Lee Wicklund/Team Chums

Is it an issue of status? Why do they object to beachcats?

Hey Lee -

Thanks for the background - the guy that approached me seemed pretty genuine, so I imagine attitudes have started to change. I think that stories like those in the Daily Sail and SAIL magazine about multihulls in the Cup and the Olympics are helping. I was explaining to him that the ORCA equipent list didn't work for a cat, and he was surprised at the list of stuff we carry. The personal-sized EPIRB or locator beacon in particular blew his mind. I told him that if we could use the gear we normally have for races like the Worrell and Tybee, there might be some pretty serious interest. I'll let you know what happens next.

Is it an issue of status? Why do they object to beachcats?

I'm not sure what any one answer would be to that question. He made it sound like a safety issue and maybe a winning boat would have to withdraw from the race to rescue us. I let him know we could right our boats and left it at that.